Create A Website
How to Create a Website: Summary
To create a website from scratch is quite a large task. However with the right guidance it can be made a lot easier. In this section I will take you through the site building process from the very beginning. I will also be pointing the mistakes that I made when first getting into website building, and also the software that I use on all my systems today.
Because there is so much information on learning how to create a website, I’ll give you a quick overview of the general steps.
Remember that this isn’t some “get rich quick” scheme. It takes time and effort to build a decent website that can allow you to make money from home. The other sections on my site can earn you very good money, in fairly little time, but it is making money from websites where people can earn the “big bucks”.
Read through the entire overview before you click on any of the specific links within “create a website”.
Find a Topic
So, you want to create a website that can earn you money. We need to find a topic that you’re going to be interested in enough to persevere with even through the tough times (trust me, there will be times when you’ll just want to give up). But this subject needs to interest other people as well. Otherwise the site won’t actually get any visitors.
Some people might tell you to avoid really popular subjects. But I believe that, with the right techniques, anyone can challenge for the top spots in any subject. Remember “if you don’t shoot, you don’t score”. Click on Finding a Niche to go through the stages I do when finding a topic to create a website around.
Domains And Webhosts
A domain name is the address of your website. This is what people type into the bar at the top of the screen e.g. http://www.increaseyourpaydays.com. It’s very easy to register a domain name, and is incredibly cheap. You can register a domain for free, but I do not recommend free web hosts because they are unreliable and don’t look professional.
After you Register a Domain, you need to Select a Web Host. These are companies that provide server space, and look after the background maintenance of your site. Again, this costs money but not a lot for what you get in return.
The web host I use for this site is Dreamhost. These guys are great and I am yet to encounter any sort of problem with their service. Plus you can actually register a domain from the Dreamhost website, so it can all be done from one place. I find it’s more practical working from one web host when I am creating a website. But there are things I might do slightly differently if were to start again right now, which I point out in my pages on Domain Name Registration and Selecting a Web host.
Website Design Software
When choosing web design software there is a choice. You can download free programs, or buy it. I’ve done both and actually recommend all of you do the same.
What I first did was download some free software, so that I could get a feel for what creating a web page would be like (because I had no idea what I was getting myself into). I downloaded a WYSIWYG editor from NVU. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get”, and NVU is a company that provides a free WYSIWYG editor. Now these kind of editors are great when it comes to creating a website because they allow you to edit your site while you see it as it will appear on the web, rather than playing around with html code which can be incredibly difficult.
I go into more detail if you follow the link below, so don’t worry if you’re not sure right now.
The free editors are great for gaining an understanding for creating a website, but they don’t have nearly as many great, in depth features as the ones that cost money. To create this site I used a program called RapidWeaver, which is a cheaper alternative to DreamWeaver (DreamWeaver is obviously a lot better but it costs hundreds).
Click on Website Design Software to find out more.
FTP’s
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Don’t worry, it’s not too complicated. This is a program (that you can download for free) that you use to get the web pages you’ve created using your design software, on to the web host’s site. So that they can then attach them to your domain name, so they appear on the web.
I go through the whole process of downloading FTP software, and uploading your web pages, in the FTP section.
Other Features
When creating a website, there are also some other design features that you may want to add to your site. For example a search bar, or an email sign up form. Some of these can actually be downloaded for free, from a simple search on google. The html code can then be easily pasted into your WYSIWYG editor.
Something more complicated like an email sign up will need you to register with an email list provider. These companies will provide you with the html code for a sign up form (which you can easily paste into your editor) and they also provide maintenance and broadcasting options for the email list you create.
Again, I go into far more detail in the Other Features section. You can make incredible amounts of money from building a strong sized email list using email marketing techniques.
Create a Website / Section 1 / Finding a Niche
Create a Website / Section 2 / Is there a Market?
Create a Website / Section 3 / Register a Domain
Create a Website / Section 4 / Selecting a Web Host
Create a Website / Section 5 / Building Your Website
Create a Website / Section 6 / Your Website Structure