Lately it seems as though the U.S. government is jumping in to help all kinds of big businesses with bailouts and other initiatives. However, some small business owners are left wondering if the government will be there to assist them as well. There may be some hope for these small businesses which includes businesses which are operated from home and businesses which are run solely online. On Feb. 17, 2009 President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus package into law known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Unlike the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, this stimulus plan extended beyond just providing tax rebates. There are also a number of provisions in the packages such as tax cuts for individuals and companies, healthcare, education, investment in infrastructure, energy, housing and even scientific research. With a wider scope of assistance offered by this act, small business owners can capitalize on a number of different tax credits and incentives. In fact, $730 million of the funds in this bill were earmarked for the Small Business Administration (SBA). While there are no grants available from the government for starting a small business there are a number of provisions and tax credits available to small business owners under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The government recognizes the fact that small businesses are an integral part of our economy. Not only do small businesses account for roughly half of all of the employees in the United States but small businesses are also responsible for generating the majority of new jobs in the private sector. With this in mind, business owners who operate small businesses out of their home or online can turn to the SBA for a number of different incentives under the current stimulus package. Find your local branch of the SBA by visiting http://www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html and learn how you can take advantage of the current stimulus package to grow your business.

1.      Section 7(a) Guaranteed Loan Program Recovery Plan – Small business owners can profit from a number of different provisions of the stimulus package which relate to loans for small businesses. This stimulus package allows the SBA to offer higher loan guarantees on 7(a) loans until the end of 2009 or until the funds allotted for this incentive are exhausted. Under this provision, loan guarantees of 90% are allowed which is an increase from 85% for loans of up to $150,000 and 75% for larger loans. Loan applicants who qualify include those who are unable to obtain loans elsewhere.

2.      Section 7(a) Guaranteed Loan Program Recovery Plan – As another part of this plan, the SBA can also now waive the fees for 7 (a) loans as well as 504 loans. Eliminating these fees, which are typically paid by the borrower, make it much easier for those who operate small online businesses or other small businesses out of their home to obtain a loan. These fees will not apply until the end of fiscal year 2009 or until the funds allotted for this usage are exhausted.

3.      Microloan Program Recovery Plan – Small business owners who are in need of loans of up to $35,000 can benefit from the current stimulus package. These loans are referred to as microloans and the ARRA has allotted funds to enable to the SBA to provide more funding to the non-profit lenders who lend money to local small business owners.

4.       ARC Stabilization Loan Program Recovery Plan – Under this plan the government is attempting to provide relief for small business owners who are struggling during difficult economic times. By providing increased funding to a program offering 100% guaranteed loans of up to $35,000 to small business owners for the purpose of repaying debt, the government is trying to give these business owners the opportunity to succeed.

5.      Small Business Recovery Act Surety Bonds Recovery Plan – With this plan the SBA will guarantee up to 90% of surety bonds for small businesses. This plan also, on a temporary basis, raises the limit of the surety bond for small business to $5 million from the previous limit of $2 million. There are also situations in which this limit can be raised to $10 million. However, it is important to note certification from a federal contracting officer is necessary for the limit to be raised to $10 million. These higher limits will help smaller businesses compete with larger businesses for contract bids, in situations where bonding is an important issue.

In addition to the funding allocated to the SBA, the Department of the Treasury has also been awarded funds in the ARRA which can be used to assist qualifying small businesses. This assistance is typically available in the form of tax breaks. Information for all of the tax related benefits for small business owners under the current stimulus package are available on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204335,00.html?portlet=6. You can also review the Department of Treasury program plans at the following web address: http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content%2Fagency-recovery-plan&agency_id=015.

1.      One tax provision of the stimulus act of 2009 allows small businesses with net operating losses (NOLs) for fiscal year 2008 are able to carry these losses back for five years as opposed to the previous limit of two years. Under this provision, small business owners will qualify for a tax rebate in previous profitable years. To take advantage of this tax provision, your small business must have gross receipts of less than $15 million.

2.      Another tax provision of this stimulus package which benefits small business owners is the reduction of estimated tax payments. Under normal circumstances small business owners are required to pay 110% of their previous year’s taxes as their estimated taxes. However, the stimulus package signed into law in Feb. of 2009 reduces this percentage to 90%.

3.      Bonus depreciation deductions are another way in which small business owners are benefiting with the current stimulus package. Through this initiative, the IRS is allowing small business owners to take larger deductions. This initiative is applicable for small business owners who have purchased a property within the last year. The ability to take this larger deduction will last throughout 2009.

4.      Investors in small businesses can also benefit from a break in capital gains tax under the current stimulus packages. This tax break allows investors in small businesses to exclude 75% of their capital gains from taxation. However, in order to qualify for this tax break, the investor must hold the investment in the small business for a minimum of five years.

5.      Small business owners can also qualify for a tax break on 179 properties under the current stimulus package. The current stimulus package enables small business owners to expense up to $250,000 for 179 properties beginning in tax year 2009. Prior to this stimulus package the limit for expensing 179 properties was $133,000. Although this tax break can be financially beneficial, it is important to note the limit of $250,000 will be reduced if the value of the 179 properties placed into service during the tax year exceeds $800,000.

6.      Under this stimulus package additional categories were also created which would allow small business owners to qualify for a work opportunity tax credit. These two categories are unemployed veterans and disconnected youths. To qualify for this tax credit by hiring an unemployed veteran, small business owners must hire a member of the military who was discharged in the last five years and who has collected unemployment benefits for four or more weeks in the last year. To qualify for the tax credit by hiring a disconnected youth, the small business owner must hire someone between the ages of 16 and 25 who has not attended school regularly in the past six months or been employed in the past six months. Additionally, these youths must be shown to lack the basic skills which make them readily employable.

One of the general misconceptions about the SBA is that they offer grants to start a business. However, this is not true. The SBA can offer assistance in the form of training and loan programs to individuals who wish to start a business but will not provide a grant for this purpose. There are; however, a limited number of grants available through the SBA for the purpose of expanding or improving organizations which offer assistance to small business owners.

Regarding grants, it should be noted that these will be difficult for a small business owner to obtain. It should also be noted that none of the grants under the ARRA are specifically created for small business owners. However, there may be some grants for which you will qualify and will be eligible to apply but this will largely depend on the type of business you operate. For this reason, this section will focus on helping you to learn to navigate the Grants.gov website instead of pointing to specific grants for which you may be eligible to apply.

Small business owners in search of a government grant should expect a long and tedious process. The starting point for learning more about grant opportunities under the ARRA is the following web address: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/recovery.jsp. Here you will find links to each of the recovery sites for the grantor agencies. Through these links you will be able to learn about the programs being offered through these agencies.

There is also a, “Find Recovery Acts Opportunities,” link. This is where you need to start if you hope to obtain a grant under the ARRA. This link will bring you to the first, of many pages, listing the grants being offered as a part of the current stimulus package. The information included in these tables includes the closing date, opportunity title, agency and funding number. The first column which lists the closing date will eliminate a number of these grants from your research efforts because you will notice they have already closed. This means you are automatically not going to be eligible for any of these grants because you did not submit an application prior to the closing date. Now you can move on to opportunities which are still open and accepting applications.

Although the opportunity title column comes next, you might want to skip over to the agency column in this phase of your search. This is because this column may provide some insight into whether or not a particular grant opportunity may apply to your business. For example, if you operate a food based business opportunities from the Food and Nutrition Service agency may be of particular interest to you. Likewise if your small business provides health related products or services, grant opportunities from the National Institute of Health are ones you should consider investigating further.

Finally, from the opportunity title column, you can usually get a vague idea of what type of business, organization or individual will benefit from this type of grant. However, you will not get the full scope of the grant opportunity until you click on the title itself. Once you do this you will be redirected to another page which lists basic details relevant to the grant opportunity. Here you will find a synopsis of the grant opportunity which includes information such as the closing date, the expected number of awards, the estimated total funding, the award limit, who is eligible to apply for this grant and a brief description of the purpose for awarding the grant. You will also find a link to the full announcement on this page.

The full announcement for a grant opportunity is a detailed document providing a wealth of information. Reading through this full announcement will not only provide you with background information on the reason for awarding the grant but it will also provide information on the type of information which must be provided in order for your application to be accepted and a grant awarded. Here you will also learn how to submit your application. Care should be taken to follow the instructions carefully because failure to adhere to these procedures will result in your application being withdrawn from consideration regardless of how worthy your business is. The full announcement is also where you will find information on where you can submit your application once it is completed.

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When you sign up for a standard Paypal account, you are automatically put on the 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee schedule.  But what they don’t tell you is that you if you frequently receive small amounts (aka micropayments) then you can opt to be put on their Paypal Micropayment fee schedule.

First, let’s compare the transaction fee schedule for the different account types:

Paypal Business/Premier: 2.9% + $0.30

Paypal Micropayment: 5% + $0.05

Anyone with basic algebra skills can solve the equation, $11.90 is the answer.

If you set the two transaction schedule to be the same:

2.9%(x) + $0.30 = 5%(x) + $0.05

x = $11.90

What’s so magical about $11.90?

$11.90 is the transaction amount cutoff for deciding whether you should accept the money via your Business/Premier account, or your Micropayment account.

If the transaction amount is less than $11.90, you are better off sending the transaction to your Paypal Micropayment account.

If the transaction amount is more than $11.90, your fee will be lower if you send the transaction through your Paypal Business/Premier.

Want to verify this?  Just plugin a number into the 2 fee schedules, and you will see why.

Now, it’s quite simple to convert your Business/Premier account to a Micropayment account.  However, before you do I would suggest that you open a new Paypal account, and convert your 2nd account to Micropayment.  This way you have the flexibility of saving on Paypal fee for any transaction amount.

To convert your Paypal account to receive micropayments, simple go to:

http://micropayments.paypal-labs.com/

It will take about 2 business days before your accounts get converted.

I hope this will help you save a bunch on Paypal fees, especially those of you who are running $1 free trial offers – you are talking about the difference between netting $0.679 versus $0.90, and imagine the savings on 1,000 such transactions!

Now a brain teaser: What if the transaction amount is exactly $11.90, should you use your Paypal Business/Premier or Micropayment account to accept the payment?

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I wrote an email to one of my clients outlining the steps on how anyone with a business can incorporate in California (doesn’t matter for formation, LLC, C-Corp, Partnership, etc.) , the Do-It-Yourself way, so you can be sure it’s the cheapest way to incorporate your business.

Now, keep in mind, the following is specific to California, but the steps 1 & 2 of the process of choosing the name should be the same regardless which state you want to incorporate in.

Hi [name un-disclosed],

Here is what I did when I set up my own consulting corp.

Process for choosing a name:

1.  I make sure the .COM of the company name is available first before I even bother performing trademark/business name search.

Go to http://www.wholesalerdomains.com to look up domain names, it’s about $10/year to register the name.  I would also secure the .NET, and .ORG version of it.

2.  Then I make sure the name is not already trademarked.  Go here:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/

3.  Then I perform a search on existing business entities.  Go here:

http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/list.html

Most likely if you pass step 1 (domain name search) and found a name you like, it will usually pass the trademark and existing business name search.

4. Then you can go here:  http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/ to find out all you need to know about what forms/fees you need to self-incorporate your business (yeah, and they make it really easy, too

[...]

Alright, hopefully that’s enough information to get you started – I know, it’s quite a bit, but the good news is that you only need to do it right once

Thanks!
Steve

Step 4 is where it gets me and most people confused.  For my California corporation I chose it to be a CLOSE CORPORATION, and all the state requires is that you file an Article of Incorporation with a $100 check enclosed:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/corp/pdf/articles/corp_artsclose.pdf

Here is the Article of Incorporation (download Word Document version here) form that I used, and you are free to use it for your application.  Just make sure you have replaced all the [tags] with your own information.

In the Article of Incorporation form they also suggest that to facilitate the processing of documents mailed to the Sacramento office, a self-addressed envelope and a letter referencing the corporate name as well as your own name, return address and telephone number should also be submitted.

Here is a sample referencing letter (download Word Document version here) that I used, and you are free to use it for your application.  Just make sure you have replaced all the [tags] with your own information.

If you are incorporating other entities, I’ll save you the trouble of treading through the confusing Secretary of State website.  Just choose an appropriate form to file from here:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/be/forms.htm

If you are interested in learning more about incorporating in your own state, then I suggest you visit the official USA.gov site.

It’s no wonder incorporation service and kits are available for purchase – because the State’s website don’t make it easier for people!

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Now, you can simply use a naked link (For example, http://www.gurucs.com is a naked link) when posting your website URL in the emails that you send out, but when you look at your web traffic analytic program (such as Webalizer, Awstats, or Google Analytics) you may notice a traffic spike from a recent series of email pieces that you sent out and not know which email generated most click-thru to your site.

There is a quick and dirty way to hack your URL to embed link tracking information.

It’s really quite simple.  All you have to is insert a “?token=value” at the end of your URL.

For example, if I were to be promoting the $5 web hosting service by sending out multiple emails and I want to track which email generates the most response (click-thru rate), I would simple tag my URL with an arbitrary token and value in my first email:

http://www.gurucs.com/services/web-hosting/5-dollar-web-hosting/?email=1st

In my second email, I could use this link to track my open rate:

http://www.gurucs.com/services/web-hosting/5-dollar-web-hosting/?email=2nd

and so on…

This trick and also be used in other situations where you know the referrer links will most likely be coming from the same source (in this case they will come from email websites such as Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) and you need a way to differentiate the traffic source.

You may also tag on additional query string variables by separating the token/value pair with & sign such as:

http://www.gurucs.com/services/web-hosting/5-dollar-web-hosting/?source=email&provider=gmail

http://www.gurucs.com/services/web-hosting/5-dollar-web-hosting/?source=email&provider=yahoo

In the above example I could hypothetically be emailing the same email to 2 lists.  One with recipients who are using Gmail, one with recipients using Yahoo and these URLs will let me track the click-thru rate for each list.

Note for Awstats:

The URLWithQuery configuration must be turned on for query string for this to work:

URLWithQuery

Keep or remove the query string to the URL in the statistics for individual
pages. This is primarily used to differentiate between the URLs of dynamic
pages. If set to 1, mypage.html?id=x and mypage.html?id=y are counted as two
different pages.
Warning, when set to 1, memory required to run AWStats is dramatically
increased if you have a lot of changing URLs (for example URLs with a random
id inside). Such web sites should not set this option to 1 or use seriously
the next parameter URLWithQueryWithoutFollowingParameters.
Possible values:
0 – URLs are cleaned from the query string (ie: “/mypage.html”)
1 – Full URL with query string is used (ie: “/mypage.html?p=x&q=y”)

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Yes, BUT… you must come prepared with tons of capital.

According to ICANN, the governing body for all domains, here are some financial considerations before you jump into this business:

Before you undertake the registrar accreditation process, please read and consider the following costs to you. This is not an exhaustive list of all costs involved in becoming an accredited registrar, but is meant only as a helpful listing of some costs registrar applicants should be prepared to pay in connection with becoming an ICANN accredited registrar.

To ICANN:

• US$2,500 non-refundable application fee, to be submitted with application.
• US$4,000 yearly accreditation fee due upon approval and each year thereafter.
• Variable fee (quarterly) billed once you begin registering domain names or the first full quarter following your accreditation approval, whichever occurs first. This fee represents a portion of ICANN’s operating costs and, because it is divided among all registrars, the amount varies from quarter to quarter. Recently this fee has ranged from US$1,200 to S$2,000 per quarter.
• Transaction-based gTLD fee (quarterly). This fee is a flat fee (currently $0.20) charged for each new registration, renewal or transfer. This fee can be billed by the registrar separately on its invoice to the registrant, but is paid by the registrar to ICANN.
• Please refer to http://www.icann.org/general/financial.html for the most recent ICANN Budget to find additional details about invoicing, including options for relief.

You must have:

• US$70,000 in working capital requirement. THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE PAID TO ICANN; ICANN requires only that you demonstrate (by submitting an independently verified financial statement) that you have at least this much liquid capital (cash or credit) before your ICANN accreditation becomes effective.
• Commercial General Liability Insurance coverage of at least $500,000. This coverage must be maintained in force throughout the term of your accreditation.

To Registry Operators:

Please refer to http://www.icann.org/financials/payments.htm for instructions on how to submit payments to ICANN.

As you can see, becoming a domain name registrar is not a business for everyone to get into – ICANN have set the bar pretty high.

HOWEVER, all is not lost.  Just because you can not become a domain name registrar does not mean that you can not sell domain names.

If you are in web design, hosting business, or any type of business that helps people establish web presence, then chances are good that at some point in your business transaction you will suggest your customer to get a domain name.

In fact, people love the idea of owning their own .com’s, especially their own [first & last name].com – and this is where becoming a domain name reseller could come in handy, and could earn you a handsome recurring income.

One of the most popular domain registrar is no doubt Godaddy.com and they have a domain name reseller program that costs just $90/year (or $180/year if you want lower buy-rates).

Some of the key features that we like about Godaddy’s reseller programs are:

• You set the price, you earn the margin
• Customizable website template
• Earn commission on other services such as hosting

Why do we become a Godaddy reseller?  Simple

• Residual income from domain and hosting renewals
• Low buy-rate for our own domain portoflio

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It allows foreign language domains – such as Chinese, Janpanese, Spanish, Hebrew, etc.

For example, McDonalds.com translated to Chinese would be 麥當勞.com

So in foreign countries such as China computer users would simply type in 麥當勞.com in their browsers.  It is the browser’s job to translate the non-ASCII domain name to its ASCII equivalent (ie. 麥當勞.com to xn--qhrx81fxh2a.com).

Note: IE and Firefox currently supports IDN. Not all browsers support IDN domain names. But more browsers are aware and are beginning to support this now.

We have started recommending our clients to also register their English evalent IDN domain name for various reasons.

Trademark/Brand protection

You want to protect your brand/trademark not only in English, but also in other popular foreign languages, such as Chinese and Spanish, especially if your company does business internationally.

So when is it a good time to register your IDN? Right now would be good. Think about it – when your company name (or your own name perhaps) become more well-known there will be cybersquatters who would take the opportunity to register your name in IDN. Then you would need to write a Cease & Desist letter to the person and attempt to get it back.

Here is an interesting domain name lawsuit case for dispute of Target.org:

Target Brands, Inc. v. Eastwind Group, NAF Forum File No. 0405000267475 (July 9, 2004).

“The Panel determines that “target” is a generic term and a common word. Complainant does not have monopoly over any domain name with the word “target” in it. The Panel finds that Respondent has rights to and legitimate interests in a domain name that consists of a generic or common term. … Additionally, where a domain name is generic, the first person to register it in good faith is entitled to the domain name and this is considered a ‘legitimate interest.’”

Therefore, as you can see, even if Target owns its trademark and Target.com, it is possible that someone else owns the .org version! So don’t let this happen to you.

Head over to http://WholesalerDomains.com/IDN for Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Chinese domain name registration. There are over 350 languagues that you can register, but we recommend you go for popular languages and countries that you do business in.

Investment purpose

Even if your company or yourself doesn’t have business internationally, it would be wise to look into IDN domain names to purchase and hold (or develop) for future value.

Good English .com domain names are being snatched up this very second by domain investors. Thousands of premium .com domain names are bought and sold every day.

Our company has recently started registering Chinese IDN’s by the mass. We are going after popular terms and phrases in English and have them translated to Chinese.

You could do the same, too. Just come up with a list of English terms and find someone to translate them into another language for you.

How to register your IDN

Let’s say you want register a Chinese domain name (and I will use Chinese a lot because it is the #1 most widely spoken language in the world).

You first need to have your company’s name translated to Chinese (can be either traditional or simplified). We do have Chinese speaking staff if you ever need translation service (ie. translate your English webpage to Chinese). Please contact us.

Then go to http://WholesalerDomains.com/IDN and type your foreign language term in the search box and choose a language and hit search.

It is important that you select the correct language you want to register your name in because you can not change the language later.

Everything else is the same as with buying an English dot com domain name.

For around $10/year it is a small price to pay to secure your company identify and a great investment.

IDN Language List

Abazin / Abaza абаза бызшва (abaza bəzšʷa)
Afar Afaraf
Abkhaz аҧсуа бызшәа (aṗsua byzšʷa)
Adyghe адыгэбзэ (adəgăbză) / адыгабзэ (adəgabză)
Afrikaans Afrikaanse taal
Ainu アイヌ イタク (aynu itak)
Akhvakh ашwалӀи мицӀи (ašwałi mic̣i)
Akkadian lišānum akkadītum, akkadū
Alabama Albaamo innaaɬiilka
Albanian gjuha shqipe
Alsatian Elsassisch Sproch / Elſaſſiſch Sproch
Altai алтай тили (altaj tili)
Amharic � ማርኛ (ămarəña)
Arabic اللغة العربية (al-luġâtu l-ʿarabīyâ)
Aragonese luenga aragonesa, aragonés
Aramaic ארמי (aramāy)
Armenian Հայերեն լեզու (hayeren lezou)
Aromanian limba aromână
Assamese অসমীয়া ভাষা (asamīyā bʰāṣā)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic ܐܬܘܪܝܐ (ātūrayā), ܣܘܪܬ (sūret)
Asturian llingua asturiana, asturianu
Auvergnat lenga auvernhada, auvernhat
Avar авар мацӀ (awar mac̣), магӀарул мацӀ (maʿarul mac̣)
Aymara aymar aru
Azerbaijani Azərbaycan dili / Азәрбајҹан дили / آذربایجان دیلی, azərbaycanca / азәрбајҹанҹа / آذربایجانجا
Balearic balear
Balochi بلوچی زبان (baločī zubān)
Bambara bamanankan
Bashkir башҡорт теле (bašqort tele)
Basque euskara hizkuntza
Belarussian беларуская мова / biełaruskaja mova
Bengali বাংলা ভাষা (bāṁlā bʰāṣā)
Bhojpuri भोजपुरी भाषा (bʰojpurī bʰāṣā)
Blackfoot siksiká
Bodo बोडो भाषा (boḍo bʰāṣā)
Bosnian босански језик / bosanski jezik
Breton yezh brezhoneg
Buginese ᨅᨔ ᨕᨘᨁᨗ (basa ugi)
Bulgarian български език (bŭlgarski ezik)
Buriat буряад хэлэн (burjaad ĥälän)
Burmese မ္ရန္‌မာစာ (mẏãmasa)
Cantonese 廣東話 / 广东话 (gwóngdōngwá)
Capeverdian Creole kriolu kabuverdianu
Carrier ᑕᗸᒡ (dakelh)
Catalan llengua catalana, catal�
Catalan-Valencian-Balearic catal� -valenci� -balear
Cebuano binisayang Sinugboanon
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic ܟ� ܕܝܐ (kaldayā), ܣܘܪܬ (sōret)
Chamorro Chamoru
Chechen нохчийн мотт / noxçiyn mott
Cherokee tsalagi kawonihisdi / ᏣᎳᎩ ᎧᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ
Chewa / Nyanja chiCheŵa
Cheyenne Tsétsêhéstaestse
Chinese 漢語 / 汉语 (h� nyǔ), 中文 (zhōngwén)
Choctaw chahta anumpa
Chukchi / Chukot чаучу (čauču) / чавчу (čavču)
Chuvash чӑваш чӗлхи (čăvaš čĕlĥi)
Comanche nʉmʉ tekwapʉ̱
Comorian شِقُمُرِ / shikomori
Coptic ⲙⲉⲧⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ (metenremenkhīmi) / ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ (tiaspi enremenkhīmi)
Coptic – Bohairic ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙϧⲏⲧ (tiaspi enremenkhīmi enremĥīt) / ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙϧⲏⲧ (tiaspi enremĥīt) / ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲡⲉⲙϩⲏⲧ (tiaspi enrempemhīt)
Coptic – Sahidic ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ (tiaspi nremrēs)
Cornish yeth Kernewek
Corsican lingua corsa, corsu
Cree ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ (nēhiyaw)
Crimean Tatar Qırımtatar tili / Къырымтатар тили
Croatian hrvatski jezik
Czech český jazyk, čeština
Danish dansk sprog
Dargwa дарган мез (dargan mez)
Dari زبان دری (zabān-e darī)
Delaware Lënape
Dinka Thuɔŋjäŋ
Divehi ދިވެހިބަސް (divehibas)
Dogri डोगरी भाषा (ḍogrī bʰāṣā)
Dungan Хуэйзў йүян (Ĥuėyzŭ yüyan), лохуэй (loĥuėy)
Dutch Nederlandse taal, Nederlands
Dzongkha / Jonkha ཇོང་ཁ (joṅ.kʰa)
English English language
Esperanto Esperanta lingvo, Esperanto
Estonian eesti keel
Even эвэды торэн (ėvėdy torėn)
Evenki орочон (oročon)
Ewe Ɛʋɛgbɛ
Faroese føroyskt mál
Fijian vosa Vakaviti
Finnish suomen kieli
Flemish Vlaamse taal, Vlaams
Fon Fɔngbè
Francoprovençal lenga arpitana, arpitan, lenga francoprovençala, francoprovençal
French langue française, français
Frisian (Northern) Frasche spräke, Frasch
Frisian (Saterland) Fräiske Sproake, Fräisk, Seelterske Sproake, Seeltersk
Frisian (Western) Fryske taal, Frysk
Friulian lenghe furlane, furlan
Fula Fulfulde, Pulaar
Fur bèle fòòr, fòòraŋ bèle
Gagauz gagauz dili / гагауз дили
Gallegan lingua galega, galego
Gascon lenga gascona, gascon
Geez ግዕዝ (gəʿəz)
Georgian ქა� თული ენა (ḳarṭuli ena)
German Deutsche Sprache / Deutſche Sprache, Deutsch / Deutſch
Gikuyu / Kikuyu Gĩkũyũ
Gothic   (gutiska razda),  (gutrazda)
Greek ελληνική γλώσσα (ellīnikī́ glṓssa), ελληνικά (ellīniká)
Greek, Ancient ἑλληνικὴ γλῶττα (hellēnikḕ glō̑tta), ἑλληνικά (hellēniká)
Greek – Dhimotiki ελληνικά – δημοτική (ellīniká – dīmotikī́)
Greek – Katharevousa ἑλληνικά – καθαρεύουσα (hellīniká – kaṯareýoysa)
Greenlandic kalaallisut
Gruzinic קיברולי (kiṿruli)
Guarani avañe’ẽ
Guernsey Norman French langue Dgèrnésiaise, Dgèrnésiais
Gujarati ગુજરાતી ભાષા (gujarātī bʰāṣā)
Haitian Creole lang kreyòl ayisyen
Hakka 客家話 / 客家话 (hakgave)
Hausa Hausa harshe / حَوْسَ حَرْش۪ (ḥausa ḥarshe)
Hawaiian ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi
Hebrew לשון עברית (lašôn ʿiṿrît)
Herero otsiHerero
Hindi हिंदी भाषा (hiṁdī bʰāṣā) / हिन्दी भाषा (hindī bʰāṣā)
Hmong  / lus Hmoob
Hungarian magyar nyelv
Icelandic íslenskt tungumál, íslenska
Igbo asụsụ Igbo
Indonesian bahasa Indonesia
Ingush гӀалгӀай мотт (ġalġaj mott)
Inuktitut ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ / inuktitut
Irish Gaelic teanga Gaeilge / teanga Gaeilge
Isan � าษาอีสาน (pʰāsā īsān)
Istro-Romanian limba istroromånă
Italian lingua italiana, italiano
Japanese 日本語 (nihongo)
Javanese basa Jawa
Jersey Norman French langue Jèrriaise, Jèrriais
Kabardian къэбэрдеибзэ (qėbėrdeibzė)
Kabyle ثاقبايليث / taqbaylit
Kalmyk хальмг келн (ĥal’mg keln)
Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ (kannaḍa bʰāṣe)
Karachay-Balkar къарачай-малкъар тил (qaračaj-malqar til)
Karaim karaj tili
Karakalpak qaraqalpaq tili / қарақалпақ тили
Karelian karjalan kieli
Kashmiri کٲشُر زَبان (kạ̄šur zabān) / कॉशुर ज़बान (kọ̄šur zabān)
Kashubian kaszëbsczi jãzëk
Kazakh қазақ тілі / قازاق ٴتىلى (qazaq tîlî)
Khakas хакас тили (ĥakas tili)
Khanty хӑнты ясӑӈ (ĥănty jasăṅ)
Khmer ភាសាខ្មែរ (pʰāsā kʰmær)
Kirghiz кыргыз тили (kyrgyz tili) / قىرعىز ٴتىلى (qırġız tili)
Kiribati taetae ni Kiribati
Klallam nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕, nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən
Komi коми кыв (komi kyv)
Komi-Permyak перым-коми кыв (perym-komi kyv)
Konkani कोंकणी भाषा (koṁkaṇī bʰāṣā)
Korean 한국어 (hangukeo) / 조� 어 (joseoneo)
Koryak нымылан (nymylan)
Kumyk къумукъ тил (qumuq til)
Kurdish (Kurmanji) zimanê kurdî / زمانێ کوردی, zimanê kurmancî / زمانێ کورمانجی
Kurdish (Mukri) زمانێ کوردی / zimanê kurdî, زمانێ موکری / zimanê mukrî
Kurdish (Red Kurmanji) zimanê kurdî / зьмане к’ӧрди / زمانێ کوردی, zimanê kurmancî / зьмане к’ӧрманщи / زمانێ کورمانجی
Kurdish (Sorani) زمانێ کوردی / zimanê kurdî, زمانێ سۆرانی / zimanê soranî
Ladin lingaz ladin
Ladin (Gardena) ladin de Gherdëina
Ladin (Valle di Badia) ladin dl Val Badia, badiot, ladin-badiot
Ladin (Valle di Fassa) ladin dl Val de Fascia, cazet, ladin-cazet
Ladino lingua djudeo-espanyola / לי� גוא גודיאו-איספא� ייולא, djudeo-espanyol / גודיאו-איספא� ייול, lingua ladina / לי� גוא לאדי� א, ladino / לאדי� ו
Lak лакку маз (lakku maz)
Lakota Lakhota
Languedocian lenga lengadouciana, lengadoucian
Lao ພາສາລາວ (pʰāsā lāw)
Latin lingua latina, latine
Latvian latviešu valoda
Laz ლაზუ� ი ნენა (lazuri nena)
Lezghian лезги чӀал (lezgi č̣al)
Ligurian lengua lígure, líguru
Limousin lenga lemosina, lemosin
Lingala lokótá ya lingála
Lithuanian lietuvių kalba
Livonian līvõ kēļ
Lombard lengua lumbarda, lumbard
Low German Plattdüütsche Sprook / Plattdüütſche Sprook, Plattdüütsch / Plattdüütſch
Ludian lüüdikiel
Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch Sprooch / Lëtzebuergeſch Sprooch
Macedonian македонски јазик (makedonski jazik)
Maithili मैथिली भाषा (maitʰilī bʰāṣā)
Malagasy Malagasy fiteny
Malay bahasa Melayu / بهاس ملايو
Malayalam മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ)
Maltese lingwa Maltija, Malti
Manchu MeejO (manju)
Manipuri / Bishnupriya Manipuri বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী ভাষা (biṣṇupriyā maṇipurī bʰāṣā)
Manipuri / Meitei mYtYloN / মৈইতৈইলোন (maitailon)
Mansi маньси латын (man’si latyn)
Manx chengey Vannin, Gaelg
Maori reo Māori
Marathi मरा� ी भाषा (marāṭʰī bʰāšā)
Meadow Mari олык марий йылме (olyk marij jylme)
Hill Mari кырык мары йӹлмӹ (kyryk mary jÿlmÿ)
Marshallese Kajin M̧ajeļ
Mauritian Creole morisyin, kreol morisyin
Megleno-Romanian limba meglenoromană
Megrelian / Mingrelian მა� გალუ� ი ნინა (margaluri nina)
Miami myaamia
Micmac Mi’gmawi’simg, Mi’gmaq
Moldavian limba moldovenească / лимба молдовеняскэ
Mon ဘာသာမန္ (pʰɛsa mɔn)
Mongolian монгол хэл (mongol ĥäl) / Moehgo& kEla (moṅgol ĥ̇ele)
Moravian moravský jazyk
Mordvin / Erzya эрзянь кель (ėrzjan’ kel’)
Mordvin / Moksha мокшень кяль (mokšen’ käl’)
Mossi Mòoré
Nahuatl nawatlahtolli
Nama Khoekhoegowab
Nanai нанай (nanaj)
Nauru Ekakairũ Naoero
Navajo Diné bizaad
Ndebele isiNdebele
Neapolitan lengua nnapulitana, nnapulitano
Nenets ненэця’ вада (nenėcja’ vada)
Neo-Assyrian ܕܥܒܪܸܝܛ (daʿbrīṭ)
Nepali नेपाली भाषा (nepālī bʰāṣā)
Niuean faka-Niue
Nivkh нивхгу диф (nivĥgu dif)
Nogai ногай тили (nogaj tili)
Normand langue nouormande, nouormand
Norwegian norsk språk
Occitan lenga occitana, occitan
Ojibwe ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯ (anišinape)
Old Church Slavonic ѩзыкъ словѣньскъ (językŭ slověnĭskŭ)
Old Norse norskr
Oriya ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା (oṛiā bʰāṣā)
Oromo afaan Oromoo
Ossetian ирон ӕвзаг (iron ävzag)
Ottoman Turkish لسان عثمانی / لسانِ عُثمانی (lisān-i ʿos̱mānī)
Palauan tekoi ra Belau
Pali पालि भाषा (pāli bʰāṣā)
Panjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ (paṁjābī bʰāšā) / पंजाबी भाशा (paṁjābī bʰāšā) / پنجابی بھاشا (panjābī bʰāšā)
Papiamento Papiamentu
Pedi / Northern Sotho sePedi
Pennsylvania German Pennsilfaani-Deitsch Schprooch / Pennſilfaani-Deitſch Schprooch
Persian زبان فارسی (zabān-e fārsī)
Picard langue picarde, picard
Piedmontese lenga piemonteisa, piemontèis
Polish język polski, mowa polska
Portuguese língua portuguesa, português
Provençal lenga prouvençala, prouvençau
Pushto / Pashtu پښتو ژبه (paŝto žabâ)
Quechua Runa Simi, Kichwa
Raeto-Romance – Engadin, Lower rumantsch d’Engiadina bassa, ladin, engiadinais
Raeto-Romance – Engadin, Upper rumauntsch d’Engiadin’ota, ladin, engiadinais
Raeto-Romance – Grisons lingua rumantscha, rumantsch grischun
Raeto-Romance – Surmiran rumantsch – surmiran
Raeto-Romance – Sursilvan romontsch – sursilvan
Raeto-Romance – Sutsilvan rum� ntsch – sutsilvan
Romani Romani šib / � омани шиб
Romani, Kalderash Kalderašicko Romani šib
Romani, Kalé Romanó Kaló
Romani, Sinto Sinto
Romanian limba română
Rundi kiRundi
Russian русский язык (russkij jazyk)
Rusyn руськи язик (rus’ki jazik), руски язик (ruski jazik)
Rwanda kinyaRwanda
Saanich xʷsenəčqən
Saint Lucia Creole kwéyòl, patwa
Sami / Lappish sámegiella
Samoan gagana fa’a Samoa
Sango yângâ tî sängö
Sanskrit संस्कृत भाषा (saṁskr̹ta bʰāṣā), संस्कृतम् (saṁskr̹tam)
Santali संथाली (saṁtʰālī)
Saramaccan saamáka
Sardinian limba sarda, sardu
Scots Scots leid, Lallans
Scots Gaelic / Scottish Gaelic c� nan G� idhlig
Selkup шӧльӄумыт әты (šöl’qumyt əty)
Senaya ܣܢܝܐ (senayā), ܣܘܪܝ (sōray)
Serbian српски језик / srpski jezik
Seychelles Creole seselwa, kreol
Shona chiShona
Shor шор тил (šor til), тадар тил (tadar til)
Sicilian lingua siciliana, sicilianu
Sidamo Sidámo ‘afó
Silesian ślonsko godka
Sindhi سنڌي ڀاشا (sindʰī bʰāšā) / सिन्धी भाषा (sindʰī bʰāṣā)
Sinhalese සිංහල භාෂාව (siṁhala bʰāṣāva)
Slovak slovenský jazyk, slovenčina
Slovenian / Slovene slovenski jezik, slovenščina
Somali af Soomaali, Soomaaliga
Soninke Soninkanxaane
Lower Sorbian dolnoserbska reč, dolnoserbski
Upper Sorbian hornjoserbska rěč, hornjoserbsce
Sotho seSotho
Spanish idioma español, idioma castellano
Sundanese basa Sunda
Svan ლუშნუ ნინ (lušnu nin)
Swahili kiswahili
Swati siSwati
Swedish svenskt språk, svenska
Swiss German Schwyzerdütsch Sproch / Schwyzerdütſch Sproch
Syriac ܣܘܪܝܐܝܐ (sūryāyā / sūryō̹yō̹)
Tabasaran табасаран чӀал (tabasaran č̣al)
Tagalog wikang tagalog
Tahitian reo Tahiti
Tai Nüa ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ (tai taɯ xoŋ)
Tajik забони тоҷикӣ (zaboni toǧikī) / زبان تاجکی (zabôn-i tôjikī)
Talysh толышә зывон (toləšä zəvon)
Tamajaq تَمَاجِقْ / Tămažəq
Tamasheq تَمَاشَقْ / Tămašăq
Tamazight tmaziɣt / ⵜⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ / تمازيغت
Tamil தமிழ் மொழி (tamiḻ moḻi)
Tashelhiyt تشلحيت / Tašlḥiyt
Tat тати (tati)
Tatar tatar tele / татар теле / تاتار تېلې, tatarça / татарча / تاتارچا
Telugu తెలుగు భాష (telugu bʰāṣa)
Thai � าษาไทย (pʰāsā tʰai)
Tibetan བོད་སྐད (bod.skad)
Tigrinya ትግርኛ (təgrəña)
Tonga / Nyasa chiTonga
Tongan faka-Tonga
Tsonga xiTsonga
Tswana seTswana
Tulu ತುಳು (tuḷu)
Turkish Türk dili, Türkçe
Turkmen türkmen dili / түркмен дили
Turoyo ܛܘܪܝܐ (ṭūro̹yō̹), ܨܘܪܝܬ (ṣūrayt), ܣܘܪܝܝܐ (sūryo̹yō̹)
Tuvalu ‘gana Tuvalu
Tuvinian тыва дыл (tyva dyl)
Udi / Udin удин муз (udin muz)
Udmurt удмурт кыл (udmurt kyl)
Uighur / Uyghur ئۇيغۇر تىلى / uyghur tili / уйғур тили, ئۇيغۇرچە / uyghurche / уйғурчә
Ukrainian українська мова (ukraïns’ka mova)
Urdu اردو زبان (urdū zabān)
Uzbek o’zbek tili / ўзбек тили / ئۇزبېك تىلى
Valencian llengua valenciana, valenci�
Venda tshiVenḓa
Venetian łéngoa vèneta, vèneto
Veps vepsän kel’
Vietnamese tiếng Việt
Volapük Volapük
Voro võro kiiľ
Votic vad’d'a tšeeli
Walloon lingaedje walon
Welsh iaith Gymraeg, Cymraeg
Wolof Wolof
Xhosa isiXhosa
Yakut саха тыла (saĥa tyla)
Yi ꆇꉙ (nuoxhxop)
Yiddish ייִדישע שפּראַך (yidiše špraḫ), ייִדיש (yidiš)
Yoruba Yorùbá
Yucateco / Maya yukatek
Zarma zarmaciine
Zazaki zimanê zazakî / زمانێ زازاکی, zimanê dimilkî / زمانێ دملکی, zimanê kirmanckî / زمانێ کرمانجکی
Zhuang Sawcuengh
Zulu isiZulu

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Both services provide you with web-based autoresponder and email marketing service.   Both are very close in price (just under $20/month and cheaper per month if you purchase a 1-year contract).  Both offer very high deliverability.

Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of each service.

The Good

Aweber definitely has a nicer user interface. Links and buttons are laid out in an intuitive manner. It provides a very flexible and sensible web form creator.

In terms of web form creation, Aweber’s web form creator allows you to create in-line, pop-up, pop-under, exit pop-up, pop-over, and lightbox hover type of forms, whereas GetResponse only has in-line, and pop-up form types. Awebber definitely wins over Getreponse in this feature.

However, to make up for the shortcoming in the web form types, GetReponse does provide an API for you to subscribe your visitors via scripting (ie. you could automatically subscribe an user who also registers to your forum).

In terms of autoresponder features, both offer blog broadcast set up (ie. notify subscriber by email whenever you make a new post to your blog). However, in preset autoresponder series, GetResponse allows subscribers to advance to the next email in the autoresponder series. This feature could be useful if you want to allow your subscribers to advance to the next piece of information without having the users wait for your emails.

Something that Aweber lacks but exclusive to GetResponse is that you can actually purchase email leads via co-registration path. Email leads run from 32¢ to 45¢ per email and are not incentivized nor re-sold.

The Bad

Aweber starts at $19/month, whereas GetResponse starts at $17.95/month. Both gives you up to 500 subscribers for that price. The bad thing is that as you gain more subscribers, your monthly fee will go up as well.

To eliminate unnecessary fee, you will need to periodically filter your list, get rid of emails that have unsubscribed (yes, Aweber counts those against you).

The Ugly

For each of the mailing list in Aweber you are able to upload a suppression list (a list of emails address that have previously opted-out), whereas with GetResponse this is not possible.

In most cases you wouldn’t need a suppression list (since your list comprises of people who have opted-in voluntarily), but if you are doing any type of bulk-email campaigns such as emailing CPA offers to your list, CPA networks will offer you a suppresion list that you should load into your mailing list.

But, if you are not doing bulk-email marketing, then both Aweber and GetResponse should do just fine for your normal autoresponder and/or email newsletter marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

We actually use both services for various applications and websites.  But, if we have to choose just one service, then we like Aweber over GetResponse due to the ease of use, and the fact that it has nicer looking email templates.

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1. Email Marketing Solutions And Software We offer custom email marketing solutions for your email newsletter...
2. Email Marketing Service Talk to any business coach and they will tell you...
3. Services Web Design/Programming Service We can develop simple 5-page corporate/business static...

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Thousands of free WordPress themes by third party developers have been made available to WordPress operators (see http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/), and many premium WordPress themes (aka not so free) have been made available as well.

Premium WordPress Themes are worth a mention because of the complexity and functionality not found in so many free themes – such as dynamically generated drop-down menu, theme options (feature box setting, ad setting, pre-set color selection, blog v.s. default display, etc.), and custom functions.

Premium themes may be nice, however, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag and licensing terms that may restrict you from ever selling your website.

As a web development consulting company, we have tried many premium themes, but one stood out as best in value (aka biggest bang for our bucks) – that is Elegant Themes and we highly recommend it since it only costs $19.95 per YEAR and has very flexible licensing term.  The developer who runs that theme club has consistently pumped out one new theme per month.

Take a look at some of the themes and you’ll agree that this theme club is probably the best valued theme membership out there.

We like it so much that we are using one of his themes (EarthlyTouch) to run the blog that you are reading right now!

Did you know that GuruCS is powered by a premium WordPress theme?  Yes, GuruCS is powered by WordPress and the theme is made available by Elegant Themes (highly recommended since it only costs $19.95 per YEAR!).

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Either it be a blog so the owner or company can make announcements to its customers, a static website that inform the rest of the world what the company is about, products/services it provides, and how to contact us, or a social networking site for badminton players – the goal is to ultimately make money with the website.

Having the website built brings you one step closer to making you more money – the website only provides a vehicle, you will still need to learn how to drive it to gets you to places you want to go.

So how do you make money with your website?  Well, simply put, you will need traffic and monetization.

Traffic
If you build it, they are not going to come.  Unlike running a brick-and-mortar business where you can set up shop at a busy street corner and get tons of customers the first day you open, a website is a virtual shop and no one is going to know about this brand new website without some marketing or advertising.

There are several ways you can drive traffic to your website.

1.  Buy Advertising
Before you go out and buy advertising, you have to know or understand where your customers will most likely come from.  For example, if your target audience is college students, then it may be worthwhile for you to look into advertising on Facebook, rather than buying keywords on search engines.

You can “leech” off other existing websites with traffic by buying advertisements on those websites.  One way to do this would be go to Google search engine and search for websites that are closely related to your business (most likely your competitor is not going to want to place an ad for you to your website), contact them and work out a deal.

Other places you may consider are classified/auction ads sites such as Craigslist and eBay.

2.  Word-of-Mouth Advertising
For this type of advertising to work out well you will need to make it “worthwhile” for people to spread the word for you – think about running a promotion, a giveaway, a grand-opening special offer.

For example, you can construct an enticing contest and get it listed on a highly trafficked online contest directory site (tip:  to find popular online contest directory site just Google “online contest” – why?  Because people would search for “online contest” if they were to look for one!).

Alternatively, if you already a member of social networking sites (such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) and have a friend-base, then you can make an announcement there as well (tip:  remember to make it worth their while to spread the word for you).

Monetization
Now that you have people going to your website, you just need to tweak your sales message for these people to give them their money in exchange for products or services that you are providing.

If you are not selling any product or service from your website or if your website is more information-based (ie. you are running a review site, a social networking site, your personal blog), then the only other thing you can sell is advertising space.

If you want to get started with selling advertising space right away, then I suggest you look into ad networks such as Google Adwords, AdBrite, text-link-ads, CPA networks (take a look at this report to learn more about CPA networks and how you can make money even without a website).  The role of these network is to bring publishers (that is you) and advertisers together.

Without joining ad networks you will need to “sell” your ad space to advertisers or wait for them to come to you to make an offer to buy your ad space.

—

Hopefully this article has provided an overview on how to make money with your website.

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Now, let’s about the basics.

See, there are several things to take care of before you can set up your website:

Domain
This is your web address for your site.  The .COM is the world’s most recognized TLD extention (TLD = Top Level Domain).  Good names are being snatched up everyday so you may wish to register your desired domain name soon.

Go to http://www.wholesalerdomains.com and start searching for your desired domain name:

Web Hosting
Ever wonder why a website shows up when you type in a domain name in your browser?  That’s because every domain “points” to a web host (basically just a server that is connected to the internet whose sole job is to delivery web pages upon request).  Therefore, a web host holds the pages for your website.  Without a web host, your domain will just be a domain.

Here are a few web hosting companies that I recommend and have personally used for years:

Hostgator ($3.96/month)

WholesalerDomains ($3.99/month)

Site5 ($4.95/month)

Web Site
The terms website and webpage are often interchanged in conversations, but we’d like to think that a website comprises of webpages.  There are many different types of websites that you can build, some examples are:

• A CMS (Content Management System) website that allows you to publish local news and articles.
• A personal or business blog website where it provides you the ability to publish posts/pages, moderate comments, change the settings, etc.
• An e-Commerce website that has an online catalog, a shopping cart application, and inventory control, etc.
• A forum website that provides a platform for your visitors to post messages and for you to administer/moderate posts, etc.
• A help desk website where you provide online trouble ticket system for your customers.
• An image gallery website that allows you (or even visitors to your site) to host photos and share photos.
• A project management website for your business to manage employee or outsourcing activities such as software collaboration.

The possibility and application of a website is only bounded by your imagination.

Now, you may think that there is no way in hell you are able to learn enough HTML (in fact, HTML is not what you need to learn) to be able to set up a website like the ones aforementioned.  Well, the good news, you really don’t!

The internet has evolved in such rapid pace that web design isn’t what it used to be 10 years ago where you must know HTML or server scripting to set up your own website.

When you purchase web hosting, you should be provided with an online control panel to your account where you are able to set up your own emails@yourdomain.com, check traffic statistics, and one-click install websites with a very nifty tool called Fantastico… Yes, one-click install!  Okay, maybe 2 clicks for some websites.

Many different types of websites (including ones that we have listed earlier) are included in the Fantastico tool that makes setting up a website a snap.  You can literally buy a domain name (available for usage immediately), get web hosting (set up is instant upon purchase as well), and launch your own blog, a newsletter site, or a full-blow e-Commerce website in matter of minutes.

Let’s walk you through the steps you need to take to set up a, say, an e-Commerce website using the OS Commerce script (an open source online catalog/shopping cart script) on our test domain iWindowShop.com

First, login to your control panel (in this demostration we have a cPanel control panel interface – a very popular web hosting control panel).  Once logged in as admin, scroll all the way down or find the Fantastico icon (the blue smiley face):

Click on the Fantastico icon and you should see a list of scripts that are categorized for different applications.  Scroll down just a bit until you see E-Commerce:

There are 3 popular open-source (meaning free) scripts that you will see for your e-Commerce website.  For this demonstration let’s use OS Commerce.  Clicking on that link will take us to the 1st of the 3 steps installation process:

Here it will ask that you fill in some essential information for your online store.  Once completed, just click on “Install OS Commerce” – simple, isn’t it?

On to step 2 of the installation which is basically a confirmation before it really gets installed.  Click on “Finish Installation” button will complete the installation process and your website will be up immediately!

To see the default install of the e-Commerce site just go visit http://iwindowshop.com/oscommerce_demo

As you can see, it didn’t take very long to set up your own fully functional e-Commerce website because the solution is all there for you!  Welcome to the new era of web development!

However, you may be disappointed that it doesn’t look the way you wanted it to be – fortunately for you there are many ready-made templates for OS Commerce script (in fact there will be many ready-made templates for almost all the popular open-source scripts in Fantastico).

Here are some very affordable OS Commerce templates by:

• Template Monster
• Template World

Generally speaking, there are 2 main component to any website – the presentation (aka template, theme, or layout), and the logic (aka the infrastructure, the back-end code, or the script that provides different functionality for the website).

Although open source movement has taken great strides, website owners will need to set themselves apart by customizing the presentation or even the functionality of the website.  And this is where your website gets expensive – anytime custom design or scripting is needed.  If you just use turnkey solutions or ready-made templates, well, guess what?  Your website will be just like everybody else’s and you lose the competitive edge!

Hopefully this article will convince you to get off the fence (for those of you still on the fence thinking how much this is all going to cost) to set up your own website – to at least try out some open-source scripts to see if it fits your particular application.

For business-minded dummies or lazy-ass dummies you are of course welcome to consult with us for free and get a quotation for custom web developement work.

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