Build a Budget Web Site

How much a Web site costs to build depends on how much you want it to do.

You can put up a basic "billboard" site for practically nothing if you use one of the homesteading sites offered by services such as Yahoo! Small Business. There are a number of services that will help you build a simple, templated business Web site for less than $100. A world-class e-commerce site for a big company, on the other hand, can cost $1 million or more, according to Gartner, and it can require ongoing maintenance costs to match.

But there are always options to cut corners. If you're willing and able to do much of the work yourself, you can save a fortune in labor costs. You can use freeware and shareware Web building tools instead of spending thousands of dollars on full-blown commercial image editors, HTML authoring programs, and other niceties. And you can host your site with your regular Internet service provider instead of a dedicated hosting service.

There's nothing wrong with the low-cost approach, but if you're really serious about growing your business on the Web, it is not recommend that you scrimp on your site. While you don't want to waste money, investing in a clean, fast, well-designed Web site that's always up and running for your customers is probably one of the best ways to spend your money.