A recurring conversation I have had recently is around very small non-technical Irish businesses having a web presence. I do a lot of Tech-Checks for the Cork CEBs and I continue to be surprised by how many of these businesses are invisible online.

One of the reasons for this may be that companies still think it costs a lot of money to have a web-site and non eircom.net email addresses. And there are still gougers out there charging people €2k for a simple off-the-shelf brochure site with stock graphics.

Jim Flynn of MTS Consulting in Innishannon is a perfect example of someone who realised that his business could be helped with a simple web-site, a basic blog, his own email domain and a LinkedIn profile. For very little money he got his site built via one of the online broker sites like Elance/RentACoder/ODesk etc. He can now be found using the default method for a lot of people (Google!).

When the total investment in getting an online presence is now in the very low three figures, there is simply no argument for even the tiniest business not having a web-site.

If you are a little bit technical you could even do it for less as follows:

• Get a .com domain with the cheapest hosting package at somewhere like GoDaddy for $46 per year, giving you 5 GB Space, 500 Email Accounts, Forums, Blogging, Photos
• Use an online service like Synthasite to create a simple site very easily with info about what your company is and how to contact you
• Upload that design to your webhost
• Done!
• Total cost = $46