IT HAS built websites for some of the biggest brands on the planet, but a North East digital agency will now help alien enthusiasts, gothic wedding dress- makers and even animal tailors launch their own online empires.

In a climate of mass redundancies where workers in almost every sector are looking over their shoulder, a Newcastle firm is encouraging people who may be out of work, or in need of extra cash, to go it alone on the internet.

For more than a decade Enigma Interactive has boosted the web presence of major international firms such as ITV, GlaxoSmithKline and EMI.

Over the years it has learned what works online and what doesn’t and will now apply this knowledge to helping launch a new wave of e-entrepreneurs

It has taken the blueprint of successful websites it has helped to create and, over the last three years, has developed a new piece of online software which allows even the most IT-phobic to launch their own site cheaply and simply.

Although it is going toe-to-toe with online giant Yahoo, which also offers website creation tools, Enigma hopes its new Site Builder software could be just the thing to lift the economic gloom for many people.

Managing director Steve Grainger said: “It opens doors for businesses who would like to develop an online business.

“There’s a lot to creating a successful website and we are trying to bring people through and get them running their own business.

The product is aimed at the national market and has already received hundreds of ideas for weird and wonderful websites, including a pet clothing shop, and something vaguely “to do with aliens”, said Mr Grainger.