True Business- real life for small businesses

Time for another dip into the world of helpful- and sometimes rather suspicious- web applications.

As it happens, I’m in the middle of re-writing the content for my website.

Actually, I’ve been re-writing the content for my website for the past six months. It’s one of those jobs I never seem to get round to- despite the fact that I profess to be a writer. (As a colleague said to me yesterday, the cobbler always has the worst shoes…)

Anyhow, writing the content for your website is something you have to do yourself. Perhaps with the help of an agency or creative friend, but broadly speaking there are no short cuts.

When it comes to building the site, though, there are loads of sneaky things you can do. I still believe that £500 spent in the company of a good web designer is money very well spent indeed, but there are plenty of online tools which will prevent your £500 becoming £5000. Here are just a few.

Wix: This service is still “in closed beta” which means you can’t get in to use it unless you’re fairly well connected. I bring it up here because it’s an example of the direction web creation is taking. It’s entirely online and promises gloriously colourful and interactive widgetry. It is Flash-based though so although it’s very glossy it may not be particularly search-engine friendly or accessible.

Office Live: Gets a mention because it’s a) free and b) has loads of rather nifty features. Sign up for your free domain name or you can move across a domain you already own. Then you can pretty much get started building your own website straight away. It’s not entirely straight-forward (these things never are) but a bit of perseverance could see you putting up for own web site within a few hours. This article from our sponsors might be useful.

Also worth a look is Office Live Workspaces, an extremely cool new Beta service which lets you upload Office documents to a ‘workspace’ on the internet which you and other people you are working with can access and edit. It’s not a web site building tool but it’s another great example of the new (and usually free) online services which are springing up on the internet and are a real boon for small businesses.

Demofuse: If there’s one thing which holds a website back, it’s boredom. Giving your website some interactivity is well worth it. Demofuse solves the boredom problem whilst helping users find what they want on your site- thanks to simple interactive demos. Neat, sweet and free. Bubbleguru is a similar tool- which I found faintly scary for some reason (so you’re bound to click and have a look, right?

Feedtwister: Wouldn’t it be nice to have feeds of current and interesting information appear on your site? All fresh and regularly updated? Feedtwister mixes your favourite news and information feeds and pops them into a configurable box on your website. Apparently. You see, there is a copyright issue here. Most providers of content are very happy for you to use their headlines, so long as each includes a link back. But this is still a legal grey area, and in any case, do you really want your hard-earned readers leaving your site to go somewhere else? Use tools like this carefully- for example perhaps to pop your own blog headlines onto your website.

Formspring: This is one of a crop of tools which simplify the creation of online forms. Forms are notoriously hard to produce if you don’t have any web skills, and they can also look about as inviting as a banana skin. Better graphics and smarter logic can make forms more personable and enjoyable. Jotform is a worthy alternative, too.