So you’ve got a terrific idea for a website, or your business needs an online presence, or you want to start and command your own personal VRE (virtual real estate) empire. The stark reality will soon become clear: you actually need to build the website!

So in essence, the primary tool you need to employ first in building your website lies between your ears! Think first long and hard about whether or not you have the skills, time, patience and creativity required to construct a good looking and fully functional website.

While there are plenty of tools available, some even residing within your web hosting account, that can help you get a site up and on the Web, whether it can or will do what you need are questionable. Many of these WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web editors are just fine for a basic site, and with a fairly short learning curve you (or someone you designate) can get the job done.

You may even opt to create your site with a self-hosted WordPress blog, which is even easier and can get you better results with less time and effort. WordPress, with its extreme versatility and myriad number of plugins, offers a terrific platform for your site or blog, or blogsite! There are thousands of themes (templates) available to give your site the type of look you’re seeking, and it is a very cost-effective solution.

Another well traveled road to a nice looking and efficient site is through the use of a commercial web site builder. One of the more popular ones these days is known as XSitePro. This software and a few similar ones offer the best of both worlds–the ability to edit with WYSIWYG editors at a highly functional level, thus rendering a nice site in mere minutes.

For the purists among us, there are programs like DreamWeaver and Microsoft FrontPage which can help you author your web pages in html, php, or any fashion you choose. These programs can do almost anything you require, and are often the choice of web developers and site designers. However know that there is a steep learning curve associated with programs of this type, and it will be some time before you see your baby online.

Finally, you can outsource the building of your site or sites. There are many people seeking freelance work in this area, both in the US and abroad. You can find someone who will deliver you a top-notch product in no time at all, for a cost you’ll have a hard time believing. This is definitely the choice for the less technically-oriented among us, or those who simply want to focus on aspects of your business only you can do. You can find people who are seeking this type of work on sites like DigitalPoint, Sitepoint, Odesk, and Elance.

There are a number of ways to get your website built. Make sure to choose the one that affords you the best return on your time, money and sanity!