Putting Your Small Business on the Web

Putting Your Small Business on the Web explains to owners and managers of small businesses (say, those with fewer than 25 employees) what is involved in publishing a company Web site. Mostly, it's about how to get a Web presence--although it does explain a bit about how the site can serve customers after hours and help bring in new business--so that it focuses mostly on the products and services that you'll need to do just that.

All of your options are discussed, even those that might seem obviously inappropriate to someone with more Web publishing experience; for example, what you need if you want to operate a Web server on your own premises, and why that's not a good idea for most small businesses. You also get realistic estimates of how much all of this is going to cost you. Occasionally, a petty factual error pops up (FTP is File Transport Protocol, not File Transfer Protocol), but it's a small issue. Besides, this isn't a technical how-to book: it's an explanation of what you need, where you should look for it, what you should expect to pay, and what your site should be able to do as a result. --David Wall

Topics covered: Web publishing for small businesses: why build a Web site in the first place, what features to specify in your design, how to host your site, how to select and work with a designer, options for monitoring activity on your site, registering your site with search engines, and writing pages yourself (both at the code level and by using design tools).