Low-cost no-brainer websites for small firms

Internet service provider 1&1 has just launched a low-cost website creation service for micro-businesses.

Aimed at companies with five or less employees that lack the resources or know-how to design their own websites, the 1&1 MyBusiness Site offers intelligent template-based sites tailored to over 100 small business sectors.

The service costs £9.99 (ex. VAT) per month, with no set-up fee, and includes a free .uk domain and 10 email addresses. There are no limits on web pages or traffic.

The websites include feedback forms, location maps, product catalogues and photo galleries where relevant, but do not yet include e-commerce facilities. That should be available in future versions of the product, 1&1 chief executive Oliver Mauss told a press briefing.

A five-day free trial is available to anyone with no need to register any payment details. During the signup process, a series of questions about your business are used to create the initial website from a large template library.

These designs can be easily modified later using simplified web-based tools, and pages are pre-filled with editable boilerplate text. The whole focus of the product is on ease of use, with technical details kept to a minimum.

With this new product, 1&1 is trying to tap into the vast market of almost 4.5m UK businesses with between 0-9 employees (2007 data).