So you have a product, service or information that you feel
whole world should know about. But you aren't quite sure how to tell them? Fortunately, for you it's
21st century and we have
internet.By using this short article as a reference we will have you creating your own website in a matter of hours.
The first thing you will need is a website. There are many options for getting a website, some expensive and some are even free. Depending on whether you are selling a product, service or providing information will determine which option you should choose. Personally, I recommend that if you intend on making any profit from your website that you hire a web design company or (often far cheaper) a web design freelancer. If you just want to share some information online then you will be fine doing
design yourself.
If you are on a tight budget, then you may wish to use
do-it-yourself methods described below instead of hiring a web design company. However, once you do make any profit you should invest
money into a professionally created web site design.
Methods for creating a website
If you are unfamiliar with HTML, you will have to use either an online website creator or what is called a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. The former option is available with almost all online hosting companies so I won't go too much into detail on them. However, I do recommend SiteStudio as one of
best in this category. SiteStudio is available through nearly every web hosting company that uses H-Sphere. H-Sphere is a full featured web hosting control panel (I will go further in detail in
choosing a web hosting company section).
The later option will give you a lot more flexibility; however it will cost some money. The flexibility that you will get will far outweigh
cost in some of
software packages listed below. Some of
largest benefits include
ability to easily modify your website, have a unique web-site tailored to your design requirements, you created it!, and if you do a good job there really isn't a need for hiring a web designer at a later date to redo your website.
Here are some of
most popular WYSIWYG editors:
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX - Adobe GoLive CS - Microsoft Frontpage
I recommend that you avoid Microsoft Frontpage, while it is easy to use and fairly popular, it isn't standards compliant. If you are going to learn how to create a website you should learn how to do it right.
Choosing a domain name
One of
hardest things you will have to decide, yet almost more important than any of
others is choosing a domain name. A domain name is what people will type in
address bar of their browser to get to your website. For example, google.com, yahoo.com, amazon.com, and ebay.com are all domain names. If you will be selling a product, service or if
site is business related try to stick to a .com or .net top level domain (tld) extension.
When choosing a hosting company avoid choosing a company that offers free domain registration with hosting (or do not accept
free domain registration) because what they often don't tell you is that you can't transfer
domain to another hosting company or even that
next years fee due will be a hefty one.
Domains are typically renewed yearly and
pricing ranges from around $8.00 to $35.00 each year. The cheaper domain services typically don't offer as many features as
more expensive ones.
I recommend
following companies for domain registration:
- Register.com - Expensive, but a well featured control panel. - GoDaddy.com - Cheap, yet full featured. - Enom.com - Also a cheaper alternative.
I recommend that you avoid Network Solutions, while they are large and have a big budget they are often criticized for doing shady things.
Choosing a web hosting company
Now days hosting has become a commodity item. There are literally tens of thousands of hosting companies, most offering exactly
same features and most of them perfectly fine for your new website.
When choosing a hosting company you should try to compare features, not necessarily price. The end result is to have a website online with your product, service or information for everyone to see right? Often
cheaper hosting companies lack
redundancy required to ensure that your website is available 24/7. If this is a business venture you do not want to miss any potential customer due to
dreaded 404 error page. However, if you are just going to be providing information you could choose a cheaper host as you don't intend on making a profit.