A website is like a shop on a dead end street so building up traffic to come to your shop is most important. Below are 5 points that may help you build and market a better website.

1. Adequate yet professional layout and design.

Somebody, either you or a paid professional needs to have a tasteful idea of color coordinating, layout and design.

If you're starting out, you have the chance to understand how websites are created and you'll be much more apt to make future and ongoing changes yourself. You'll be able to continually enhance the site as your skills and knowledge increase.

Don't get hung up and bogged down in trying to make the "ultimate website". Too much flash, animated gifs, java script and countless links that aren't that relevant to the theme of your site are only going to add time and costs.

A fast, cheap, yet professional website should be the first goal. The website needs to be able to be viewed properly in a variety of browsers especially Firefox and have no dead links.

2. With domain names and hosting, don't commit to anything long term that depends on your website's success .

Websites come and go. What might be a good idea now, might lead to an even better idea next week. The new idea might require a completely different approach.

If you buy a dot com name for under $10 and a hosting plan for under $5 a month then it is no big deal to shut everything down if:

a. things don't work out or
b. you come across a better opportunity.

It's almost a prerequisite to fail yourself to success when it comes to creating your own websites. Start off small and simple and expand out as your skills increase.

3. Make sure your website is properly optimized for search engines.

This means having the correct meta tags in the head of the page html coding.

Creating meta tags based on your keywords can be done free online in a matter of seconds.

Also web pages need to have keywords appropriately sprinkled throughout the page. There are also very inexpensive software programs that can check your pages for basic guidelines for submitting to search engines. This includes telling you to increase or decrease the frequency of chosen keywords throughout the page.

4. Make sure your copywriting is of the highest standard and makes perfect sense to readers.

As you'll no doubt and in some form be trying to sell something, either directly or indirectly off your website, having excellent copywriting is critical. Not only in relation to grammar and spelling but in regard to the art of persuasive copy that will grab a visitor, lead them smoothly through a sales process that convinces them to execute the action of your intent. (It's a big ask when you think about it!)

If you're not confident about having the ability to write copy that is going to convert a visitor into a buyer then I suggest you read up on what constitutes good copywriting and/or employ the services of a professional.

5. Marketing your website.

Have a clear marketing plan including a budget before you spend any money on advertising your website.

What is your most appropriate method to advertise online? Ezines, classifieds, faa's, blogs, ppc, directories, banner ads? The list goes on and on and on.

It really depends on the nature of your product and what you feel is best but always start off small and test your way to bigger and better things.

Learn as much about how to create the website yourself as possible.

The fastest method is to hire a private tutor to come to your house and show you on your computer the necessary steps.

Even for a complete beginner, 2 to 3 hours private tuition will give you more than a basic concept of how a website comes together and is uploaded onto a server. Whether you use Frontpage, Dreamweaver or a Template, these days it is very easy and quick to build a website.

Learning about how to build a website also means learning how to take good photographs and inserting them into your webpages. Again any computer techy can show you this in a matter of minutes.

A successful website (for most of us at least) is one that attracts qualified visitors to a quality product, NOT one that has spectacular flash or gif animations.

Miha Thornton
Mothers of Home Based Business Resource Center
Empowering mothers to make money at home.
http://www.mothersofhomebasedbusiness.com