Initiative is not something that Bob Hitchings could be accused of lacking.

When Bob, a keen double bass player, realised that he couldn't afford a new instrument he didn't just make do with his old one.

Instead he went out and taught himself how to build a new one.

He realised that there was very little information around for the aspiring double bass maker, so he wrote a book on the subject.

The next step was to design a website from scratch to sell the book from. He now makes a reasonable profit from it.

Inexpensive

Bob uses the internet to add value to his other passions as well. He recently returned from a four month round Britain trip.

He updated his website with his experiences from the back of his camper van using just his laptop and a mobile phone.

A regular group of fans checked up on his progress.

Now Bob passes on his new skills through Hairnet - an internet training provider for the over 50s.

"You can make a simple, effective website for very little money," Bob explains.

"If you want to do it yourself you can easily do it for less than �100 and possibly even less than �50. You're not shelling out a lot."

Share interests

Adrian Welch also realised that the internet would be the best medium to use to pass on his interests and knowledge.

Adrian is an Edinburgh architect and interested in encouraging people to explore the range of architecture in the city.

Rather than publish a written guide, he set up a website - Edinburgh Architecture - which provides maps, walking tours and can be updated as new examples of contemporary architecture are built.

He works on the site at a computer in his kitchen.

Adrian says that he had little experience of the internet before he started his site.

"I came to it extremely cold," he says. "At school I never really liked computers and at university I ignored them. There was a little bit of trepidation, but I used as much information as I could glean from friends."

Going it alone

How easy is it for individuals or small companies to set up a simple website?

Bob and Adrian both say that simple websites are very easy, quick and cheap to develop.

You really need four things to set up a very simple website: a computer with internet access, some FTP software, space on a server and a domain name - also known as a web address.

To start a website you'll need: computer with internet access FTP software space on a server domain name

Firstly, you obviously need a computer with a modem and an account with an Internet Service Provider that enables you to connect to the web.

For a very simple site using HTML (a basic programming language) you need nothing more than a word processor and an internet browser.

But if you don't want to learn the HTML language yourself, you can easily buy or download software that writes the HTML code for you.

You can then just input the text or pictures that you want displayed.

Design

Internet sites are designed offline on your own computer.

You spend time writing and designing the site and then when you are happy with it, you 'upload' the site to a server so that the whole world can see your work.

A server is just a very large computer that stores lots of internet pages and can be accessed 24 hours a day.

To upload your site you need some File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software. This can be downloaded free of charge from a number of sites on the internet.

Server

The chances are that your account with your Internet Service Provider will also include some free server space.

It's likely that this will be adequate for a simple site.

Contact your ISP to see what they offer and how they work.

If your site has lots of pages and uses many pictures then you might need to rent some extra server space.

You'll probably be charged a few pounds a month and more if you need extra space.

Address

Once you have your site designed and you have some server space to store it on, all you need then is a web address so that people can access your site.

A web address, like www.bbc.co.uk/workinglunch, is typed into an internet browser and directs you to the server that the website is stored on.

If you have server space with your Internet Service Provider, then they will allocate you a web address.

But you may want a special web address like www.mikesbusiness.com or www.richardsclub.org.uk.

In that case you'll need to buy a new address from a "domain name" provider on the internet.

They're likely to charge you between �5 and �10 a year to register and maintain the website address.

All you need to do now is tell the world your address!

Learning

There are lots of places to learn more about publishing on the internet.

It's one thing to learn about how to set up a site, but it's another to learn how to develop a really good site.

There are private organisations, like Hairnet, who provide courses and one-to-one tuition.

Around the country there are many Adult Education courses about the internet and computing in general. They may be based at schools, colleges or universities.

Your local library or local authority is a good place to look for a prospectus. Some internet cafes also run courses.

Learn Direct is a free service that will put you in touch with courses near to you.

Plenty of people teach themselves from the wide range of books available on the subject.

Alternatively, you could use the BBC. The BBC WebWise site has an online guide to using and publishing on the internet. It also has a directory of local courses.

Attention

Finally, remember that a good internet site is likely to need updating and developing over time. But Adrian Welch gets much satisfaction from his hard work.

"I get letters and e-mails from all over the world. Virtual and real visitors to Edinburgh say they like the site. These letters are more satisfying than the number of hits the site gets," he says.