subject: A Few Tips On How To Make Your Own Website [print this page] E-commerce has changed the business landscape forever, and even our personal lives are becoming more connected to the Internet. Whether it's through Facebook or Twitter or free blogging services, there are few people that haven't left a footprint, big or small, somewhere online. There comes a point, however, when simply using the tools provided on other sites isn't enough, and you need to establish a stronger presence under your own name or brand. That's when you need to learn how to make your own website.
Contrary to how it might appear at first, it's actually a fairly simple process. There are a number of tools available, many of which are free, that allow you to create a functional, professional website within the span of a few hours.
The first step is to purchase a domain through a service like GoDaddy. A .com domain is preferable since it's the most common, and it's the one that people who know the name of your site are most likely to enter in the address bar. Unfortunately, because it's the most common domain type there's a lot of competition, and getting something that's relevant to you or your chosen niche may be quite difficult. Nearly every .com domain related to popular keywords is taken, so if you want a keyword relevant domain you'll usually need to buy a .net, .info, or another domain type in order to get it. Luckily there's no qualitative difference between the various domain types so whatever you'd want to do with a .com address can be done exactly the same way at a .net address, it just puts you at a slight disadvantage at the start and it may confuse some users.
The next item on the list is to purchase hosting. Often the company that you buy your domain from will offer hosting as well, sometimes at a discount, so that's always an option. HostGator is a company that specializes in Web hosting and their starter package costs less than $10 per month. That's roughly what you should look to pay unless you know you're going to have a lot of traffic at the outset, in which case shelling out a little more is a good idea.
The primary difference between hosting plans is how much bandwidth the company allocates to your site. When you have a high number of visitors a lot of data gets transferred, and there's that much less bandwidth available to new users. If your site reaches its limit it'll stay online, but no one will be able to access it until your next billing period. That's probably when you should consider upgrading your hosting package in order to minimize downtime. This is doubly true if it's a business website.
Next you'll want to plan your site, page by page, according to its purpose. Is it meant to be a repository for all your random thoughts? If so, a blog format would work best. Is it meant to be an informational website that's consistently updated? If so, it could work as a blog, but it's probably better suited for a more traditional approach.
What separates blogs from other websites is that they are designed around ease of use and regularly updated content. This is not where you would post timeless works of art, or an archive of in-depth information on a particular subject. No, you'd use a blog format if producing a constant stream of new content is part of what you intend to do. If you simply want to write some articles or essays on a site that will remain mostly static once the bulk of the content has been completed a standard website is better suited for this purpose. Search engines also treat sites differently depending on the platform they're built upon, so a WordPress blog is more likely to drop in the rankings without constant updates than a static site that covers the same topic, although any site that maintains a high number of visitors or backlinks will continue to rank highly in search engines even if it doesn't update very often.
For blogs and general-purpose websites, WordPress is an excellent platform that's available free of charge, and most web hosts provide tools that make installing it a snap. If you intend to do something else, you'll need to purchase an HTML editor like Adobe's Dreamweaver in order to get your site up and running. It's somewhat costly so it's not recommended unless you want to make your site an e-commerce hub. In nearly every other scenario, WordPress is the better choice. People have even created themes that make WordPress sites look and function more like standard websites, and if the intent is to monetize through ads or donations there are ways to maintain traffic that don't require constant updates if you're willing to publish lots of content within the first six to twelve months after your site goes live. It takes a lot of work to reach that point, but it requires a lot less effort to maintain it if you can build a repertoire of at least 25 popular articles with well-placed keywords and lots of backlinks. If you have products to sell PayPal can facilitate your transactions, but you'll want to build a storefront if you have more than a few items up for sale. Depending on whether your offerings are physical or digital, the easiest way to get started is to create an account with Etsy, Lulu, Cafepress, or another online storefront that suits your products, and then link it to your site with a prominent graphic that's on every page.
It only takes a day to get a website up and running, but it takes years to master the intricacies of coding, traffic generation, and various other aspects of owning your own site. The good news is that it's easy to get started and there is plenty of information available to help with the learning process. Break the task down into small, manageable chunks, and focus on what you need to learn and do right now. The cause of overwhelm is thinking that you need to know everything at the start when you don't. This is something that you learn as you go; nothing teaches as well as experience.
