The thought of owning a website is the driving motivational factor for anybody that wants to get involved with the business of the internet.
The internet is still booming and it will be for the next few years, so now is the time to get involved.
Here, I will be covering how to start a website, and what you will need to get it off the ground.
Choosing your niche:
What is a niche?
There is probably a technical definition, but the common sense definition is: A segment of the market that caters to a small percentage or unique group of people.
An example would be a website that sells surfboards only.
That website only caters to people who want to buy surfboards, which builds credibility showing that they are committed.
People realize that cure all type websites are harder to market than small segmented websites.
If there was a website that sold everything water related, including surfboards, people would be less inclined to see that website as a trusted source.
When thinking about your market, you must think that everybody starts small, and once you build a reputation for that niche, then you can extend out to similar products or services.
Choosing your domain name:
What is a domain name?
A domain name is what you type into the address bar in order to get to your destination site.
Popular domain name extensions include.com,.net,.org,.biz, and.co.
The most widely noticed domain name extension is.com, and that is what everybody thinks about when typing a domain name into their address bar.
For this reason, finding a.com domain name is most likely the best way to start off on the right foot when choosing your domain name.
It can be very frustrating to think of an amazing domain name, only to find out that your name has already been registered by someone else.
This can get very annoying, but there are other options.
Your first option is to contact the domain name owner and see how much they would take for that particular domain name.
This price can almost always be negotiated, and if the domain does not have any content on it, the owner is more likely to sell it to you.
Another option is to see if your potential name is listed on an auction site such as sedo.com.
Sedo is the number 1 domain name auction site, so make sure you check to see if your name is listed there.
The last option is thinking of a new name.
This may be something that you don’t want to do, but it will save you money in the long run.
Just try and think of an original domain name that you think would relate to your company. A good example of this is justhost.com, which is a web hosting company.
Their niche is web hosting, so they came up with a great name for a web hosting only company, and they are doing very well.
Choosing a web hosting company:
In my previous articles, I have covered what web hosting is, but I will give a little refresher.
Web hosting is a necessary part of having a website online, and there are many options to choose from.
Web hosting stores all the files for your website on a remote server (large storage device) where it waits for somebody to access the information to your website.
There are many different types of web hosting companies, but most people choose shared hosting for their first website.
Shared web hosting is common among websites just getting their feet off the ground because it is cheap.
The reason it is cheap is because the web hosting companies store information for many websites on just one server.
This does have its downfalls in terms of site speed and capabilities, but the website owner can transfer all of their website files to a different type of web hosting with ease.
Hosthag.com offers a list of the best web hosting sites that we have experienced online.
Building your website:
After you have chosen your web host, you are ready to begin building your website.
The best part about going through a web hosting company is the tools that they offer in order to build your website.
Most companies have a website building tool for beginners that allows you to build a website within a day, or even a few hours.
This is great for the beginner web designer or developer that wants a simple but professional looking site.
If you are not at the point yet that you think you can build a website, you can have one professionally made.
Depending on your needs, you can have a website build for a potentially very cheap price.
With the competition in the web design world, you are in control, so you can choose who you want to make your website and decide if they are giving you a fair price.
Your done (but not really):
So you have completed your website and it is online, and you can’t wait to start seeing traffic, but wait, how are you going to get traffic to your website?
The best ways to start getting things going if you don’t have an advertising budget yet, is to tell all of your friends about the site.
Use Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site to get the word out that you have a new website.
Updating your website on a regular basis is imperative to success, and it may take a while for you to notice results, so don’t get frustrated.
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