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Once you have your domain name and web host, the next step is to actually build your website.
To build a website yourself you need some type of web building software. There are two ways you can get this software: 1. Free from your web host. Some web hosts provide a web site builder that includes free hosting and email. This is the best choice for beginners. All you need to do is click on the design you want and then add your text. It's really easy. As I mentioned earlier, I recommend the web site builders at Act Now Domains, Pro Website Group and iPowerweb. They each make good looking sites are easy to use and best of all are really cheap. If you want to sell products on your site and accept credit cards, you will need to sign up with an outside credit card processor for this. Make sure to check out my make money page for more info about the credit card processors so you don't end up buying a lot of stuff you don't need or going with a bad one. Click here for a step by step build a website tutorial. It's one of the new tutorials I created as a bonus with my Start your Internet Business ebook. I thought it might be helpful to people here to. 2. From an outside vendor. The most popular build a website software is Microsoft's Front Page. It is a great program and will offer you much more flexibility than the website builder that you get from your web host, but it can take a while to learn. Plus it usually costs between $150-200. If you want to get it, the cheapest place I've found for it is Amazon. Click here to get Microsoft FrontPage. If this is your first website, I suggest you just go with the build a website software that comes with your web hosting account. It is a lot easier, doesn't cost very much and once you get the hang of how to build a website then you can branch out to Front Page later. Plus, most Front Page sites created by beginners don't look too good. Do's and Don'ts of Building a Website Regardless of what software you use to build a website, there are some basic do’s and don’ts you need to keep in mind. It's very easy to get carried away on your first site and do things that send visitors away which is most definitely not what you want to do. When you build a website: Do keep your web site simple. Don't cram it full of clutter. Unless it's a how-to site like this one, the less text, the better. Do make it eye pleasing. No crazy fonts or colors. The standard fonts for web sites are Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman. Whatever font you decide on, use it throughout your site. Don't alternate fonts. Don’t use a Flash introduction. Web designers love this and if you use a website builder they can be really fun to create, but most people click off as soon as they see it loading. The object is to get people to see your web site, not drive them away. Don’t put music or sound files on your site. It startles people when they are surfing and suddenly hear music blaring out. Their immediate reaction is to back track immediately. Don’t put a lot of slow-loading graphics on your page. No matter how pretty the graphics are, people aren’t going to stick around and wait for them to load. You can optimize your images for free at NetMechanic.com. What this means is that you load the image onto Net Mechanic's web page and they will condense the size of the image for you, then let you pick the image you like from the results. Usually you can reduce the size by 50% or more without there being a noticeable change in quality. Do make sure visitors to your site can tell at a glance what your site is about. For example, if you sell widgets, make sure that’s evident right up front. Most people will leave in the first two seconds if they don’t think your site offers them what they are looking for. They aren’t going to take the time to scroll around to see if you have what they need. Make it immediately clear to them what your site is about. Don’t use pop-ups on your web site. Visitors find these really annoying. The less you annoy a visitor, the more likely he or she is to stay. How to Upload your Website to your Web Host Account Once you build your website, you will need to get it to your web host's server. This process is called "uploading" your files. Some places call it "publishing your website." Either way it's the same process. If you are using the build a website software from your web host, all of your website files will already be on your web host's servers so all you will need to do is click a button. The button is usually Publish or Submit. If you are using Front Page to build a website, you will need to make sure that Front Page extensions have been enabled on your web host account. Some web hosts require you to ask for these, but most hosts have them already set up for you. Once that is done, you will click the Publish to Web button, then follow the instructions listed. At one point it will ask for your destination. This is the name of your domain. For example, http://www.4creatingawebsite.com When it asks for username and password, give the name and password your web host gave you or that you created yourself when you signed up for your web host account. If you are using another software program to build a website, you will need FTP software installed on your computer. This will allow you to get your website files from your computer to your hosting account. I use ws_ftp LE because it's easy to use and it's free. Once you have installed ws_ftp le on your computer, click here for their tutorial on how to transfer your files using ws_ftp. How to Add Newsletters and Counters to your Web Site Once you build a website you may want to add a little pizazz to your site by adding some special content such as a newsletter sign up and/or a hit counter. If you are using a web host's build a website software they will have these options for you. If you are using Front Page or another build a website program then you will need to add these yourself. The best places I've found are: Newsletters: Constant Contact - this is a super place that has everything you need to collect email addresses and send out your newsletters. You can create newsletters here which look fantastic. It's who I use. How it works is that after you sign up they give you code for a Sign Up for our Newsletter box, you just copy that code and paste it into your html and you are all set. If you have less than 50 people on your newsletter list it's free and from 51-250 it's only $10/month. The more people you get the price goes up a bit, but it's still a good deal. They also give you a 60 day free trial. Hit Counters: if you are using Front Page, you can add your own hit counter wherever you like when you build your web site. This tracks how many people visit your pages. Simply click on Insert, then click on Web Component, click on Hit Counter and choose the style you want. That's all there is to it.
Now that you know how to build a website, let's discuss the ways you can make money from it. If you already know how to make money from your website, click here to continue to How to Get Visitors. Step 4: How to Make Money from your Website è
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Starting your own Internet Business?
Creating a Website
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Build a Website |
