Websites are easy to make nowadays as the information on the internet is free flowing like a waterfall. First of all I’d like to say that anyone can create a website, even if it looks dreadful, it is still a website. What you require for a successful website is consistent traffic, that way if you have a community or if you have information which is like gold on your website the words gets around usually on social networking websites and when you get those kinds of back-links, your website usually does well in Google Search engine rank results.
Sub-step:
You don’t need to know how to code in HTML/PHP or any other language to start up a website. If you choose auto install scripts like ‘fantastico‘ which allows you to install scripts with ease with a few simple clicks then you don’t need absolute knowledge on scripting/programming.
Step 1:
It is usually good to plan what type of website you want to open. Do you simply want to open up a blog to post personal thoughts or do you want to open up a forum community or some sort of informational website which talks about how you take care of cats? Whatever the plan is, you should have one, so you know where exactly to start from.
What to plan?
Okay. So I have to plan, right? Yes you do! But what exactly am I planning? First of all you are planning your website. What are you going to call your website, is the name of the website available for my domain name? You have to take all this into consideration for the future of your website.
The domain name
A domain name is something which requires registration and in most cases payment. They cost around the $8-10 USD mark and that is an annual on-going fee for however long you want the domain. Once you acquire a domain and web host, you point the DNS to your servers host. At this point however if you have a decent host, they can help you out with this.
Design/layout/content
Once you have the basics over. Are you going to design your own website? Or are you going to use a platform script like WordPress or Drupal and use a free theme to start your website on. If you do not want to design your own website there are plenty of designs on the web that are available for free and at least one of them will suit your taste.
You’ll also need to think of the content that will go on your website. What will it be? Is it content that will interest someone? Or is it content that only interest a niche market. Whatever it maybe if you want something successful you are going to have to interest people. So find an interesting website to make and people will come if it is any good. (Of course that is if you advertise it – As it won’t just become “known” out of the blue)
Step 2:
You require a web host of some sort. If you are a beginner, I recommend that you find a free web host, so you don’t spend your money on something which is only to see if you can start up a website of some sort. So what is a web host? A web host is essentially something which hosts your website. For example it is a server which has hard drives that stores all the information you upload, like all the .html/.php/.perl etc to the server to appear on the web when someone visits your URL. (Link) – A URL would for example be http://webmasterspace.net. There are plenty of decent web hosts out there, however there are also plenty of horrible web hosts out there, so be sure to look at reviews if you want to find a decent web host. Particularly if you are new, you’ll want to see how good their support is, as you’ll likely be asking a lot of questions.
I recommend using some sort of content management system rather than updating your website all the time through HTML. It makes things more effortless. However you can still learn HTML/CSS/XHTML by editing the code behind your content management system. So there is always a place to learn, it is just if you are willing.
Advertising
- Free Advertising
You can market your website or gain back links, by registering them onto directories. DMOZ is the largest and likely the most popular online web directory on the internet, so that is a good start. However it is quite hard to get on some popular directories seeing as they have quite a few people submitting their websites to these popular directories. In my time I’ve heard some reports of people waiting up to 1 year or more! However you can also gain back links from other smaller directories and just hope they become more popular, and the more directories you submit to; the higher chance you’ll submit to a directory which may later become more popular. There are other ways too. If you go around on a lot of forums like I do, you usually have a signature where you can display links, place them there, every user on that forum that clicks it; counts!
- Paid Advertising
There are also paid methods of advertising your website. Your best bet if you have a niche website is to advertise on websites of similar category which might invoke users to understand the content of your website much better when they visit it. However you can also advertise on search engines for keywords. Take for example Googles’ AdWords, pick a keyword and bid for it! Since Google is the largest search engine, find a keyword for your website that gets searched a lot, then use that keyword as a choice to do your advertising on AdWords. There are other methods, however these two cover the paid advertising you can do on the internet.
Over the years I have created websites that have come and go, even some which are around today from years ago. However there is one tip I would like to mention. Make the website something which becomes a hobby! Something you like to do! If it isn’t something you like, it usually comes neglected and the site dies.
Good luck with your site!
