Website101 Small Business Ecommerce Tutorial Online

WebSite101 is a basic training for operating a small business online in the manner of a beginning college course. It is designed as a valuable tutorial for small business and entrepreneurial minds online. We offer resources to learn how to get established online with those great ideas, but without great funding.

It is our goal to remove the mystery and confusion from web business to allow entrepreneurs to get past the hurdles of understanding the technology and how to use it to gain funding, exposure and visibility in the very crowded world of eBusiness.

The idea for an eCommerce tutorial and training came from firsthand experience in overcoming the confusion of internet terms, the multitude of confusing resources and difficulty understanding the basics of marketing and visibility online.

Very few places online offer a comprehensive basic coverage of what is necessary to establish a small business on the web. The goal of WebSite101 is to discuss the steps required to get a start in online business for entrepreneurs and home businesses. The first step is often a domain name to represent that small business.

Mike Banks Valentine is the founder of the site and continues to maintain and update the resource as the rapid development of the internet continually changes the landscape of this new territory. Definitions of terms, webmaster and small business resources, a weekly ezine emphasizing business techniques online and an email "short-course" are available to help those launching a new business on the web. He is also a recognized expert on Home Office and Microbusiness issues as a columnist at small business portals across the web.

Entrepreneur Magazine has called WebSite101 a valuable " . . . resource that gathers together a plethora of useful links for builders, plus a grab bag of spiffy tools, including a free banner-ad generator and a free small-business e-commerce tutorial that's delivered by e-mail."

Offering the material necessary to get an overall understanding of operating a small business on the web for those who need to understand how the many elements come together to establish a working web site.

We maintain an archive of valuable material in the form of over 150 articles on doing business in an online library. In addition, over 400 articles throughout the site make up the tutorial that is WebSite101.

Operating a small business online need not fit the stereotypical role of "get rich quick" but may merely offer a reasonable method of earning a living online from home or a small office. WebSite101 offers a broad knowledge base to draw from for all businesses to develop a web presence if they don't have massive funding and brilliant ideas. The internet is definitely a place you can "do-it-yourself" and succeed, if not with record-breaking IPO's, at least on a personal level.

A comprehensive overview of terms, resources and ideas to create and maintain a small business on the web. WebSite101 serves 10,000 visitors per month and continues to provide new resources and information to returning "students" in the article archive onsite. Students can fill in the gaps in their understanding and get a toe-hold, or start in a small business with the information provided. The ideas presented are put forward in a form that is understandable and clear to those without computer background or knowledge.

There is a lighthearted and fun approach to using technology that bypasses all of the "tech-talk" and geek language of computer users in favor of metaphorical and simple illustrations of the value of computers and technology.

Requests for the online course average between 200 and 500 monthly and membership to WebSite101 continues to climb with newsletter subscriptions which reflect a growing interest in doing business online.

The project began as a resource for clients to answer frequently asked questions about the process of establishing and maintaining a business online.

We've also put together a short Privacy Tutorial and have written multiple articles advocating privacy online, which are in our permanent archives on site. Financial support was the biggest barrier as the site was meant to be a resource to those with questions.