The important issue that new internet entrepreneurs must face before setting up their online business is the question of the appropriate web platform. What kind of website do you need to build, and what kind of content should you post to attract your ideal customers?
Among the options, you want include website builder services. Website builders take the hassle and hassle of creating a website by offering a "point and click" solution.
Web.com is one of the most established services available, offering a potluck e-commerce tool that is more than enough to get the most technophobic among us and run fast.
Pros: Features and Benefits.
Web.com offers important benefits to its customers, including many important things you can immediately apply to your business:
� A quick three-step enrollment process that lets you choose your own domain name, choose a customized website design for your business/hobby and publish it instantly on the Internet. All it takes to get started is a phone or live chat.
� Web.com is easy to use website creation tool (SiteBuilder) with hundreds of novice design templates aimed at enhancing your online presence.
� Access to an extensive stock image library that lets you make your website more relevant and appealing to your customers.
� The enhanced design capabilities include multimedia, ie sound, music, animation and Flash animation. Ability to drag and drop widgets such as date and time stamps, street maps, visit counters, guest books, and other useful items on your site.
If you want, Web.com designers can build customized e-commerce sites that can really knock your socks off! If you are not a hands-on technician, premium editing and back office software give you access to tools that include it in a class of its own.
Web.com sponsors regular small business meetings throughout the United States and Canada, a testimony of three million customer base and three decades of experience.
Counter
On the surface, website builders seem to be a logical way for "newbies" to announce their arrival on the Internet. Web.com is a viable product, arguably the best website builder available today. However, by using Web.com to create your platform, you are giving away most of your business independence. Your creativity will be limited to Web.com template libraries, skins, and other features.
Web.com designers can create great websites, no doubt. However, yesterday's models must be maintained, upgraded and adapted to new market conditions, and pre-fabrication creations have the habit of burning your operating cash flow very quickly. This remains somewhat lacking in marketing tools, especially when it comes to loyalty programs and increase your Facebook marketing presence and social media.
The basic e-commerce package Web.com only allows twenty products with storage of about 1 Gigabyte. Therefore, your scalability may be limited to comparable software packages that offer more. In addition, Web.com charges for each transaction that can actually be added regardless of your business stage. The fees for e-Commerce services are among the highest for its business category. You have no choice but to buy the most expensive software version to sell downloads.
As Web.com looks to increase the sales of a more refined e-commerce package, it leaves the role of the website builder and becomes one other web host. Benefits such as e-mail accounts, e-mail storage, and unlimited web storage are the standard elements of a viable web hosting package from most of the leading companies that offer this service.
Chances are you can find a better price outside of Web.com, as traditional web hosting companies survive in bulk based on price competitiveness.
The final verdict
With a package price of at least thirty five (35) US dollars, Web.com may be worth a peek for people who really want to minimize face-to-face time with technical e-commerce details. In the short run, these template-based sites may be easier and cheaper than other options (like WordPress or customized sites) but only to a point. They are limited in choice, and you "get stuck" with them once your business moves beyond its initial stages.
My personal recommendation is to go with a solution like WordPress soon, especially the version that you host yourself (Wordpress.org, not WordPress.com). This gives you more control, especially on the marketing front, and you will not lose your content if the Web.com Terms of Use and other "legal" clauses conflict with your interests. Affiliate marketers are particularly advised to use WordPress as the anchor of their referral marketing empire.
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