RIVERSIDE, CA August 4, 2004 - Historically, small business owners have had a limited number of options to choose from when it comes to the development of an on-line presence, says Pat Spinelli, owner of The Web Site Tutor, a Riverside, California 1. web site design and training firm.

According to Spinelli, Until now, small Southern California business owners have had two choices. They have had to out-source the development of their web sites to a professional or sign up with a hosting company offering free on-line templates. If they have an unlimited source of funds and the need for a dynamic, interactive site, outsourcing is definitely their best bet.

Entrepreneurs who are working with limited funds, however, have a need to look at less costly alternatives, she says.

Until now the only real alternatives to costly outsourcing have been on-line templates, she says, but most on-line templates have three major drawbacks. To use them one has to sign up for a years hosting at three to four times the ordinary cost, most templates offer limited functionality, and most cannot be optimized for search engines without a knowledge of HTML."

The Web Site Tutor offers an interesting alternative. We believe we are the first company in Southern California to offer on-site tutorials and on-going marketing assistance which can save undercapitalized business ventures not only a great deal of money but provide them with a far greater degree of control and flexibility, she says.

According to Spinelli, web design is childs play. We can teach anyone who is reasonably computer literate how to design a functional web site in four hours or less and at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing, she says.

Building a functional site, however, is only the beginning of the process. According to Spinelli, A well designed site has to be optimized as it is built and that is probably the most important part of our training program.

All too often, small business owners hire someone to design a web site, get their sites marginally optimized and then registered with search engines. And the process ends there because they have been led to believe that this is all that needs to be done to build a successful on-line business.

Successful sites are driven by on-going promotional campaigns that go beyond these essentials," she said.

We keep our clients abreast of the latest promotional strategies that will drive traffic to their sites both in the near and long term," she continues.

Before business owners spend a penny on a web site, Spinelli recommends they review 10 key questions designed to help budding entrepreneurs decide whether a web site is a wise investment. See Key Questions.

The Web Site Tutors tutorial program carries a no risk guarantee. After the company's initial tutorial session and 30 days thereafter, if a business owner decides to abandon the in-house development process, they will take over the site and credit the cost of training to its completion.

At the present time The Web Site Tutors tutorial services are restricted to Southern California. They start with a four-hour training session and are followed by 30 days of on-going technical and marketing support.