However, on Internet, all customer has to go by is your image and your written word -- in other words, how professional your appearance is and how well you address their concerns. Both are equally important. You've got to provide customer with a site that looks nice and has all information that they want.

Designing a professional website is beyond scope of this article, so I won't address it here. However, let's take care of "information" part. Here's information you need to have on your site to really start generating sales:

1. Clearly stated benefits

Somewhere on site you need to tell customer why product they're going to buy is better than competition's and why they should buy it from you specifically. (In other words, with what benefits do you provide them?) This information should be given to visitor as soon as possible. (The home page is best place, if possible.)

2. Evidence of superiority

You need to *show them* (not just tell them) that your product (and your company) is superior to competition's. You can do this through a free trial of your product, a tour of product, etc. You also absolutely must use another method: testimonials.

Testimonials are one of most powerful marketing tools in existence, and by adding them to your site you can increase sales dramatically. (A note about testimonials: you should never, ever make them up, and you should always include full name of sender and their e-mail or website address when possible.)

3. Answers to their questions

(a) The DIY solution: Create and maintain your web site yourself by using software such as Microsoft FrontPage or by writing HTML directly.

(b) The half-n-half solution: Have an external party create web site. You then do regular updating of site yourself.

(c) The full outsourcing solution: Have an external party create and update site.

(a) THE DIY SOLUTION

ADVANTAGES * This is cheapest solution. You don't need to pay any fees to consultants. * If you enjoy being creative this could be an enjoyable and rewarding activity. * You'll have complete control over your web site's "look and feel." * There's no chance of a consultant handing you a site that isn't what you wanted.

DISADVANTAGES * DIY sites often look amateurish. This can turn away customers. * DIY sites often have poor navigation controls. In a well-designed site, user should be able to find what they want in seconds. Achieving this is not as easy as it sounds. * You'll need to obtain some suitable software and then spend time learning how to use it -- perhaps a lot of time. * You will need to learn arcane secrets of effective META tags, JPEG compression, browser compatibility, FTP clients, loading speed and more if you want site to perform well.

SKILLS NEEDED * Patience: This will all take time. * Good PC skills; e.g. a familiarity with both text and graphics applications. * Technical skills or willingness to acquire them. * Graphic design and page-layout skills.

(b) THE HALF-N-HALF SOLUTION