Video: A Website with E-Commerce In 5 Minutes

I found myself mesmerized by this tutorial: Create an eCommerce Website With WordPress In Under 5 Minutes.

Sure, the site is far from perfect - but it does highlight just how far and fast you can go with existing free tools out there.

This tutorial just reinforces the advice I often give folks who are first timers to having a web presence: skip the fancy shmancy website and use an off the shelf blogging engine to get started. I usually recommend Blogger because it's drop dead easy, but as you can see, using WordPress gives you access to some powerful tools (like being able to sell your stuff from the site). The result will be time and energy saved on the development and design process which you can pour into copy and marketing.

After some time, you'll outgrow this solution. At this point, you'll have a whole bunch of knowledge and experience under your belt that you can use to create an awesome website.