In the early age of the Internet or what we called the Information Age, setting up a website was not easy. It requires a lot of expertise in web development and design, and requires huge amount of capital to buy computer softwares and hardwares. Frequent upgrading is also required both on the software and hardware component, so it’s definitely not easy. A business that only the rich can afford to start and maintain.
Time changes, technology runs so fast, as the “speed of thought”. Many great ideas and discovery in the information technology contributed to make Internet friendly and affordable to everyone. Thanks to these great people who worked hard to develop such a wonderful achievement. It helps a lot in simplifying our life. E-mails, online payment, online shopping, video conference, e-commerce, online jobs, social networking and many more. That’s the power of the internet. It makes our life very easy.
How to start your own website?
Important Points to Consider:
1. Firstly, you need to know what is your purpose, your objective or your mission. Is it for a hobby, for charity or for serious money-making business. So you decide, it is the most important part in starting up your own website.
2. Secondly, find your niche. Is this a joke, sports, social networking or a website that sells cars, groceries and more. So find out. Do some research and find out “what is hot” and “what is not”.
3. Think of a good “Domain Name”. That is www.mybusiness.com. or www.myname.com. Find out, a good name that is short and catchy will help a lot in introducing your site. It will be easy for your visitor to remember your site. Also, it should contained the keyword of your niche. Example – www.cars.com or www.freshmilk.com. It helps in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), that will boost your search engine ranking.
4. Register it. Find a reputable, and established “Web hosting Company” that will host your site. Web hosting companies provide the software and hardware requirements in setting up a website. Unlike the early days, you need to buy your own softwares and computers. Now, all you have to do is to pay a small amount of fee to get the same requirements and services. It’s definitely cheaper than before.
There are also web hosting companies that provide free hosting. The only difference is their limitations on bandwidth and storage capacity. You are also not allowed to use your own registered domain name. And they include their advertisements in your pages. So it depends on your requirements. But, the paid one is always better than the free hosting, especially if you really want to establish your own name in this business.
You can check the following recommended Top Web Hosting Sites:
You can visit their sites and see for yourself which one is the best for you. Compare their plans, prices, promos, money-back guarantee, supported softwares, and other services. Choose carefully.
Learn also if they have VPS and Dedicated server. Not all web hosting companies have these type of servers. This is very important point to consider especially if you have future expansion plans.
5. Build your Website. Design your web pages. Look for free softwares to design your pages. Or, you can use Frontpage or Dreamweaver , the two leading user friendly design tools. You can also look for Free Open Source Scripts, these are ready made programs you can install to run your website, instead of starting from scratch. You can also look for cheap programmers to handle the technical part of your website installation. Just do research on the internet, there are lot of coders offering cheap services.
It is also very important to check the softwares and scripts copyright/ licenses. Avoid copyright infringement.
6. Submit your website to leading Search Engine such as Google and Yahoo. It is always better and safe to submit your site manually.
7. Look for free advertisement to promote your site. There are lot of ways to promote your site for free. If you have enough budget, you can sign up for paid advertisement in Yahoo or Google and other leading internet marketing sites.
8. Protect your work. Protect your intellectual property. Register your website for copyright protection. Check your countries’ copyright office. Copyright law differs in different countries.
9. Always update your site. Content is the king. They visit your site for information.
Internet business is considered to be the best business we can go into. We can start even if we don’t have employees, huge capital, office, warehouse , etc. All we need is an idea. We are already in the “Information Age”. People need more information and they even buy information. Softwares , e-books and our web pages are forms of information. You can sell a single information (ideas) a million times. That’s the reason why Bill gates considered to be the richest man in the world. Founders of the pioneer websites Yahoo, Amazon, and Google are now billionaires. Same with Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and other sites that show popularity and earned million dollars in a few years.
Internet is a billion dollar business why not take a portion of it. Take a bite or grab it. Start and register your ideas now. Build your own website for fun or for serious business. This could be your chance to build an empire like Yahoo and Google. Nobody knows. Goodluck
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