Building Your Web Site
Get Started - Part 3
You have several options for building your website: you can either create it online or on your own computer, if you have the software and know-how to do that. If you don't know anything about HTML or building websites, my advice is to select a hosting service with online page building tools, such as 123BuildaSite.com or other small business web hosting sites that provide professionally-designed web page templates and built in e-commerce tools such as shopping carts and online credit card processing. Or, you can hire company such as Template Tuning to create a complete set of web pages for your web site.
If you feel comfortable creating your own web pages, you can download web design software to use on your own computer, or use the online web page, navigation button, and logo creators available at this site's online tools page. You may also want to start with on the 100s of professional web site design templates or mix in your choice of graphics and clipart.
You will find a review of affordable hosting services on the main web hosting page of this site.
Another possibility is a free hosting service, which will display their ads on each page of your site. Ad-supported free hosting is a good choice if you just want to start out without risking any money. But, if you are set to create a full-fledged business site, then it is far better to pay a little for ad-free hosting. That way you have total control over the look of your site, and your visitors will not be distracted by other people's op-up ads or inappropriate advertising that might be displayed by the hosting service. There are some services that allow you to start out with ad supported free hosting, if you prefer, and then upgrade later to ad-free hosting for a low monthly fee (about $5-10 per month).
Your choice of website hosting service should depend on a few factors:
Can you create web pages on your own?
What tools do they offer to help enhance your site?
What kind of URL - your internet address - can you get through the service? Free sites usually offer a free sub-domain: i.e. you.them.com. The best option for business sites is to acquire your own domain name: yourname.com
Do you want ad-free hosting? If you want to set up a business site, you should consider low-cost web hosting services that do not display other people's ads on your site.
Does the hosting service offer different upgrade options so your site can grow with your business?
When you have your site up and running you can make a good stream of income from running ads through the affiliate programs you should sign up for! You can also accept credit card payments online to sell your own goods and services.
Designing Your Site
Try to stick to the "Three Clicks Rule" - keep as much of your content within three clicks of your home page. People will move on to another site if you don't keep things easy and simple to find. For further guidance on designing a website, read Elements of Web Design.
Be sure to visit the free web tools and content section of this site, to see all the ways in which you can enhance your site. You can add everything from guestbooks, chat rooms, instant polls, headline news, greeting cards, financial stock quotes, and games to free e-mail for your site's visitors.
Check Your Site for Compatibility
Your web site should be both attractive and functional for as many visitors as possible, regardless of which browser they use or the screen resolution of their computer. AnyBrowser.Com provides a useful service to check some aspects of your web site's design. Once you've got your draft pages posted up on your web site, visit AnyBrowser and type in your URL - you will then be shown how your site will look in different browsers. In essence, you can work out the least common denominator to know which aspects of your site will work with which version of browser.
Get The Word Out!
Once your site is up and running, it's time to do some marketing and public relations. There's no point building a wonderful shop in the middle of the woods if there are no roads to it and no-one knows it's there! If you want to make money from your site, you're going to have to find ways to build traffic to it. There are a number of ways you can do that, and several are dealt with on the Site Promotion page of this site. From news letters and press releases, to free classified ads and, of course, getting your site listed in the all-important search engines - try to get the word out! The most important part of promotion, however, is submitting your site to search engines and internet directories that most people use to find sites.
Sell items with your own logos, & graphics from your own free virtual store - visit CafePress.com!!
