It is possible to make money online, running your business from home. But to be able to do this, you have to have a web site. Most people starting up a home based business will try and build their own, that’s fine if you know what you are doing but can reflect very badly if you don’t. Home based business web sites, need to be professional looking but not overly flashy!
Some work-from-home opportunities include a web site when you sign up but if starting up a business, consider either one of two options.
1) Pay someone to build your web site for you. Look around you, web sites can be purchased at low cost these days.
2) Use a Free template or paid for template. Web designers work from home too and are happy to work for low fees to get their own online/home-based business off the ground.
Make sure your web site is consistent.
Your customers will want to see a consistent web layout. Most users will make an impression of your site in seconds. The difference between a good looking site and a bad looking site is a potential lost sale.
If you run an e-commerce business from home, don’t try and build the shopping cart yourself. Use a third party product like PayPal, particularly good for selling a few products and well respected. Payment processors like PayPal take care of your Data Protection requirements and leave you to get on with promoting your internet business.
Third party software
With a small investment, you can purchase a complete shopping cart or if you are on a tight budget, you could use an open source e-commerce product. Either way if your home based business sells a lot of products, why try and re-invent the wheel!
Paid host or free host?
Don’t make me laugh! A years internet hosting with your own domain name costs less that taking someone out for dinner. If you don’t make this one investment, then why bother starting a business at home? Owning a domain adds professionalism to your business. How many www. mysite.myinternetserviceprovidername.com web sites have you seen, that are successful online businesses?