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Only about 50 percent of small businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 10 employees have Websites. Yet, with eight out of 10 people in the country spending as much time online as watching television, having an active Web presence can be an important marketing tool. Indeed, many business owners or homeowners search for electrical contracting services or electrical supplies only online. If you are not there, you won't get an invitation to bid or quote.

Creating a Website yourself is no longer a daunting process. With the help of a couple of affordable software solutions, you can easily develop and maintain a website and take advantage of various online marketing techniques, including posting your own mini-infomercials on YouTube.

The suite of Web-based software and services Microsoft Office Live Small Business 2.0 (www.officelive.com), released earlier this year, offers free Web site hosting, free services and several design capabilities that will guide and aid you in creating a professional looking Website. The program includes custom domain name registration with 100 business e-mail accounts, each with 5 GB of storage. Custom domains are free for a year and $14.95 annually after that.

The software features several business applications, including a contact management application for performing basic customer relationship management; Team Workspace, for posting documents and information you'd like to access remotely or share with employees, customers or business partners in a password-protected environment; and Document Manager, which can serve as an online repository of documents, photos and other data.

Adobe Premiere Elements 4 conversion video-editing software (www.adobe.com) enables users to take digital photos and/or video clips, attach identifying keywords (tags) to the photo or clip, and turn out a polished movie in a surprisingly short time and then post it online.

Using the software, there are two easy ways to put together a video – using a timeline or a sceneline. The sceneline method is easy and actually fun.

The screen is divided into three work spaces. A thumbnail display of the media clips (photos or videos) you want to work fill most of the right side of the screen. Getting them there was just a process of drag and drop. Once they are up there, you can rearrange the order or delete any scene with just a couple of clicks.