How to Create a Professional Web Site in 24 Hours

By Michael Simmons, Entrepreneur.com

While creating a Web site may seem like a difficult, time-intensive and expensive process, it's actually possible to have a professional site up and running in less than 24 hours for under $50 with little to no prior Web development experience.

And whether your business sells products or services, you can use a Web site to increase your revenue and reduce your start-up costs. While you're at school, your Web site can take orders, answer common customer questions and introduce potential prospects to your business, among many other possibilities. For example, Ryan Allis, a 19-year-old entrepreneur now attending the University of North Carolina, was able to successfully create and market a Web site that sold a product that helps people with arthritis. As a result of his efforts, his company was able to generate more than $1 million in sales by the time Allis was seventeen years old.

If you're interested in taking your company to the next level with a Web site, simply follow the three easy steps below:

1. Register a domain name. The first step in creating a Web site is choosing a Web address where your site visitors will be able to find you, such as yourbusinessname.com. '.com' is the most common ending for a for-profit business, while '.org' is the most common ending for a non-profit business. When choosing a domain name, it's most common to use your business, product or service name or a variation of it as the address. You can register your domain name for under $10 per year at GoDaddy.com.