Well, congratulations! You have decided to start your business online. You have the skills, the knowledge, the enthusiasm and desire needed. There's just one problem.......Now what do you do?

You need an online presence. In other words, a web site. Your web site is your "storefront". This is where you will be "working". It is where your viewer/customers will come to do business.

Your web site should be a high quality marketing service... a reflection of your business and a reflection of you. You are only going to get one chance to make an impression, so make sure it is a good one.

Unless you are using your own name, choose your web site name wisely. For best results, it should relate to your services. Try to stay away from catchy, funny names. This is your business and you need to project a professional message and image.

For example, I named my first web site BizyBodies.com and my tag line was For Women Caught Between A CLOCK and A Hard Place. Pretty cool I thought, but I later realized , after almost a year of hard work building that site, that the name really wasn't relating with the direction of the site.

The name didn't "say" or "do" what I needed the site to do. In other words, the name wasn't "marketing" the site on it's own.

When I had the site re-designed by a professional we changed the name to Simple Biz Publications. Now even the name "markets" the site. Choose your name carefully.

There are many sites that have a place for you to check and to register your domain name. Three of the sites are http://www.netsolutions.com and http://www.alldomains.com and http://www.whois.org. Make sure the name you choose reflects the image you want your viewers to see.

Determine what you want your site to do: Are you selling a product or service? Are you selling online-offline or both? Who is your visitor? Where do you want to take your visitor? Where do you want your visitor to go/

Grab their attention: As you grab their attention, if you can create curiosity, that is even better. If your information doesn't grab their attention, you won't make a sale. It's that simple!

Add your personality to the pages: Talk to your viewer/customer as though they are right beside you, one-on-one. Write your information from the viewer's point of view.

Solve their problems: They are at your web site because they want a solution to their problems. People love solutions. Let them know you can solve their problems and you can solve them quick! They have a question, a problem a need...and YOU have their solution. Better yet, you ARE their solution. Become their source of information.

Benefit to Buyer: People will buy on benefit from your site, not from feature. They buy based on "what's in it for me?" When designing your site, concentrate on the "benefit to your buyer".

Accepting Credit Cards: Accepting credit cards in a necessity to opening your global business. Credit cards make it easy for your customers to do business with you. Three online credit card processors are http://www.paypal.com, http://www.clickbank.com and http://www.authorize.net.

Create a web site without being an HTML expert: For those of your who want to try to build your own sites and don't know how to code using HTML try using the Site Build software at http://www.homestead.com, http://geocities.com or http://www.hypermart.com.

Privacy Statement: Make sure your add a privacy statement to the bottom of all your web pages. Identity theft, scams and spamming are huge concerns for viewers now. A privacy statement addresses the fact you value their right to privacy and protecting their identity.

As you build your web site and prepare to "open" your business. Remember it is the customer who will define the quality of your business based on how you treated them, how you resolved their problems, how you handled their order and what benefits they received as a result of doing business with you!

In short, make your web site easy to understand, easy to navigate and as easy as possible to place and order. Remember you are building relationships every step of the way in starting your online business and now.... You know just what to do!

Livvie Matthews, Internet business specialist, author and consultant, helps people interested in creating information products, niche marketing and building relationships while building their business! Market Your Goldmine! http://www.simplebizpublications.com Subscribe: mailto:subscribe@simplebizpublications.com

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