How to Put Up Your Own Custom Web Site?
This tutorial is for folks who do not yet have a web site of their own. It will explain how to put your own custom web site on the web without paying big bucks.
Have you been contemplating having your own web site but keep putting it off for one reason or another? Maybe you're marketing a few affiliate programs and promoting those affiliate URLs. Well, as you learned from the article in the last issue of my BizWeb E-Gazette, your own custom web site is the first step in promoting ANY business online, even those affiliate programs.
Okay, so what are you waiting for?
If you think that setting up a custom web site is expensive, think again. The total cost can be less than a few hundred bucks and some of your time. Once your site is up, the only ongoing costs are monthly web hosting charges, which can be as low as $20 - $40 per month plus yearly domain fees of just $35. Now that's cheap!
Here's a step-by-step tutorial on getting your own custom site up...
1. Lay out your basic design.
Do this step on paper first. Draw out what you want your main entry page, or home page to look like. Keep it simple and uncluttered. Be sure it includes a short description of how your site will help your web site visitors. (These are the folks who you'll be targeting the site to -- take some time and figure out who they are before you start!)
Then, draw out a few more pages to link that home page to. A few examples would be a page that describes your company or yourself, a page that offers free information about your area of expertise, and a page with your best product/ service/opportunity that you plan to promote.
2. Once you have a basic layout of what your site will look like, you need to design it on your computer.
There are many ways to do this. You can go out and buy one of those 800 page books on html, the code used to design web pages, or you can go the easy route. The easy route is to purchase a WYSIWYG (stands for What You See Is What You Get) web design program. There are many programs to choose from in today's market. These programs are the easiest way to design a web site, especially for the first time. Most of these programs cost $100 or less.
Here are a few examples of such programs...
- Microsoft FrontPage: (www.microsoft.com/frontpage/)
I used this program to design my (http://www.bizweb2000.com) site and it is a solid choice for new webmasters.
- Homesite: (http://www2.allaire.com/Products/HomeSite/)
This popular design program is now the choice of many webmasters, as it produces clean html despite its WYSIWYG interface.
Tip: Read this article before proceeding with your home page design.
3. Once your site is laid out on your computer, you'll need to decide on a domain name for your site .
Registering your own domain name means that web surfers will be able to connect to your web site by entering (www.yourname.com). Here are a few tips to help you select your domain name.
a. Avoid using any character that is not a letter or number. Many newbies do not know where to find the "-" or "_" characters, for instance. You want the name to be easy to type.
b. Avoid using the numeral "1" or "0" in your domain name. Many people will confuse these with the small letters "l" and "o". The last thing you want is someone getting frustrated when they are trying to connect to your site.
c. Use a domain name that is easy to remember and has something to do with your business. Once you settle on a name, it's also a good idea to do a trademark search to make sure the name is not already under trademark by another company. The last thing you want is to be forced to switch domain names once you get going full swing.
You can perform a free domain and trademark search at: (http://www.e-gineer.com/e-gineer/domainator/)
Once you have the domain name picked out, your web host should register it for you at no charge. See the next step.
4. Select a company to host your web site.
Okay, your web site is designed and you have a domain name picked out. So why do you have to hire a company to host your site?
Well actually, you 'could' host the pages on your own computer. After all, a hosting company will provide just that to you, a computer. But in order to do it yourself, you would need a 24 hour connection to the web, in the form of a super-fast phone connection known as a T1 or T3. These digital connections cost over a thousand bucks a month. Therefore, hiring a web host who already has multiple T's is a much more cost-effective solution for small businesses.
Your web host will maintain your 24hr connection to the web, making sure surfers can connect to your site at all times. Therefore, it's important to hire the right company. My past experiences with web hosting have been quite eventful (as well as painful). To help you make an informed decision, I've posted a report about selecting a host at...
(http://www.bizweb2000.com/virtual.htm)
5. Transfer your files to your new web hosting company .
This is a step that many newbies have problems with. Basically, you'll be transferring your newly designed web pages from your own computer to the computer at your web hosting company.
Although most WYSIWYG web design programs come with a "web publishing" interface, I've found the few I've tried to be clumsy and slow. Rather than using the web publishing interface in your design program, I suggest downloading an "FTP" (stands for File Transfer Protocol) program from the web. These cost in the $30 range and they make uploading your site to your host, a breeze.
Here are a few simple and effective FTP programs you can use to put your site up:
CuteFTP: (www.cuteftp.com)
This is the program I use to upload web pages to my site. Its simple drag and drop interface simplifies uploading new pages to my web site. And when making changes to existing pages, I just use my mouse to drag and drop the new page to my web host computer and it replaces the old one.
WS_FTP: (www.ipswitch.com)
This is one of the more popular choices among veteran webmasters. Its easy and intuitive interface makes managing your web site a breeze. No wonder it's the world's most popular FTP client for Windows.
Once you've downloaded an FTP program, spend an hour or two getting used to it. You'll be using it a lot as a new webmaster!
That's it! You now have each step laid out in an easy to follow checklist. And remember, your web site is never finished! Effective web sites are sites that get updated on a regular basis.
If you need more help in getting your online business set up, download my e-book at here. The book is completely free and it covers everything from business setup to web marketing strategies used by pros. You can even give the book away as your own!
Happy webmastering!
Writing Your First Website
So, you have an idea you want to create a site for eh? And you have no idea what to do. This step-by-step guide will show you what to do. It may get a bit too technical for you, but if you are ever in doubt, have a read in the webmasters' section as it has plenty of help. Now, let us get started...
You must have an idea!
Yes... without an idea of what you want to do, don't even turn on your computer! Just sit and think and say, "I want my site to do so and so". This will keep you focused, give you a target to work for, and directly or indirectly, it will affect everything to come. For example, designing a site for you company is not like designing a hip-hop music site.
Choose a host
Some will definitely say that it is a bit too early to be considering this, given that you do not even have a website to host, but here is my take on it: What your host offers and, more importantly, doesn't offer, will determine the underlying structure of your site. Example: Suppose you decide that all of your pages should be created dynamically, just like eKstreme.com. You decide to do it with SSI, and so, if your host does not support SSI, you cannot implement your ideas. If your site is going to be simple, without too many frills, you can get by on hosts like Geocities . If you want the ultimate in flexibility and extensibility, go for one of the hosts listed in the Gadgets page . These hosts provide ad-free hosting for free with plenty of useful features such PHP, SSI, and ASP, and with access to databases.
Design the site's underlying structure.
This is a very important step. How you structure your site will reflect on its performance, ease of maintainance, and how you construct your links. Things to consider here are: Should you put all of your images in one directory? This is usually a good idea. Also, your directory tree should reflect the major sections of your site. For example, eKstreme.com's directory structure contains a directory called "biology" and another "webmaster". These contain everything related to those sections. Another important point is that if you have a central CSS file, that all of your pages use, you should keep it somewhere neat, like a "global" directory. This global directory is also important if you go for a modular design, where every page is actually a series of include directives (PHP or SSI) that the server parses and sends to the browsers. So if you have a common footer, header, site logo, or anything shared by all of your pages, it is a good idea to create a global directory.
Design a site template
Open your favourite web editor, preferably a visual one, and design a sample page. This page should contain all of the elements that are to be found on all of your pages. The only exception is if you also design your site's main page, or a major section's main page. This template will make sure your site's pages look consistent, and that you did not forget anything. This is also the time to choose your theme. If you are really into cross-browser compatibility, then this is the time to test your knowledge. Make sure you like it before you decide to use it though, as changing it may not be the easiest thing on Earth. Most importantly, write valid HTML or XHTML. Valid code will go a long way to making sure your site functions correctly on all platforms, and will make you look cool with visitors who do not know lots about WWW authoring. It is not as hard as some would like you to think. More information about how to easily create a template for your site can be found here .
Add your content
Also make sure your links work, or at least point to the right files. Spelling and grammar are also important. The best way to annoy your visitors is to have spelling mistakes all over the place! Be careful, but also understand that mistakes do happen.
Make sure you add at least one way for feedback
Your visitors must be able to contact you if they feel moved to do so. Put up a form that sends email to you, provide a direct email link, a guestbook, anything that would make sure if your visitors want to talk to you, they would be able to.
Consider adding a search engine
If you have a site of more than 10 pages or so, maybe a simple search engine would come in handy. Suppose you have a visitor that knows that your site has this important piece of information, hidden somewhere, but he/she cannot remember exactly where it is. If you make them sort through 10 pages, then you are pushing your luck for them to come back again. There are plenty of free search engines, some very powerful, such as Atomz.com.
Upload your site and test, test, and test even more!
This period of having a beta site is the most crucial, as you can get actual measurements on performance, speed, how it actually looks "in real life", what needs changing, what is a good idea, and so on. Also this is the time to start promoting your site by asking people to beta-test it. If your content is good enough at this stage, they will come back when the site officially launches.
Launch your site
Make sure people know that you did that. Forums are a good place to start, but DO NOT SPAM forums, newsgroups, emails, or whatever. You would not like to start a relationship by making someone hate you.
By now, your site should be doing fairly good. Traffic is at about 10-50 hits a day, which is good for a start. Now let us make sure you get more than that!
Promote your site
BUT DO NOT SPAM! It is easy to get carried away and tell everyone about your new exciting site, but that would probably annoy them. It is good to do some publicity, but not too much. Also, you could advertise a section at a time. For example, do not say "Come and visit my new webmasters' page" but something like "Download our latest PERL scripts". Choose where you promote your site carefully. Signitures are amazing visit promoters. Add a signiture to your emails, your posts to newsgroups, and also, add your site's URL to your business card. I am no PR expert, but you get the idea.
Win an award
This will drive traffic to your site like crazy. However, to win an award, you need to have most of the above correctly, so make sure there is something worth an award before submitting your site for review.
Exchange links
If you find a site with similar interests, approach the webmaster to exchange links. You add a link to their site and they add a link to yours. It is simple, and makes sure you get some traffic if the other site does not cover all grounds. The key to the success of this is that make sure the visitors like your site better than the other site, so that they come back.
Join a web-ring
You can also start your own. Web-rings will do plenty for your site, but make sure the other members will be proud to take you on. Also, choose which webring(s) you join carefully.
Submit your site to all search engines you know of
According to some reports, as much as 85% of Internet users find sites using search engines. Assuming a figure of about 60 million Net users, that works out to 51 million people. Now imagine only half a percent (0.5%) of these know about your site. That works out to 2.55 million users. I am not saying that you will have 2.5 million hits, but I am talking about exposure. Search engines like to find meta tags, and so make sure you add meta tags to all of your pages. You can use the home-brewed complete meta tag generator to do this for you. All you have to do is cut and paste. Nothing to it, and plenty of reward.
However, the most important thing you can do to make sure your site is a success is to be dedicated to making it a success. Make sure all links work, make sure you listen to what your users say, and do not be afraid to change something if they ask you to! Fame and fortune will not come overnight, but as a definite trickle that grows. Also notice how it all depends on content, so make sure you have plenty of that on your site. Also, make sure you update your site regularly, to make sure that the people that do come back, come back even more. It does not have to be daily, but it is nice that about once a week, something new comes up. Of course if you are running something like a news site, a weekly update may not be appropriate. Make sure you do it often enough. YOU DECIDE!
Good luck and happy coding!
Professional Web Design Services
By Steve Hill
Are you looking for a professional web design service, however are only on a small budget? This article gives you free advice and tips about how to obtain a cheap but quality web design. There are also some very valuable website promotion tips. I hope you enjoy the read.
How To find cheap website design companies.
You may think that you need to spend hundreds of pounds to have an internet prescence. I do not agree and believe that for a basic information type website, the maximum you should have to spend is Ј100. There is a large amount of competition in the website design sector which means that you are able to pick and choose the best deals available. For people who are willing to be patient and who are prepared to make lots of phone calls and send lots of e-mails, a quality company offering cheap web design services should not be difficult to find.
You can find these cheap website design companies by looking on internet auction websites such as ebay, internet search engines such as google or in the Yellow Pages. It could also be worth asking family and friends and also looking in newspapers.
Website promotion advice
It is likely that most people who have a website are looking at ways to increase the amount of traffic they have to their site and would like a higher page rank. In general the higher the page rank you have, the more visitors you are likely to obtain.
The best way to increase your websites page rank is by getting as many backward links to your website as possible. You can do this by e-mailing other websites preferably in the same business sector as your own and asking if they would be willing to swap links with your site. This can be a very time consuming project and it could be worth your while joining a program like linkmetro.
Writing articles like the one you are reading here is another way of obtaining backward links. This is what I believe is the best form of website promotion as the links that you will receive are one way, and have a higher value in the eyes of the search engines. By submitting these articles to article websites, other webmasters are then able to use your article on their website, thus giving you an extra link. This is because you are able to add your information and web address in the author bio at the bottom of the page.
You may also want to consider google adwords. This is a form of pay per click where you pay to appear on the right side of the search results in the paid advertising section of the google search engine for a specific key phrase. Always remember not to spend more on the advertising than you are likely to earn from the website.
If you would like to earn extra money from your website you may want to consider google adsense. This is where the search engine google, put adverts onto your website. When your visitors click on the ads you get paid.
|
|
