Web hosting companies are not created equal so you need to take a number of things into account when selecting one. A proven track record, experience and reliability form foundation of any successful business partnership.

Some of issues you should consider when choosing a webhosting company include:

1. Support - Does it provide comprehensive Technical Support - 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

2. Reliability - Does it have multiple large-scale links to internet to provide a fail-safe path to your customers from anywhere in world?

3. Security - Does it have a robust security system that minimises risk of web site intrusion?

4. State-of-the-art - Does company utilises leading edge technology and is supported by a large-scale uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system.

5. Scalability - Does product range and services offered allow your business to grow without impediment by making it easy to upgrade and add components to existing product levels.

Step 4 - Getting people to your site.

The marketing of your website is important if you want to draw visitors to your site. If you don't promote your website no-one will ever see it. There are a number of different ways of advertising your website. The best strategy is one, which integrates your existing promotion methods with your website.

1. Office Stationery - Including your web address and email address on your stationery is probably easiest way to draw attention to your site. It's cost effective and gets your Internet presence out there in market place.

2. Business Cards - When printing business cards you should include individual's email address and main address of your website.

3. Radio Advertising Radio Advertising should include your web address. Don't include http://, try "Visit us on internet at w-w-w-dot-qikphone-dot-com-dot-au". If your budget is limited, you may wish to consider community radios.

4. Email and Mail-Outs Let your current customers know details of your website. You can either send them an email or a letter/postcard. Keep your website's content up-to-date and they will keep coming back!

5. Print Media Print advertising should include a generic email address for company and include your website address. Normally positioned at bottom right or bottom centre of your advertisement.

6. Search Engines & Directories People looking for your website who don't know URL are most likely to use an on-line search engine to look for your organisation or kind of products and services you offer. There are over 300 major search engines and directories, but you should concentrate on larger, more commonly used ones. These include: Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Anzwers, Inktomi, Infoseek, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, MSN, Dogpile, AllTheWeb etc.

7. Links from other websites A good way to attract visitors to your site is through use of hyperlinks placed on other sites. If you know of another site which has a list of links and you think your website would be a good addition, let website owner know. You might also offer to provide a link from your site back to other site. This will encourage webmaster to include your site. You should also seek out partners for trading links including vendors, suppliers and providers of complimentary products.

8. Link Exchange Another way to getting a link is through a system called Link Exchange, a free public service designed to help websites advertise each other. With Link Exchange, you agree to display advertising banners for other Link Exchange members and they agree to display banners for you. The System is automatic, you simply add a piece of HTML code to your web page and Link Exchange will display an advertisement for another website. The disadvantage with Link Exchange is that you don't get any control as to where your banner ad appears or type of banner ads that will appear on your website. It is not possible to guarantee that a competitor of yours may have their banner ad displayed on your site.

9. Paid Banner Advertising/Affiliate Marketing Programs Various sites give you opportunity to purchase banner advertising on their site. Some sites will charge you a flat monthly fee while other sites will charge you based on number of people who see your ad.

Step 5 - Monitor your site's statistics

Your website's statistics should show who visits your website, where in world they come from, how they are finding your site and what pages are being viewed. Knowing your customers is first step in effective marketing. Most webhosting companies will provide access to this information free of charge.

Step 6 - Maintaining your website

It is important to update your website regularly to keep your customers interested. One of great advantages of having a website is that you can change its content virtually overnight at minimal cost (unlike re-printing brochures and flyers).

This is just a brief overview of process involved in getting your website up and running. In future articles we will cover each step in more detail.

Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and home-based business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. For more information visit www.web4business.com.au or email info@web4business.com.au

Cons

1. Too many options - customers can become indecisive if their are too many options to choose from. 2. Too many links to other web sites - this may take visitors away from your site and not return. Ideally you want to keep them at your site. 3. Can be expensive to build - content-based sites can cost thousands of dollars to develop if you take into account cost of graphics and/or hiring someone to build it for you. 4. Takes a lot of time to develop web site - building content-based pages takes time. It may take several years to create hundreds of content-based pages. 5. Attracts "tire kickers" - visitors want to look around to glean free information but may never buy.

Conclusion:

Before you decide on what type of web site to develop, first think of purpose of your site. If you just need a sales page and want to drive targeted traffic to your site using paid advertising (ie paid per click search engines, ezine ads) then a mini site could be sufficient.

If you plan on becoming an authority on your product or service and want to attract lots of free search engine traffic, then a content-based web site will serve you better.

Alternatively, you may create a combination of two ie begin with a mini site, leaving room to expand it to a larger content-based web site in future.