I'm one with Sid's idea. Wordpress is easy to begin with, and looks decent too. However, if your business targets fancy audience, then a fancy layout would be essential in captivating their eyes. Just make sure not to go overboard, as it would affect the loading time of your page dramatically.

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Of course the most impjrtant role plays what product you are promoting. But I know that a lot of people are attracted by beautiful design and they will be more interested in well designed sites.

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You don't need a professionally designed website to make money online, though it will be good if you have one.
the most important thing you need to have so as to make money online is targeted internet traffic. period!!

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no, try free css templates, some smart looking designs on there, you can make them your own with a little work

Any website the is well organized, easy to navigate and read is considered professional in my book. Lots of flashy ads, weird colors that make it hard to read and poor content is what makes it unprofessional.

Think of your site this way, if you took everything off your site except for the words, would it be interesting? Would it hold attention and is it compelling?

A good product, well written sales letter, worthwhile content are all things that make your site professional, and successful.

I don't recommend spending a lot of money on having a site designed by someone that advertises creating a professionally designed or developed website. Do it yourself keeping the above tips in mind and you'll do fine. In fact I would simply create a Wordpress.org blog. It's free with the exception of hosting it yourself and getting a domain name, but that's minimal in cost.

You could get a professionally made header graphic but for the most part that's it, your site will be professional.

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Yes having a nice website is great and can build impressions of your business. But I must say that a nice looking site that has no visitors means no profit.

If people on the web do not know that you are out there, then a professional looking site means nothing to you as a internet marketer.

Solve the problem and get as much traffic to your site as possible.

Yes i agree. The site doesn't need to be professional looking and still make money if they have lots of visitors and compelling sales letter and also high conversion rate.

These answers are similar to the direct mail world. In real estate investing, for example, it's been shown that black Courier text on a plain white postcard outperforms fancy, multi-color designs sometimes 6 to 1. Simple still works.

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Content is the key, as great content and demand for the product can usually overcome bad design. But design is important though, especially typography. Great typography helps a site's readability. Increased readability means more gets read. The more that gets read, the better. If there are two elements that you'll want to learn about with design, it's typography, and usability.

Everything associated with design, even add placement, falls into one of those two categories. A stark white web site, with good typography and a few well placed adds can do very well. There are only two things for your eyes to look at, which are text and advertisements

If both are compelling you're on to something.

The great thing about Wordrpess is you can achieve great, typography, and excellent usability with a totally free theme, or one that costs very little from themeforest.net.

A website is your presence on the web, So i think it is imperative that you have a webpage or website.
You do not have to spend mega bucks on getting an all singing all dancing site.