Wrong, wrong, wrong! Creating a web page requires equipment no more exotic than a simple text editor or wordprocessor. Simple Text (on the Mac) or NotePad (on Windows) are great HTML editors. At the Web Diner, we can walk you through putting up your first web page in less than an hour in our Beginning HTML classes.

Don't let yourself be buffaloed by all the Web "shoulds" and "shouldn't"s. We firmly believe that even if you plan on eventually hiring a professional, knowing a little HTML will go a long ways towards understanding the power and limitations of the medium.

Two: It's easy to make lots of money on the Internet.

Sorry to puncture this balloon, but the Web gold rush is over. There were a lot of high hopes for retail sales and subscription web sites a year or two ago. The truth is, making money on the Web requires ingenuity, great marketing, a specialized niche product, and luck. People are still reluctant to order products over the Web, and only a few mainstream subscription web sites are making themselves pay yet.

The good news is that sales isn't the only reason to have a web site. Here are some great reasons to put up a web site:

1. Offer your customers immediate news, feedback, or updates about your product
2. Put up a guestbook! We're shocked at how much great feedback we get through our own guestbook.
3. If you put up a web site, and publicize it, we can guarantee you'll be able to network with other people in your business that you would have never met otherwise.
4. With a web site, you can offer information and news about your company, your goals and objectives, and your achievements. You can use humor, contests, timely news, related links, helpful information to build content and traffic to your site.

Wait! Come back here! The job isn't finished yet! Just as you had to work to publicize your business when you first started it, you must also work to publicize your web site. Yes, there are web robots that scour the Web looking for sites to index, but you still need to initiate the search by submitting your URL to the search engines. It can take several weeks for your URL to be added: the current wait to be added to Yahoo, for instance, is about 6-10 weeks. It's often more time consuming to publicize your URL thoroughly than it is to build the web site in the first place, and it's just as critical to your web success.

We suggest by starting at Submit-It (http://www.submit-it.com) and then moving on to anywhere and everywhere you can publicize your URL. We have a list of places at the Web Diner, along with some other great tutorials that will help you add your link to search engines.

Four: Great graphics, Java, or the latest hip, slick, cool technology is more important than good content on a web site.

Yeah, and as long as you keep your car washed an polished it will run fine - forget about the gas and oil stuff, right? Wrong. Content is what drives the Web. Think you don't have anything to say? Think again. If you have a business, you have a specialized knowledge and passion about what ever your business is. The Web is a great place for tutorials, informal columns, tips and tricks. Get creative!

Imagine that you walk into a store, only to be greeted by a sign that says: "You must be at least five feet tall, have 20/20 vision, and please remove your shoes to enter this store." Any time you use technology that requires further work on the part of the viewer, or requires a particular browser, you are effectively shutting web visitors out. Think, instead, about using technology that is stable (forms, CGI, etc) or offering two versions of a web page if you do decide to use technology that requires a plugin.

Five: The Internet will create a society of Web addicts who never communicate with each other.

Browsing the Web is not a passive activity. The Web invites, not discourages, communication, and your web site should exploit that facet of the medium. One of the most active areas of our web site at http://www.mccannas.com is the "Ask the Graphics Oracle", where people submit their graphics questions and Laurie answers them. Make liberal use of guestbooks, mailto: links, and any other way you can to increase interactivity and involvement.

Six: If you can't make money on the Internet, there's no reason to put up a business web site.

Wrong again! Think of all of the information you can distribute to your customers, instantly and globally. You can receive and send information, gather feedback, offer downloadable files, pictures of your product, and much more on the Web. Experiment, get inventive, and explore the possibilities.

Seven: If you offer secure transactions, customers will feel comfortable using them.

There's still a hesitancy to send credit card information via the Web, despite the fact that it's just as risky or even more risky to send credit card info over the phone, or even in person. How well do you know that waiter you hand your VISA to at the restaurant, after all? Because of media coverage, the Web has acquired a threatening association in many people's minds.

It's best, therefore, to always offer a second way to submit an order from a web site. Give an 800 phone number, or a fax number for your customers to use.

Eight: It's best to hire someone to do everything on your web site for you.

We beg to differ with this conventional wisdom. You should learn at least a little about HTML and the Web before you hire someone to create your web site. You'll have a much better understanding of what you'd like to include on your web site, and you'll be able to communicate that more clearly when you hire someone. You may also find that you really enjoy creating your own web pages, too!

Nine: If you use an HTML Editor (like PageMill, Hot Dog, etc.) you don't need to know HTML.

Whoops! Was that an error you made? How will you fix it if you have no knowledge of HTML? We do advise that everyone learns at least a little HTML for this reason. You do need a rudimentary understanding of the basic HTML tags to be able to troubleshoot any problems you have.

Ten: The Web is a fad that will pass.

We don't doubt that the Web will look very, very different in five years than it does right now. Everyone keeps waiting for the growth of the Web to level off, but it hasn't happened yet.