Create Your First Website
Learn how to design and promote your own website.
Steps
- Choose a domain name. There are various tools you can use to pick a name if that gets difficult for you. Check out Nameboy.com, makewords.com, and eBay also has some. You can determine if the domain name is available by using sites like http://www.instantdomainsearch.com/ which can also help you find out if a similar site name has not been registered.
- Determine what kind of hosting package you will need. Many web hosting companies offer different packages, some of which are free, which will usually fit almost any web hosting needs. Some popular web hosting companies with low-cost starting packages are:
- GoDaddy.com
- 1&1 Internet Hosting
- HostGator.com
- Hostmonster.com
- BlueHost.com
- DreamHost.com
- and countless other
- Website navigation/ Website content - Make sure your idea for your website is clear. Get a notebook and sketch out what you want the pages to look like and write out as much of the content as you can.
- You might also want to use a web template to make it easier for you as well if you don't have time to do it yourself. Some of these are really good and very cheap. Freewebtemplates.com and templatesbox.com.
- Design your website - Decide what software you're going to use to design your website. Some of the software platforms that you can use to create and edit your websites are:
- Frontpage office.microsoft.com/en-us/frontpage/default.aspx
- Dreamweaver www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/
- NVU www.nvu.com/
- Bluefish bluefish.openoffice.nl/
- Amaya www.w3.org/Amaya/
- Notepad and Notepad++ notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
- Text/Graphics and Web buttons - Use Adobe Photoshop to generate a page header for your website. There are websites that can help if you're not a pro at Photoshop. You can use these sites to generate banner ads, buttons and everything else you need. Check out freebuttons.com, freebuttons.org, buttongenerator.com and flashbuttons.com - You can always use these sites to create advertisement banners for your website.
- Website design and development tools - There are many sites available for learning how to design and develop websites:
- W3Schools Online www.w3schools.com/
- PHPForms.net tutorials www.phpforms.net/tutorials/
- Enter www.entheosweb.com/website_design/default.asp
- How-to-build-websites.com http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/
- Web Design Tutorials www.webdesigntutorials.net/
- About.com webdesign.about.com/
- HTML Help Central Forum www.htmlhelpcentral.com/messageboard/
- Search engine submission - Don't forget try to get it on all the big guys, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com
- Their pages will walk you through the submission progress, from adding your sitemap and including your child pages as well. Don't forget to submit to DMOZ and Searchit.com too.
- Last but not least advertise, you can always use Yahoo or Google Adwords and maintain your own budget.
Tips
- When creating the page header in Photoshop, be careful not to make it very tall, because in smaller screens it covers half of the screen and the visitors will see only a part of your page's important elements such as menu or text.
- Decide at the beginning for which screen size you creating the website. What screen resolution your future visitors will use. Older websites were made for 800x600, but now as more and more web user using bigger screens, it can be either for 1024x768 or 1280x1024.
Warnings
- Keep back-up copies of your website.
- Do not try to cheat Google using your Adsense account.
- Do not steal photos or content from other websites.
Things You'll Need
- Notebook
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Website editing software
- Photo editing software
- Some knowledge on computer science (coding)
