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Six Steps to Creating Your Own Website

By: Brooks Freed

There are many reasons to create your own website. One of the biggest advantages to personally creating your site is that you are then solely responsible for the content and appearance. This means you have control over how potential clients view your business. Additionally, creating your own site will teach you many valuable skills that will come in handy when performing basic maintenance. These skills will save you a great deal of time and money.

Step 1: Visualize the Outcome
In order to make sure you site meets your final needs, you must come up with a concept for the site in advance. How should the appearance of the site represent your business? What do you hope the site will accomplish? Ensuring that you goals are clearly laid out will make you much happier with the end result.

Some of the common reasons that people create websites include providing information about a business or service, increasing sales and traffic to the businesses website, and offering a positive view of the company to potential clients. Think about these and other specific goal you would like to accomplish with your website.

Step 2: Decide on a Domain
It is very important that you select the appropriate domain for your website. Having the right domain name will make it easy for your clients, both new and existing, to find your website when they perform a search. Another important thing to think about when selecting a domain is possible copyright and trademark infringements. Before you make your final decision, perform a quick search to make sure your name, slogan or trademark does not belong to someone else.

After you have chosen a domain, register it with a reputable hosting site. It is important to ensure that you have the rights to your domain name for the foreseeable future. You may have this website for a long time, so make sure you register the domain for as long as you can.

Step 3: Pick a Host
After you have decided on and registered your domain name, it is time to decide on a host for your website. Hosting services run the gamut from very basic to full-featured. Some of the more elaborate ones can include eCommerce features and the ability to handle high volumes of traffic. Refer to your goals for your website, and determine you hosting needs based on those goals.

Step 4: Create the Code
Now it is time for the actual coding of your website. Before you begin, give some thought to the goals you outlined in Step 1. What are you hoping to achieve with this website? Let you vision for the website dictate how you choose to design the pages. Some of the elements you may want to consider include borders, background, layout, and graphics.

The task of learning to code is actually easier than you may anticipate, but it makes sense to invest in quality tutorials before you begin working on your website. Knowing everything necessary will keep you from wasting time and money fixing avoidable errors.

Step 5: Test, Test, Test
It makes good sense to test your website before deploying it to the Internet. Take a look at your website on your own computer and ensure that everything functions correctly. Some possible problem areas to focus on include forms, message boards, and eCommerce solutions. You may be tempted to skip testing, but rigorous testing of your site will ensure that clients are not frustrated by non-functional areas.

Step 6: Deploy and Promote
Now that you site has been properly tested, meets your goals, and looks attractive, it irs time to deploy it. This is a big step, but deploying your site is not the end of your work. You still need to introduce your site to the world and make sure that it is promoted properly.

To make sure your site gets the attention you want, have you URL printed on all business cards and any professional correspondence. If you advertise, update your ads to include your URL. Another consideration is optimizing your site for search engines. This will help attract additional business.

Article Source: http://www.bluearticles.com


Brooks Freed is a website developer who has found a unique way to train
people on the creation of new websites. His DVD tutorial program,
available at
offers important
website creation information in a format optimized for visual learners.

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