To start an online business you need to know where to begin
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 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 the article below before proceeding with your design: http://www.bizweb2000.com/imc/articles/frontpage.shtml
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
