There is also the option of trying to build the website yourself without involving a professional.

You might be tempted to try and tackle this project yourself in an effort to reduce costs, or you might know of a cousin and brother-in-law who once built a website and could probably design one for you for a six pack and couple of hundred bucks.

Unless you are (or your relative is) an experienced, competent website designer, and can stand up to the criteria you have outlined earlier, we would recommend that you go to a professional.

 Homemade websites always look homemade, and your market will spot this right away.

There is however an alternative to design your website using a self-build software. There are a number of self-build software solutions available nowadays and they provide an enormous amount of flexibility in both design and management of your site.

Most self-build companies provide a no obligation free trial which will allow you to build your site and test out their systems. Feel free to try these out and see if they achieve the desired effect.

There are downsides to using a self-build software to design your website:

1. A self-build site provides limited features and design, so you can only design within the specifications of the software itself.
2. Unless you go for the more expensive solutions, your website design might very well look tacky and unprofessional.
3. A self-build site will never look quite as good as a professionally designed website.

Having said this, with enough effort and passion, there is no doubt that you can turn your self-build site into a formidable online presence and in time, these software systems are only going to get more powerful.

See below for a list of reputable self-build website design companies:

http://www.exactwebsites.com
http://www.solobuild.com
http://www.web.com/