Making,Your,Own,Free,Website,N DIY Making Your Own Free Website

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0in;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Creating a website is not as complicated as it sounds, and is becoming more and more important for individuals and organizations to get noticed by others. Earlier in the history of the internet, building a website required finding a professional, with a degree in website design. But times are changing, and the market of website creation is shifting in favor of the typical person surfing the web, who is a consumer and not a producer of computer software. This article will explain the basic steps involved in building a website. Use a Roadmap Planning your own website can feel a little like running in a maze while wearing a blindfold. But with a little planning and organization, you will be able to stay in control, and produce a beautiful website that attracts many visitors. Decide early on what information you want to provide to usersMake a sketch of how you imagine your website to look, with links pointing from your homepage to other pages. Are you buildinga personal blog, an online portfolio or a promotional website for your company? The more effort you devote to your website's planning, the smoother the website creation process will be. Choosing Your Domain Name A domain name is the websiteaddress used in an internet browser, to locate your website. Domain name are also called URLs, and are the words that come after http://. Choosing your domain name is an extremely important step in creating your own website, so choose wisely. You want your domain name to be simple and direct. Keep it short, and catchy. It is also recommended that you use keywords in your domain name, or words that describe yourself or your occupation. Changing your domain later on will confuse potential customers or visitors to your website, so it's wise to invest time up front creating a great name that will get your website the attention it deserves. Pick a Hosting Company Web host service providers make it so that your website can be accessed by anyone, at any time, from anywhere. A lot of corporations will have their own private servers to host company websites, but many also subscribe to hosting companies. There are literally tons of private web hosting companies on the web. Some provide different features than others to encourage customers to select them, but what matters most is the host's reliability. It's important to use a host that is protected by a firewall, and has servers that will not crashWhat's most important is that the servers won't crash, leaving your visitors with blank screens when trying to locate a page on your site. Hosting uptime refers to the amount of time a host is available, and most hosting providers aim to provide a 99.9% uptimeThere's nothing more discouraging to a new website visitor than a web page whose web server is down. Typically, hosting companies will provide free domain name registration and the option to cancel after a month. Creating Code Since the 1980's, HTML has been the traditional language used for designing websites. However, over the past decade, more and more websites are turning to Flash. Flash provides an immersive experience to website visitors, and is much more engaging than standard HTML . However, learning Flash is more challenging than HTML, and modifications can be time consuming. The good news is, there are a few companies that let users build Flash websites without having to learn code. Wix.com actually invented a free website tool that allows users to build Flash websites that are search-engine friendlyWix produced a fantastically simple platform that lets users with no computer knowledge at all, to create a website using Flash. The company's own website was built with the software. The program lets users choose from a wide selection of free templates and customize their own web designwithout entering in any coding at all. Wix's hosting is free for unpaid user accounts, which are saved on the company's own servers. Know Your Competition Knowing your competition allows you to figure out exactly what you can offer that others are not, and it clues you in to what customers are interested in. Benchmarking is a very important part of creating a website, and is not only limited to your website's early stages. Remain aware of what others are doing by continuing to benchmark as your website grows. Go to search engines such as Google or Yahoo!, and type in keywords that would be used to locate your website. Conduct a few searches, with different combinations of keywords and phrases. You can also search for your competitors by name, and see what sort of standards are being set for your niche. Study your competition, and think of ways to offer something better. Promote Your Website with Keywords Getting your site noticed by others is the goal behind this entire operation. Using appropriately placed keywords in your site can ignite your website's popularity with search engines. When someone enters in a search in Google, the words they use are known as "keywords"Keywords are words or groups of words that a user types into a search engine, to bring up relevant web pages. So how do you chooseselect good keywords for your website? Think of what words and phrases are related to your website, that people are likely to use in a search. Although there are several keyword tools that cost money, you can start planning your website's keywords before you even create the website itself, with Google's free keyword tool. Build Your Website for Your Target Market As a website creator, you will be more focused if you know who it is you are designing it for. Think of your ideal business clientele, or visitor to your website, and think about what they might expect to find when they visit you. Write in a style that will speak to your visitors. Conversational, formal and technical writing styles target very different audiences. It's also worth considering what specific actions you hope your visitors to perform while on your website. Do you want them to buy products, provide contact information, or subscribe to a service? Once you understand exactly who your target market is, your web design can be tweaked to match the expectations of that particular audience. Becoming a Website Builder You are now a bit closer to becoming a website builder than you were before. Using these basic tips should help clear up the confusion about how to create your own website. Remain focused, plan out your design before getting started, and demonstrate your success as a website builder to your niche's online community. Article Tags: Free Website, Domain Name, Hosting Companies, Website Builder