Advantages
Websites are great if you have a lot of products to sell. These could be your own products, or they can be products that will be dropshipped when a sale is made. They are also great if you just want to do product reviews for merchants that you are affiliated with. But that is not all, as websites can be used to store any kind of information that you think will benefit others.
Another advantage of having your own website, is that you can set up a blog under the same domain name and website layout. This allows you to put up your products on the main site, but then engage in friendly conversations on the blog. This is a great way to market your products without coming across as marketing.
However, one of the biggest reasons that you should set up a website is that you have full control of the layout, design and the functioning of the webpages. This allows you to create as many master pages that focus on a specific topic. This is essential if you have various different topics or products that you cover on your website.
Having your own website also allows you to have full control over optimizing your site for the search engines.
Last but not least, you can also set up free websites with sites like Blinkweb, Yola and Weebly. These sites however, are limited, and may not be suitable for your main website.
Disadvantages
There are a few disadvantages to setting up your own website, but if you have a project, or a business idea in mind where a website is more suitable than a blog, then it is well worth it. Don't let the extra work or expenses stop you from creating the business that you want to create.
As I already mentioned, websites are a bit more work to set up and may be more costly as well. To have your own website you need to have your own hosting account which you can get at HostGator. You will also need to purchase a domain name, and you can do that at the same time when you get your hosting.
You will also need to learn HTML and CSS, or you can use the free website building software that is provided with your hosting. However, some of this software is limited, and your design is often licensed by the hosting provider, which means that you cannot leave that provider and take your design with you. To eliminate this, you can purchase a program called dreamweaver, and it will create professional websites for you giving you full control of your website.
Other tools that you may need or want to get is an HTML editor, and an FTP client to help you create your webpages and to upload your files to your website.
