Well, starting from scratch is hard. Although, I am lucky in that my brand is very niche. Bellydance lessons in Owensboro, KY.
Here are some things I like and don't like:
Facebook - I use this because I am already on it personally. I begged friends to become fans and begged them to beg their friends but that is all you can do unless you run a
Facebook Ad - I am currently running two ads on Facebook. I have had 113,138 impressions but only 23 clicks. Now I am targeting women in my local area and according to Facebook there at 52k such users. All 23 clicks came on the single day Facebook ran my add upwards of 60k times. Otherwise nothing. I like Facebook ads because you set your max daily budget, I don't like it because you can't say that you want your ad run more.
Weebly - I made my website with Weebly. Weebly is super easy. Actually it is probably too easy for me because I like to tweak things but it looks good and kept me from having headaches. (like the 20 times I redesigned this blog) It is also really easy to update. If you have very little skill and/or time then I really recommend Weebly. My site will definitely stay with them until I get a lot more free time or money to hire someone.
Mailchimp - I admit I was going to just write plain text e-mail newsletter and send them out to a group in my address book. Then someone on Bhuz mentioned mailchimp. A free account includes 500 subscribers and up to 3k e-mails per month. Well, I will never have that. Wow! You can customize your sign up form for your site. They have great templates, and excellent tracking. I can't recommend them enough.
Cafepress - I am sure you have bought something from them but have you ever looked at what it takes to make a store. If you already have digital artwork, all you do is upload it and pick your items. I like this method because you don't have to order X number of smalls, etc. People just order what they want.
