by Wayne Ramsey

Created on: September 28, 2010

An effective website can make a huge difference in the success of any internet venture.  This is especially the case when you are dealing with ecommerce where you rely heavily on your ability to generate the trust of your visitors so that they are willing to give you personal payment information.  If you don't have a website that is designed professionally it could scare visitors away and cause you to lose many potential sales.  Even if your site doesn't sell anything it is important to have a site that looks professional.  This doesn't just mean the graphics of the site, this means the overall design and functionality.  If important aspects of the site don't function well for a visitor they may get frustrated and leave the site. This is why it is critical to take time in developing a site to ensure that it is user friendly and has a professional appearance. 

There are basically two methods for creating a website.  You can either develop the site yourself or hire someone to do it for you.  Either way it is important that you have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish with the website and have a written game plan for how every aspect of it should function.

If you decide to design the website on your own, you have to realize that it isn't as simple as many of the web design programs try to make it sound.  If you are hand building the site you have to do your research and try your website throughout the process on a variety of different browsers.  You never know what browser someone is going to use and what functionality they may have.  If you are trying to make your site accessible to the general public you have to design it in a way that people aren't limited by their technology.  You also have to make certain that you take security into account, especially when dealing with payment solutions.  You even have to research which shopping carts might be the best, you have to design your own graphics, and you'll have to do a lot of the search engine optimization on your own.  If something goes wrong on the site then you have to be the one that resolves it.  This can all take a great deal of time and if you aren't on top of things or if something really bad happens you could find yourself spending more money to fix the problem than it would have cost just to have something designed by a professional.

If you aren't as experienced my personal opinion is that you should hire a professional

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