You have 3 basic options for building your web site, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Site Building Option 1: Hire a Web Site Designer
Although I do believe in using designers to produce quality header graphics for your site, I am strongly against hiring a web site designer to build your whole site, and here's why.
You may spend $1000 or more to have a site designed, and there is no guarantee that you will be completely satisfied with the results.
You are also at the mercy of the designer's availability to revise or update your site. This poses a major drawback to content publishing affiliates who should regularly add new articles and products to their sites.
Imagine how disappointed you would be to miss an opportunity to promote a super deal because you couldn't get in touch with your webmaster?
For example, if a merchant contacted you with a REALLY good time-limited offer that you had to get out to your customers right away; you don't have time to wait until your web designer returns your phone call, or comes back from his 3-week vacation.
Then, when he does finally get in touch, you will have to EXPLAIN where to get the graphics, the page you want it posted on, and so on and so forth.
Blah, blah, BLAH!
Missed opportunities mean lost revenue, so let's look at a better option for building your site.
Site Building Option 2: Use a Web Site Builder
Web-based site builders give you more control over your site's design and maintenance than having a web designer build it for you, but without the need to build your site ‘from scratch'.
Some site builders are in fact total ecommerce packages that include credit card processing, built-in affiliate program management systems, free domain name registration, email accounts, autoresponders, market research tools and more.
As such, a web site builder such as SBI! may be an excellent option for many new webmasters and affiliate marketers. This is especially true for those who prefer to have all the services available to them in one package for a set monthly or yearly price.
One limitation to site builders is that they don't help you learn web site building basics like HTML link coding, which I believe is absolutely essential if you intend to build a business.
So, for those who want total control over their websites, there really is only ONE option, and that is to do it yourself.
Don't panic, I'm won't suggest that you do it ALL yourself — there are in fact many helpful tools available to make the DIY option very attractive…
Site Building Option 3: Build Your Own Website
Back in the days of yore when we walked 5 miles through 4 foot deep snow to and from… Oh, wait, that's another story!
Back in 1998, when I was starting out, there weren't many professional web designers around for hire, so I learned how to build my own HTML pages from scratch using Notepad.
In general, sites at that time looked awful and my 101Date.com site was certainly no exception, with spinning globes, blinking banners, yellow fonts on a black background and other such horrors.
But I kept learning and upgrading to new and better tools as they became available. Moreover, I have fun building my sites and best of all, I am able do what needs to be done WHEN it needs to be done.
Fortunately for you, the site building options and tools available now make building your own website pretty darned easy by comparison.
For example, RosalindGardner.com now uses just a WordPress blog which is basically a ‘content management system'.
To start your own website using either WordPress, you will need to first register a domain name and arrange for web hosting. I currently recommend BlueHost, as it offers cPanel hosting and your domain registration is included in the price.