You don't need a website to make money but it's definitely good to have one. Anyway, you don't need a complex designed website to make money. A simple one-page website will do. It's simple, you don't have to be a web designer to create one. Check this site out..it's FREE and have over a hundred templates you can use. Build Your Own Website With My Free Website Builder Now - 100% FREE Download!.

Hope this helps.

No you do not need a professionally designed website to make money, however in most cases it does help with the marketing of any product. A well presented website reflects on the business and product. Many that cannot afford a paid site setup use an affiliates site.

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I agree with craigslist guy, also I believe that you enjoy it more if you build your own site, because you are learning at the same time.

A rather humorous yet highly enlightening Hub has just been created to answer this question - turn old hat e-books into viral websites!
Ebook obituary

I may reproduce the Hub on the forum but be first to see it.

An example of a dynamic website is here (careful - it opens with a bang).
Myvzine

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While it's good to have a professional looking website, I know a lot of people who don't have the best looking website but have mastered driving herds of traffic to their website or blog site. Regardless what the site looks like if you don't have a constant flow of web traffic you won't be very successful. I recommend that if you have a website or blog now that you constantly tweek it for improvements but don't let that be your main focus. Learn how to have an Internet Traffic Stampede to your site or blog FREE!

I do agree that you need to drive traffic, but if the visitors land on a bag of sheite, the traffic will flow away again. The two important factors go hand in hand....Yes you must also make a dynamic website to convert your traffic!

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Create dynamic "free" websites that convert and video skins that are unique!
http://www.myvzine.com

My first impression of a Web site that is selling some product or service is the overall appearance of the site. If it's clean and easy on the eyes and easy to navigate, then I'll stick around for a little longer. Then, if the writing is coherent and there are no spelling or grammar errors, or broken links, I'll stay even longer. At that point, I assess what the company is about and may or may not stay.

So to me first impressions are a way of filtering out sites that don't meet the "professional" standard.

It all depends on what you are marketing. It's becoming easier these days for an amateur to create a professional looking website, so as long as your website is clear and unobtrusive you might just be ok. How about a little more information. What is that website for and what strategy are you taking in its creation?

It is true that the product you promote is the most important issue in making money online and ugly websites do make conversions BUT consider the importance of split testing!

Find a good product that is not saturated in the market with competition, then create a bare bones sales page site with squeeze page and opt in email form, leading to a 'one time offer' page for a higher ticket upsell.

Next up. create a web 2.0 site which includes video presentation of the product in addition to your opt in form.

Now you have two site versions to promote on classified ad sites, doubling your product exposure. The trick then is to evaluate which site is making the most conversions.

Regular tweaking of each sites content is good SEO when added to external links, but more importantly, you can evaluate the best performer, than concentrate all your efforts onto the winner.

My own evaluation is that bare boned text is still performing but the pendulum is swinging towards web 2.0.

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Create dynamic "free" websites that convert and video skins that are unique!
http://www.myvzine.com

Well, split testing would be a good way to answer the question. I think that in internet marketing there is lots of room for business owners to do this type of research, because they are paving the way to how online business is done in the future.

I don't think you really need a professionally-made site, but it would be ideal to have a professional-looking one, just because sloppy or amateur sites can deter potential clients (though not always, if the product shines). But that's my opinion, like it's been said, the only way to really gauge the difference is to study it yourself.