Depending on your site's purpose in life, you may need few or many tools in order to make your online business venture work. First, ask yourself these questions:
1. Are you going to design your site yourself?
If so, you'll need:* experience and /or training in Web design (unless you go with the template or wizard-based tools that many all-inclusive services offer)
* a good computer with plenty of RAM (128 Mb and up) and hard drive space (6 GB minimum)
* web design software -- either WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) or a text editor (if you know html)
* a scanner or digital camera -- for product or service photos
* image editing software
* illustration software to create graphics
* FTP software for uploading files to your Web site
2. Are you going to sell products from your site?
If so, you'll need:* a merchant account -- or some way to accept payments
* shopping cart software -- or some other way for shoppers to enter and keep up with their orders
* secure servers if you're accepting credit card payment or other personal payment information online
* software (or other process) to keep track of inventory and orders
3. Do you have a large number of products or services that need listing on your Web site?
If so, you'll need:* a database of product names, descriptions, pricing, and photos
* a system for establishing product numbers
* a system for inventory management
* technical know-how in incorporating the database into your Web site
4. Does your product or service require sound, video or animations?
If so, you'll need:* equipment to capture video and/or audio
* software for editing your video and/or audio clips
* software (and training) to create animations
* a broad-band Internet connection (helpful, but not absolutely necessary)
* or, a resource to whom you can farm these out
Regardless of how you answered the above questions, you'll need a computer with a good Internet connection for e-mailing and maintaining your site.
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