Web and Website Design & Ecommerce - What type of website would meet my particular need?

The purpose of the below is to provide both a general understanding of the types of websites that exist and to also offer some assistance in deciding what type of website would meet your particular needs.

Hobby / Individual Website

Usually of a non-commercial basis and very often built using the free or no-cost "build your own website" tools - it is shown here for completeness, although it is fair to say that WEBcouk rarely get asked to become involved and design this sort of website. The exception would perhaps be where there is a long term plan to gain sufficient visitors for some sort of advertising to start generating revenue, i.e. Google Adsense; and / or a more professionally designed web presence was required.

Informational Website

Any website whose design goal is to inform the user and is not directly involved with selling product - these types of website are suitable for the individual entrepreneur through to the sole trader / small partnership right up to the largest corporate.
 
For the sole trader who has to start somewhere but doesn't quite know where, this type of website can be based on an existing business card and / or brochure that may already exist; and may involve the design of a new logo.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, a larger business would probably want to use as a starting point existing logos, styles and graphics together with a whole raft of company material that already exists. A firm website design concept may or may not be available at the start of this type of web site project - it doesn't really matter one way or the other.
 
An informational website could also include a product catalogue style of presentation, (much like an ecommerce website), without any intention of making a direct sale.
 
This type of website design is usually, but not necessarily, targeted at a particular audience
 
Dependant on the frequency and scale of content changes anticipated on an ongoing basis, a Content Management System, (CMS) can easily be integrated into an informational website in order to minimise future costs.

Commercial - Ecommerce Website

In a nutshell, a website intended to sell products and / or services direct to the customer with payments typically being made online using a credit card and / or Paypal. A subscription based website would also be included in this category.
 
Although one of the easiest types of website to relate to, one of the most important in terms of revenue and growth opportunity. Also, any number of information pages can be incorporated into this type of web site design.

Entertainment & Leisure Website

These are many and varied, the most obvious being hobby forums, (i.e. fishing, collectibles, photography etc. etc.), online gaming websites or many that are completely quirky!

Service Website

We went round and round in circles trying to get a heading that summed up this type of website design and in the end felt it best to stick with something simple and just give some example. In practice, the examples below could either be standalone websites or be incorporated as part of another website.
 
Event Planning - from a database of events allow the user to select and package together a unique day out
 
Greetings Cards - allow a bespoke and unique card to be tailored and sent to an individual, together with optionally remembering birthdays and anniversaries for the future
 
Don't you Dare - a clever and sleek advertising website that allows the end user to select a spot on the website to advertise and then upload their own advert for display within a pre-defined date range
 
We could go on and on - this type of website is only limited by the imagination and of course the budget and any deadline that may exist.

Website Costs - a rule of thumb

As a general rule, informational websites tend to be lower in cost than commercial websites and commercial websites tend to be lower in cost than service websites. Although like any rule of thumb, this can easily fall apart, for example a highly designed twenty page website could easily cost more than a focussed and functional ecommerce website.