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Website Making: Tips, Tricks, and the 5 W's

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So you want to make a website? You found the right place to get you started!

A Website is like a journal that you can write ANYTHING you want, or draw ANYTHING you want, or do ANYTHING you want. I'm serious. Nobody owns the internet (although Google is probably close), so you are allowed to do what you want to do on it. By getting a website, you are getting a virtual wall that you can deface as much as you want and this wall can be as big as you want it to be.
  1. Get an Idea, Write About it
  2. Sounds Awesome! Where Do I Sign Up!?
  3. Web Hosts That Cost
  4. Free Web Hosts!
  5. The Most Popular Web Host
  6. I Own a Website! Now What?
  7. Here Are The Tools!
  8. Traffic Generating
  9. Monetize
  10. Tips
  11. Just Domains
  12. Comments Please

Get an Idea, Write About it

What do you want to make your website about? This could be anything you want. Really anything.

What are you interested in? This is very important. You don't want to pick an idea because you think it will generate the most traffic, you want to pick an idea because it is what you like to do. I recommend keeping a list with you at all times and write down anything you would like to write about. Nothing is too silly for the internet, you want a unique idea that hasn't been thought of before. If you like to make clothes out of napkins, go ahead and do it!

You really want to capture the reader, and there is no way better than to write about something you love to do or love to talk about. Traffic will come later, and with traffic comes money.

Sounds Awesome! Where Do I Sign Up!?

You can either pay for a website or you can get a free website.

Here is a list of hosts that will give you a free website or have you pay for a website. It is your choice and there is an advantage to each. Some people start off on a free website and try to generate traffic. As you they get more traffic, then it is reasonable to move to a paid website where they give you your own domain name (that is www.YourSite.com). Here is a list and the minor details about each, such as price and key features.

Here is a breakdown on what each category means:
  • Price: The amount it costs per month if signing up for a year of service.
  • Domain Name: A domain name would be YourSiteName.com (or .net, .org, etc.). If they don't offer a domain name, you will get a website like YourSiteName.WebHost.com (where the WebHost is the name of the site that you signed up with).
  • Disk Space: The amount of storage the site gives you to store pictures, video, music, etc.
  • Data Transfer: Major player in supporting high volume traffic to your website. A low data transfer amount will cause problems if you start getting a lot of traffic to your website.
  • Email Storage: The amount of space you get for emails, a low amount won't allow you to receive a lot of emails.
  • Email Addresses: The number of email addresses that site gives you. This would allow you to work on the website with other people and give them each their own email address (YourName@YourSiteName.com)
  • Customer Service: In case you run into problems, you always want customer service.
  • Credits: These credits are worth money for advertising for your site, Google and Yahoo! will allow you to advertise your website on their search results and on other websites. You pay for every time someone clicks on your ad.
  • Tools: Just extra tools for helping your site look better or get more traffic.

Web Hosts That Cost

Here is a list of webhosts that will cost you some money.

Just because it costs money doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. These hosts will give you a domain name and a lot of options you won't get at any of the free web hosts.
Yahoo! Web Hosting
Price: $6.47
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: Unlimited
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: Unlimited
Email Addresses: 1000
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $100 on Yahoo! and $50 on Google
Tools: Online site building. They give you templates that you can customize.
BlueHost
Price: $7.95
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: Unlimited
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: Unlimited
Email Addresses: 2500
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $25 on Yahoo! and $50 on Google
Tools: Drag and Drop Site Builder
Dotster
Price: $5.35
Domain Name: Yes, $15.95/yr
Disk Space: 10 GB
Data Transfer: 300 GB
Email Storage: 250 MB
Email Addresses: 100
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $25 on Google
Tools: SiteBuilder Basic
FatCow
Price: $4.83
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: Unlimited
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: 250 MB
Email Addresses: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $25 on Yahoo! and $50 on Google
Tools: Website builder, Script Barn, free templates
GoDaddy
Price: $4.74
Domain Name: Yes, $1.99
Disk Space: 10 GB
Data Transfer: 300 GB
Email Storage: 100 MB
Email Addresses: 100
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $25 on Microsoft and $25 on Google
Tools: Not much. Web builders cost extra.
Just Host
Price: $5.95
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: Unlimited
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: Unlimited
Email Addresses: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: $25 on Yahoo!, $25 on Google, and $25 on Miva
Tools: Site Builders, Video Tutorials, Form Builders
Web Hosting Pad
Price: $4.95
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: Unlimited
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: Unlimited
Email Addresses: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: None
Tools: Site Builders, Form Builders
HostRocket
Price: $6.99
Domain Name: Yes, $20.00
Disk Space: 1,000+ GB
Data Transfer: Unlimited
Email Storage: Included in Disk Space
Email Addresses: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: None
Tools: Not Much
1&1 Web Hosting
Price: $3.99
Domain Name: Yes
Disk Space: 10 GB
Data Transfer: 300 GB
Email Storage: 2 GB
Email Addresses: 600
Customer Service: 24 hours
Credits: None
Tools: Free Site Builder

*Note: This is the cheapest package on the site but there are 3 others that might have what you want. Click the link to see the other packages.

Free Web Hosts!

Don't feel like paying to get a domain? No problem, start out at one of these sites!

No you don't need to get a domain right away, so that is why there are some free web hosts out there. One big disadvantage to getting a free web host is the amount of space that is allotted to your website, it is a very small amount. It is usually below 100 megabytes but it can reach to 300 megabytes on some sites. This is a list that has several free web hosts, but not all of them. There are just too many.
Blogger
This web host is specifically for bloggers. If you don't want a blog, don't use Blogger.

Pros: Part of the Google universe, ridiculously easy to use, AdSense is easy to set up, HTML editing, unlimited blogs under one account.

Cons: Everyone and there mom has a blog on here, hard to show your face through the clutter.
WordPress
Another strictly blogging web host.

Pros: Uses Wordpress (see Bloggers! section for more info), automatically updates Wordpress

Cons: Can't edit HTML (sorry Google AdSense/Analytics), designing your own templates can be tricky
Yola
Yola does any site you want, blogging or not.

Pros: Multiple sites on a single account, great drag and drop page editor, your choice of website type

Cons: No HTML editing, limited editing of templates
Angelfire
One of the original free web hosts, does any type of website you wish.

Pros: HTML editing, easy page editors

Cons: Ads put on website
Webs
Create any kind of website you would like.

Pros: Site Builder, Web store, add Forums

Cons: Ads placed on website, no HTML editing

The Most Popular Web Host

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I Own a Website! Now What?

Congrats! You have selected a webhost and now it is time to get your website a good, clean look.

Well there are plenty of things you can do now. First, you have to ask yourself what kind of site do you want? You can make a blog, eCommerce, Wiki, Personal Web Page, or maybe something completely new that hasn't even been invented yet. This is completely up to you. When you decide what type you want, then you can move on.

Here Are The Tools!

Everyone take a look here for the best tools to get your site out to the public.

There is a plethora of fantastic tools out there for bloggers, wiki builders, and everyone else. These tools are meant to make your site look good are bring a heavy amount of traffic. This is what you need!
Wordpress
The ultimate blogging software. This is completely free and can be installed onto pretty much any website, the exception would be if you are using a site like blogger.com for your weblog. You can make some great looking blogs that are easy to manage.
Adobe CS4 Web Premium
Yes, very expensive. This is only for the serious web builder but these tools are extremely powerful and build the most beautiful websites out there. Only buy if you are up to the challenge.
phpBB
For those planning on a putting a forum on a website, this is great open source software to use. One-click install and you are good to go... and it's free!
Google Analytics
Free software from Google. Sign up and Google gives you some HTML code to put into your website, copy and paste it to install this neat tool. Once installed, you can see where all your traffic is coming from. It will even tell you what your traffic is searching in Google to get to your website.

Traffic Generating

After designing your page, it is time to get traffic so people can see it.

The first thing you want to do is submit your website to search engines, but you don't have to submit it to every search engine there is. I recommend submitting your site to Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Click the links to submit to each one.

After your website has been submitted, getting traffic to your website is all about SEO, or the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" search results. There is more information on this than I can provide, So I recommend doing a search on this or clicking the SEO link above.

Don't forget to track your traffic using Google Analytics!

Monetize

After traffic is flooding your website, you can convert that traffic into cash.

There are so many ways to do this. The easiest would be something called Adsense. Run by Google, this program is installed on your website via a small HTML snippet supplied when you sign up and submit your information. The next time you sign in, you will notice that there are a number of ads on your website. The concept is easy, if someone visits your site and clicks an ad, you get some money. The amount you get is unknown, but many people make thousands and thousands of dollars from this. Some get lucky enough to make a career out of it.

Google AdSense isn't the only one:
AdBrite
APT
Kontera

Besides these ads websites, there are other websites that pay you by how many products you sell and not if someone clicks the link. The disadvantage would be that you don't get as many payouts, however, you sell actual products so the payouts are much, much higher. This is called affiliate marketing and was first pioneered by Amazon. The idea is you place an ad (banner, text link, etc) and if someone clicks it and then purchases the product or service, you get a percentage of that sale. Here are some websites to get you started on affiliate marketing:
Commission Junction
ClickBank
PayDotCom
Amazon
Important!

IMPORTANT:

Keep your website up to date, nobody will want to come back to your website if it only updates when you feel like updating. Update constantly!

Tips

This section is full of tips and tricks to spice up your website or bring traffic your way.

Sprinkle keywords around your website to encourage traffic to head your way. To do this, imagine searching for the same topic as your website, what would you type into the search engine? Once you figure this out, begin putting those keywords around your website.


Add a "favicon" to your website. Don't know what this is? A favicon is that little icon that is next to the address bar that represents the website. You can see it in the picture above. To add this to your website, go here and upload the image you want to be used as your favicon (the image must be a perfect square). That site will output a .ico file that you need to put in your root directory of your website. Now copy and paste the following code into your <head> section: <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/YourIconFile.ico">. Change the "/YourIconFile.ico" to the name of your icon file you would like to be your favicon, and remember it is pointing to the correct folder you stored this image in.

Advertise your website anywhere you can. Post a link to your site in any spot you can find, this is called backlinking.

Just Domains

This section is to those that are looking to only buy a domain and get it hosted through their previous web host.

To buy a domain, I recommend buying from this site: 1&1.com.

They have the cheapest domains and always have some sort of sale going on. So now you have bought a domain, how do you get it hosted through your web host?? It's quite simple, just follow these steps:

1) Log in to your 1&1 account
2) Click "Manage Domains"
3) Find the "DNS" button and click that
4) Now you want to edit your "Name Server Settings", so click the edit button
5) Click the dropdown menu and change it from "1&1 name server" to "My name server".
6) Your "Advanced DNS Settings" section is where you want to edit. You have to find out what your web hosts name servers are and fill them into the box. For example, the Web Hosting Pad name servers are:
ns1.webhostingpad.com (primary)
ns2.webhostingpad.com (secondary)
7) Now it's time to add the domain to your web host. So log in to your web host and add a domain. You just have to type in the domain name (ex: Yoursite.com) and fill in some additional info like the root folder, password, etc.
8) It should all be done! It may take a couple hours to a whole day before your domain will be hosted.

Comments Please

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  • Reply
    Chris Jun 21, 2009 @ 9:37 pm | delete
    Great Blog! I decided to make a website and ending up signing with Web Hosting Pad because it is the cheapest. Thank you so much for this information. This is probably the best blog I have seen on this stuff.
  • Reply
    qlcoach Jun 21, 2009 @ 9:30 am | delete
    Great job here. I enjoyed the information your presented. Nicely written and well presented. Keep up your great work. Hope you will visit my new lens about emotional healing. Gary Eby, author and therapist. Oh, I met you on Lensroll.
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