If you are short on cash and can’t afford to hire a web designer to make a website for you or your business, consider making your own with some of the free or low-cost resources available online. There are a couple of very simple website builders like wix and homestead that offer beautiful editable templates for free, or a small monthly fee (usually to pay for hosting or to use their templates take off their ads). I have recently been using wix to build flash-based websites, and have been impressed with their very easy-to-use flash builder. With wix, you can either make your own design, or you can use one of their many templates, which they are constantly updating. With a paid monthly subscription of $14.95, you can also set up an online store.

Another option is to build a wordpress-based website. This is an excellent choice if you are concerned about search engine compatibility and are trying to stay away from flash. Wordpress can usually be installed with a one-click install on any web host. If you are unsure how to do this, call your web hosting company and they should be able to assist you. While Wordpress is best known as a blogging platform, it can actually be used to set up a regular website that is easy to maintain (and it doesn’t have to have a blog). This is done by creating static “pages”. The best part about wordpress is that you can choose from thousands of free plugins to enhance the functionality of your website, whether it be adding a simple online store, video gallery, or adding basic SEO. There is more often than not a free plugin to give you the functionality that you need on your wordpress site. Also, wordpress has thousands upon thousands of themes that can easily be uploaded to change the look or even sometimes the functionality of your website. There are free themes available at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or you can also purchase premium themes (check out http://www.premiumwp.com/ for a good listing) from a various designers for anywhere between $50-$200.