You can start your own business fast using the templates and other easy to use tools your web host has ready for you.  These are great, and take a load of your shoulders when it comes time to build your website.  Over time, though, you can really make your business stand out from others who use the same templates.  You can easily customize your web pages and let your individuality shine through.

A good, cheap web hosting provider will make designing and posting your web pages as convenient and easy as possible for you.  There may be plenty of different templates and color schemes as well as several different layout options you can use, libraries of images you can use for free, and more.  Upgrading your web hosting service to a higher fee level may even give you more options.

On the one hand, this is great!  You can set up a do it yourself website without having to become a computer programmer.  You don’t need to take classes or learn Dreamweaver or anything.  Nor do you have to pay a web designer to put together your page for you.  What could be better?

The only problem I see with this setup is that a lot of business websites are starting to look alike.  The proliferation of easy-to-use templates and pre-packaged themes is can give the impression that businesses are clones of each other.  To some potential customers, this can give the impression that your business is no different from your competitor’s, who’s website may look eerily similar to yours.

And that’s not fair, because your business isn’t just like everyone else’s.  Your hard work, skills, personality, and attitude make your company something special, and your webpages should make people realize that at their first glance.

This does not mean that you have to learn Dreamweaver and become a web designer after all.  But you should take an interest in how your web pages look and do what you can to infuse them with everything that makes your business special and unique.

By all means use the templates and ready-made tools that come with your web host, autoresponder programs, and so forth.  As you get more comfortable with these tools, though, you can start adding in some things of your own.

For a start, you can have some fun with your digital camera and use some of your own images on your website.  Just make sure you keep the file sizes small so the pages load fast.  Not a shutterbug?  You probably know someone who is.

You can start playing with basic html code, too—and don’t let anyone tell you it’s hard!  Remember, we’re not talking about writing code to build a web page from scratch; we’re just talking about adding some individualized bells and whistles to make the template you’re using truly yours.  Want to embed a video, pull from your blog site, or just make the text pop?  Simple instructions on the html code to use are available all over the Internet, many aimed at beginners who just want to use a line or two.  Give it a try!

If you’ve got a little money to spend, you can even hire a freelance designer to customize your templates and add fun stuff to your web pages for you.  You can find someone in your community or through your business networks, or even through an online freelance marketplace.

As with everything else related to your website, this doesn’t have to happen overnight.  Web pages evolve and develop and blossom over time, so you can work on this when it’s convenient for you, when inspiration strikes, or when you’re feeling like doing something creative.

This is your business we’re talking about, and it’s important, so document it!  Save some screenshots of your web pages over time.  After a year or so, you can share with your friends and family how far your pages have come over time, and what a great job you’ve done making your business stand out on the Internet.

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