by Alan Galatian

Created on: July 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

Thanks to the hard work and creativity of countless web developers and programmers, it is now possible to start a business website at little to no cost; you don't even need to have any programming knowledge to build a complete site. Free tools and services are available for almost every aspect of building and maintaining a website.

Domains

When building your on-line presence, finding a domain name is one part of the process that may require you to come up with some money. Some hosting companies offer a free domain with the purchase of hosting services. However, in this article, we are trying to avoid costs.

Most free hosting services will offer a free sub-domain. For example: The XYZ Hosting company will offer a domain format of 'yourbizname.xyzhosting.com'. Since these domain names can be quite long, redirecting services offer shorter domains. Some examples include .co.nr, .co.cc, or .zu5.net. The providers that offer these domains include Freedomain.co.nr, Co.cc, and Zu5.net. There are many other providers out there, but be careful, some attach pop-up ads that may not fit the content of your site and can be quite annoying to your clients.

Design

Designing your website is very important regardless of the type of business you're in. You want a site that fits your target audience and is easy for them to use. Fortunately, this step will not require knowledge of programming or web design. Sites like Wix, Bravenet, and DevHub offer easy to use interfaces that allow you to design your own site. The interfaces are simple and allow you to build sites by selecting items or clicking and dragging elements onto your page. Once you have completed your design the site is hosted with them for free as well.

If you would like more flexibility and have your own hosting, you can search for free web templates. The design work is done and all you need to do is add the text, photos and links that you want on your pages. Pre-designed sites can be obtained from sources like Metamorphozis, TemplateWorld, and Free-CSS. They do offer templates for sale, but also have free templates. You can then upload the templates to your host.

Hosting

The market is currently flooded with web hosting providers. It's good to have choices, and the competition drives down costs, but it can be a little overwhelming. To help narrow your choices, you may want to refer to websites like FreeHostsFinder and FindMyFreeHost to compare web hosting companies. They provide charts that display the features each hosting company offers in a side-by-side comparison.

Payments

Once visitors find your site, you'll want to have a way to collect payments from them. Most merchant service providers charge fees for setup, plus competitive transaction fees. The best sources for start-up merchant services are Paypal and AlertPay. They offer shopping carts, 'Buy Now' buttons, and more with no cost to get setup. It's easy to accept credit card payments from your customers; you'll just have the typical transaction fees.

Blogging and Social Networking

Blogging has become a popular business of it's own. Bloggers share their knowledge with the world and make money from affiliate programs, selling products, and offering their services. The best free sites for building your blog business include Wordpress and Blogger.

Social Networking sites have been used to attract attention to businesses. Facebook and MySpace allow you to build your own page at no charge and you can promote almost anything you want. Music bands, comedians, life coaches and others use social networking to build a faithful following.

The sky is the limit when starting a new business on-line and even free tools and products will give you room to grow.

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