Microsoft Office Live: Take Your Business Online helps you explore all the features and capabilities of this easy-to-use but powerful offering from Microsoft. Here is a chapter-by-chapter overview of what you will find in the various chapters.

Chapter 1, tells the story of the Web today—how people are using it, ways in which they are connecting, what the benefits look like, and what you may be missing. Specifically, you’ll get some of the latest statistics and cost comparisons (as well as inspiring bits such as the numbers related to sales and marketing online) so you can explore how the world of the Web connects with the real world of your budget.

Chapter 2, shows you how Office Live Small Business takes the best capabilities the Web has to offer and brings them together into a low-cost way to create, manage, update, and promote your site with one easy-to-use program.

Chapter 3, shows you how to sign up for the program, get a domain name, choose the features you want to use with your site, set up permissions and security features, work with e-mail and user accounts, and more. You’ll also learn how to find and work with the help system available with Office Live Small Business.

Chapter 4, gets into the heart of the program by walking you through the process of using the Web tools included with Office Live Small Business. Even if you’ve never designed a site before, you’ll find the design tools easy to understand and use. By the time you finish this chapter, your basic pages will be finished, and you’ll have a presence online! That’s a pretty exciting idea when you’ve been waiting months—or years!—to take the leap.

Chapter 5, builds on the basic site you created in the previous chapter by showing you how to add features to the overall functionality and to specific pages on your site. You learn how to change the layout of your pages, add Web modules of all sorts, and add tables to your site.

Chapter 6, shows you how to keep an eye on the flow of traffic that finds its way to your site. Who is coming and why? What’s attracting them? What messages are they seeing? And will they come back? These are all important questions to consider as you nurture your Web site into a successful destination online. Office Live Small Business includes a Web reporting feature that enables you to view your Web traffic from a variety of perspectives.

Chapter 7, provides steps and examples that show you how to make the most of Web-based e-mail by pulling everything together in one easy-to-use interface (that you can view any place you have Web access). Use Office Live Small Business Mail to reach customers, vendors, coworkers, and more—directly from within your Office Live space. Nice—and convenient!

Chapter 8, is all about the dream of online shopping. How can your business be part of the craze? Online purchasing has risen exponentially in the last five years; online traffic is surpassing even holiday mall traffic. This chapter shows you how to prepare items to sell online, create your own store, manage sales and customers, and more. You learn to create and manage product listings for your site as well as for eBay.

Chapter 9, gives you a whirlwind tour of the world of online advertising and e-mail marketing. What have you been missing? In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use Office Live AdManager to create and track your ads and fine-tune your keywords. You also find out how to use the E-mail Marketing feature to create, send, and track e-mail marketing campaigns.

Chapter 10, shows you how to use the smart, simple, and interrelated Business Applications you have at your disposal. Learn to manage time, projects, files, and people (!) using the intuitive online applications covered in this chapter.

Chapter 11, introduces you to creating and sharing workspaces with coworkers, clients, vendors, and peers. A workspace gives you a central online space for important documents, meetings, brainstorming sessions, and more.

Chapter 12, provides you with a number of helpful resources for growing your business online. Participate in the Office Live Small Business community, find additional articles on specific business topics, watch small business seminars, and read the latest blog posts from Office Live Small Business experts.