While the recession has slowed spending on the high street, the growth in internet sales has actually increased and continues to increase.

1&1 Internet’s recent survey indicated that in the past nine years UK shoppers have spent an estimated £200 billion online, rising from £0.8 billion in 2000 to an estimated £43.8 billion last year! It is estimated that by 2020, 90% of transactions will either be web-based or influenced by the internet.

It is therefore essential for any start up business to have it’s own website, and there are a number of different options to consider, many at a surprisingly low cost, although this obviously depends on whether you need a one pager, an ecommerce site, or an “internet village” such as Funky Angel, plus whether you can, or are prepared, to put the time in yourself, and whether you want it tailored for you or are happy to have it 'off the peg'.

1. Basic static website
Designed for you and updated only occasionally these are great if you just need a holding page – perhaps with a single ebook for sale, for example, or because you simply need a web presence for your service, much like a calling card.

The designer simply creates a ‘front end’ for you and this is applied to your web space. Your website space will normally come as part of your package when you buy your domain name, else you can use someone else’s webspace – your designer will almost certainly have a preferred list, or ask us for recommendations.

2. Off-the-shelf/in-a-box website
This will provide you with a small online website which you can easily edit yourself. It works with a tool you download, or a special webpage that you can use to set-up your site.

This is probably the cheapest option, although the different systems do vary greatly from the swish and easy to use through to the clonky and restrictive.

Cost: basic 20-page site compiled by you £30-£150 per annum.

3. Blog site
Blog software has come on a long way since the early days, and you can now use many of their custom made applications and widgets to make your site more bespoke. They are easy to use and edit, and also immediately ‘searchable’ since you are part of an already-established community. However, for more flexibility and a tailor-made appearance, you may want to look at having it designed and hosted by a specialist.

Cost: basic site designed, compiled and edited by you or a.n.other from £0-£300 per annum

4. Customised website
Your website is designed for you, and then you are given access to a private area where you have the ability to edit the content within those templates. It's a really useful solution if you want to update your site frequently, which is bst for search engine optimisation. This option is typically offered by independent website design companies and is based on a technology called a Content Management System (CMS).

Cost: Set-up costs from £500 and monthly subscriptions of £15-£50.

5. Bespoke site
Hand coded just for you, and hopefully either by you or by a friend, and then maintained on a 'friend rate' or by yourself, this is the best option if you want something original or complicated. If it can be based on a site that the designer has already coded and you know enough html to update it yourself, then it needn't be prohibitive.

Cost: From £0 to £2,000 for average-sized site.

6. E-commerce sites
Sites where you can sell an assortment of products via a shopping cart online are generally fairly costly to set up and time consuming and expensive to run, so make sure that your business plan includes those costs in full, else it'll be a an expensive 'bellyflop'!

Think about the photographs and whether these are simply products shots or 'liefstyle' shots, think about the sales text - does it exist already, is it optimised, do you need that to be written?

Think about the time required to set up the product pages with pictures and text, and whether you will need to pay someone  to do this for you.

Think about the ongoing effort required to maintain and run your store. Be aware of the legal requirements surrounding e-commerce, such as the Data Protection laws and PCI Compliance regulations.

And if you have no idea on any of the above, just a damn fine business or fabulous products you want to take online, that's ok, just make sure you talk to people who do, such as other ecommerce business owners, website designers or host companies, and most importantly, us at the The Funky Agency, before you make the jump and possibly waste a lot of money and time!