Easy Does It?

We've all seen them: low-quality Internet stores, featuring cluttered pages and product photographs that make your mom's 1974 Polaroids look good. With embarrassments like these on the Web, building your own online store can be a scary task.

This is precisely why many entrepreneurs turn to storefront-building programs to get their online stores up and running. McKinnon Baxter, for instance, was able to create a storefront for his ComfortChannel.com ergonomic furniture Web site using Yahoo!'s store-building interface. "After doing my research, I found that Yahoo! was the easiest way to start," explains Baxter, founder of Bozeman, Montana-based Internet Channel Network Inc., a network of shopping channels and the parent company of ComfortChannel.com as well as BodyBiltSeating.com, a spin-off web site dedicated to a popular ergonomic chair. Says Baxter, who works from his home office in Bozeman, Montana, "It was very low-risk, and I felt like they already had a built-in customer base that I wanted to tap into."