This is a two part article to help accounting firms get themselves online in
the most cost effective manner. Many businesses are doing it tough and no
one wants their profits gobbled up by technology that doesn't deliver a return.

In Part One we covered the benefits of giving your practice an online presence
and in this part we'll explore your service options. (Read Part 1 first...)

It can be challenging to figure out which web construction tool and hosting
provider is the right one for you. So we've done the hard work for you.

Below are the 5 most popular solutions to build and host a FREE,
yet professional website for your firm:

Google Sites (sites.google.com)

Google is typically known for user-friendly products. All you'll need to get you started is a Google email account. With Google Sites you can quickly create public and private web sites more easily than with its previous generation of services. It offers a good selection of professional templates to customise. However, when you use the themes, you may end up with a large Google logo at the top. Google Sites integrated with other Google products and services such as AdWords, Analytics, Apps and Gadgets. FAQs and tutorials are freely available to help, should you get stuck. Once the site is created it is live and can be edited at any time.

Pros: Easy to use website builder. No adverts in your web pages. No domain needed. Simple interface. Lots of gadgets to add to your pages. Saves previous versions of your site. 1GB of storage per site.

Cons: Cannot use a custom domain name. Gadgets and Apps can be buggy. Big Google logo at the top of all your pages if you use the theme option.

Weebly (www.weebly.com)

Weebly uses an easy drag & drop website editor - videos, pictures, maps, and text are added by simply dragging them to your website. This makes building a website surprisingly straight forward - no HTML or technical skills required. You can use your own domain, one of their sub-domains or get them to register one on your behalf. Built-in tools will generate graphs of your website traffic and statistics. Weebly offers 70+ professional templates to customise to your liking, along with comprehensive FAQs to help you get started. Sign up for the standard free account and you are only entitled to build a couple of sites without paying.

Pros: Good and easy to use website builder for novices. Ad-free pages. Large selection of templates.

Cons: No FTP to upload many files to a database.

WordPress (www.wordpress.org)

In contrast with its competitor products, WordPress requires you to download & install the website editor to your local machine, instead of performing all the functions online. This supplies you with a Media Library to keep images and files organised. Reading the supplied documentation will help you find your way around the software, however it does seem a bit more geared towards blogging and forums. If you are tech-savvy and enjoy more control over the backend and love using plug-ins, this may well be the product for you.

Yola (www.yola.com)

"Yola brings website building to the rest of us: Small businesses. Groups and organisations. Non-profits. Your Aunt Martha. The guy in the next cube. Everyone." Well said. You can build a beautiful website in minutes. Online reviews indicate many happy customers who report the features more than sufficient. Customer support is responsive. The free account is limited to 5 website, sub-domains and a good selection of business templates. A selection of short video tutorials will get you confident with the system in no time.

Pros: Easy to use website builder. No adverts in your pages. 1GB of storage per site.

Cons: Yola's page editor is quite limited and rickety at times. HTML knowledge could be useful.

Webs (www.webs.com)

Webs is currently one of the globe's most popular site builders. You can customise one of 300 templates to create a unique look or completely develop a new site from scratch. It allows you to upload all your images to a picture gallery with albums and editing tools. The free version is capped on bandwidth, so may not be ideal for lots of downloads. You can use Clicky Web Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to see the statistics of visitors and what they have clicked on. The starter pack is a cost effective plan with a great variety of premium templates and generous allowances for bandwith, storage and support.

Pros: Easy to use website builder

Cons: adverts on the free account, 40 MB storage.

Every firm's website will have slightly different requirements. If you are still unsure about which provider would be the best for you, give them a try - these services are free, so why not!

If you find that you're online needs should change over time, these providers all offer a low cost subscription that gives you access to more storage and features for around $4 per month (not free, but close enough).