In fact most ISPs offered free web hosting and an email account, with optional domain naming, as part of their deal. Geocities and Tripod were prominent but th

In fact most ISPs offered free web hosting and an email account, with optional domain naming, as part of their deal. Geocities and Tripod were prominent but they were a long way from being the only option. And the hosting usually allowed CGI and PHP and often included shopping carts and other ready-made services. So it was ridiculously easy and cheap to set up a small business if you wanted to - or just create some basic pages if you didn't.