Many small businesses and startups can't afford the services of professional Web designers. But never fear – there are many terrific ways to create a great looking site by using Web design templates and "self-serve" type solutions from major Web site and services providers.

These low-cost Web design services let you pick from hundreds of different basic design templates, then customize the design with your own colors, logos, content and more. You can also add complete e-commerce capabilities and other sophisticated features. The do-it-yourself solutions are generally easy to understand and use – no special technical knowledge required – and you can often create and launch a site in a single day.

You can design and manage a powerful Web presence if you follow these three guidelines:

1. Save money by using point-and-click templates that allow even non-techies to do it themselves.
2. Jazz up your Web site with free or low-cost features by downloading additions from the Web, and then pasting code on your pages.
3. Remember your site's goals and audience. You don't want to clutter it with too many bells and whistles, but you do want it to be fun, easy and informative so customers will visit again.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Simplify with one-stop shopping and

Go to one place for all your Web needs, including Web design with templates, e-mail addresses and other business services.

I recommend: Check out Bigstep, Web.com (formerly Interland) and Website Pros for quick, low-cost ways to build and manage a Web site. All three cater to small and home-based businesses. You can also get bargain Web sites via self-serve design templates at Network Solutions, GoDaddy and Yahoo! Small Business.

Get on Google and other search engines

Take steps to give your site visibility on search engines.

I recommend: Go to Get-on-Google.com a search engine marketing company.

Track the numbers

Want to know how many visitors click on your site? Keeping count can help you monitor your site's success in real time, see how valuable your ad campaigns are, find which keywords are being used to locate your site and discover who's sending you the most referrals.

I recommend: Microsoft's FastCounter Pro will analyze traffic up to 50,000 page views per month.

Engage your visitors with interactive features

If you make your site interactive, you will keep visitors on your pages longer, make them more familiar and comfortable with your site – and make it fun. Polls and message boards are an easy way to do this. Or invite visitors to sign up for newsletters.

I recommend: NetPolls is a free, open-source Web-based poll engine that allows you to create and manage polls in minutes. 24fun.com has a terrific array of free scripts to download which you can customize, including animation and sound. HostedScripts.com offers free, remotely hosted CGI scripts – currently with no banner ads. You can add message boards, mailing lists, password protection to registered users, site search, guest book.

Add a Web site search tool

Make your site look truly professional with its own search tool.

I recommend: Visit FreeFind.com, Google.com, and PicoSearch for low-cost search tools. Discover more at SearchTool.com.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you register your domain name, particularly if your business is Web-based, register '.net' and '.org' variations of the name, in addition to '.com.' This will prevent future attempts at grabbing your domain name.
• •  Visualize the content and links on your site with 3 x 5 index cards, using each card as a page.
• •  Attract new traffic using a Web ring, a site that offers links to other sites on certain subjects or a banner exchange program. That's when your banner rotates on other sites while other banners rotate onto yours.