So you want a web site of your own?
Having your own web site gives you freedom of speech, your own personal place to rant and rave, or somewhere just to set up shop. No matter what the intention, you can do just about anything you need to do on line.
Before you start planning and spending the money to get the ball rolling, take a few moments to think about what your future site’s real purpose is. Have you got a niche that’s been sitting empty because nobody noticed, and you’re sure you will attract millions of pairs of eyeballs?
Before spending a penny to start the construction, do your homework. You may be surprised to know that many services and products related to web sites are free and ultimately can save you lots of time and headaches. Before we talk about those, let’s first describe the web site checklist.
Requirements:
- a product or service
- domain name
- hosting and e-mail
- marketing and promotion
- ongoing maintenance, web page updates
- more marketing and promotion!
- more updates…
Let’s leave the details of a business plan and research to you. We’ll assume you are 100-per-cent convinced and ready to take the plunge. The first step is coming up with a domain name. You need to come up with many, and use alternative spellings, too, etc. A good place to search for names is DomainsBot or at 1&1.
Domain names cost about $8 (all amounts in US dollars unless indicated otherwise) each. Each domain name type has a different price, and there are no set prices. Shop around!
If you need to generate names, try Domain Twist! Once you have a name, you need to give it an address. Every web page on the Internet has an address. Think of it as a postal address. People need to be able to find it. It’s called an IP address. An IP address will be automatically assigned by the hosting domain registrar – which is where you “pays your money, and gets your name.”
Once you have purchased the domain name, you have an address, but no house to put your web site. The next step is to find a host. Typically, it’s a company with a room filled with network servers split into many shared web sites. One server could house thousands of separate web sites, all completely independent of each other. This is called shared hosting. It usually runs about $3 – 20 per month for the average hosting package. Watch out for the setup fees; where the hosting is charged monthly, as well as an annual setup fee. Many hosts waive the setup fees if you purchase their services by the year.
Hosting packages depend on many factors, including:
- storage space you will need for your web site (how many gigabytes)
- bandwidth requirements (how many visitors will you have each month, and what are they doing at your site? Reading, or getting data, music, or other files from you? (Again, measured in gigabytes.)
- uploading – can people give you files and put them on your web site?
- number of e-mail accounts you need
- storefront (e-commerce, shopping cart, can you accept credit cards)
- database – will users register to log in, will they store any personal information, or interact with your web site in any way
- support for creating and publishing the web site with Microsoft Expression Web
, or Adobe Dreamweaver
To locate a hosting package, you will need to shop around. Consider looking at HostSearch. They will list many bargain hosts, such as PowWeb and all the way up to dedicated hosting which will cost lots of cash, but is worth it for a busy site.
Once you’ve bought the domain name, ask the domain registrar to point the domain to the address of the server whence you purchased your hosting services. The hosting company will have their own nameservers. These are servers that direct users trying to locate your web site. A nameserver works just like an apartment building directory. You are in the lobby, and know the name of the person you want to visit, but not the apartment number. Look in the directory, and you have it. So, when an Internet surfer clicks on your link, they are taken to your hosting company’s web server, and the nameserver tells them where your site is located on their servers. The Internet visitor sees none of the behind-the-scenes work, they just get to your site.
Now, you have a web page name, and a hosting company. You then set up all the e-mails you need for each department, or person, and configure your e-mail software to access those accounts on Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Mail, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, etc. These applications will retrieve the e-mail from the server and deliver it to your PC.
Now you need to build the site and promote it. Companies offering these
services are most often split into smaller specialty services – web site
designers create the graphics, programmers work with databases,
webmasters build the site and place it on the servers. All-in-one
service and support companies can build the site with you, make it
available on the Internet and maintain it for you.
You have to place each change modification to the web site on the host server. Web site maintenance and updating is an ongoing, never-ending task, and unless you learn to publish your web site on your own, be prepared to pay for updates. Each time you need something changed, you have to call the webmaster, or graphics company, to make those changes. Making them go live will cost you at minimum an hour of labor.
Shopping carts, e-commerce and credit card payments also require extensive integration with your web site, and cost more money. These are add-on services to your hosting package. Prices vary, and some may include some components free. If you plan to sell products, you may consider using PayPal initially, as it’s easier to set up. Accepting credit card payments requires a merchant account, and has monthly fees, as well as percentages off of the sales made.
Promoting and marketing your web site is perhaps the most important factor. People have to know that your site exists. Simply creating a web site does nothing for promoting it. You may enlist the services of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional, or purchase search engine submission software to assist.
In a nutshell, decide on a product or service, buy the name and hosting, build the site, promote it, and keep it current by updating it regularly.
If you are unsure about whether you need a site, think of what is already available for free or at limited cost:
- Photo storage, photo albums, and photo sharing
- Blogs – A great place to start is WordPress
- Product reviews
- Online file sharing, storage
- Music – storage, sharing, playlists
- Web storage space (not for domain names, just empty space), we recommend Carbonite
- PayPal, Google pay (for buying items over the Internet)
- Free shopping carts – they take a commission off your sales
You may find that what you think people need already exists – for free, or a lot less than you anticipated. Don’t despair, you can always find yourself another niche in life.