You can build your own website with software if you can't afford to hire a web designer, or if you want to learn on your own. A website is important to establish your web presence, and it may be the primary vehicle of how you do business. It's great to build one that automates many routine tasks, such as take and process orders, submit inquiries and add new subscribers to email lists. A software can help you add all of the website functions you need to help your business run as smooth as possible.

Intuit Website Building Software

You may already be using Quickbooks for your bookkeeping and TurboTax to file your taxes. These are great tools for small businesses made by Intuit, which also has its own website building software that's  free to use. The catch is that Intuit has to host it. You may prefer using another hosting company, which would make it impossible to use the Intuit Website Building Software. Web hosting with Intuit costs very little per month, and the hosting fee may be among the best you'll find. Get more information at www.intuit.com/website-building-software.

Web Page Maker

Another free tool you can use to build your own website is a software called Web Page Maker. You download the software, and you don't need to know anything about html coding. There are free templates to choose from, and it includes an image library. What's unique about Web Page Maker is the ability to drag and drop objects onto a blank page. It's as if you were mapping out your web pages on paper, except the software is creating the page as you add or take away items. You can publish the website easily once you've created it. If you're interested, download the program at www.webpage-maker.com.

iBuilt Website Builder

Your business may be at the point where you need more features, and a free web builder won't work. You can build your own website with software by iBuilt to get many more features and functions, for a monthly fee. For example, iBuilt Website Builder's estore application will enable you to build a website that will handle all of your online store activities including:

• Product catalog
• Order tracking
• Shipping calculator
• Customer list manager
  
  

There are many features, and other paying options if you're a business owner who doesn't run an estore. You can find out more at www.ibuilt.net.

WordPress

You can build your own website with software by WordPress. It's associated with blogs, because most bloggers prefer to use it than some of the other blog publishing software available. You can also build a website with WordPress. You'll need to customize it a little, but WordPress can be easy to use. The trick is to find a good template. Find free templates with high ratings by more than 20 users. Verify that the template designer has a forum to help you trouble shoot issues. You can get started with WordPress at www.wordpress.org.

It's doable to build your own website with software. Make sure you schedule enough time to complete your project before the launch date.

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Daphne Mallory, Esq. is the co-owner of Mallory Writing Services and has written more than 100 articles helping home based business owners and entrepreneurs start and market their business. You can learn more about her here.