Building a Website

Perhaps one of the more common wishes of people once they decide to use the internet to try and make some money is for their own website. People often start out with things like affiliate marketing or other promotional programs but for many, their own website promoting services, projects, products or even just themselves is the goal.

Modern tools like WordPress make the actual process of publishing web pages fairly simple, but there are several steps before that stage is reached, which we will outline below.

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The domain
The very first step in launching a website is deciding on the domain name, this is the address of the website, and there are a couple of options here.

The most common option for a commercial website is to purchase a domain, they usually carry and upfront fee for the initial purchase and an annual fee thereafter to keep the name chosen. There are sometimes deals available where a hosting company will give a free domain with the hosting package, so it always pays to check what’s available at the time of purchase.

The second option is to use one of the many places that offer free websites. Whilst it can seem like a good idea, and indeed for people looking for a simple personal website it can be, the restrictions can mean they are impractical for a marketing strategy. Free sites usually do not come with a proper domain name, so your web address will always be the name of another business first, and they are also able to offer free sites by placing advertising on them which can cause issues when using SEO or other marketing efforts. VisitMetrix.com is a good source of information on marketing the site.

SEE ALSO: 7 Effects of Digital Marketing

Hosting
Once the domain is registered, the next step is to find a place to host the website. It is in principle similar to renting office space to operate a business from, but here you rent server space and a connection to the world to go with it. There are many web hosting companies out there, it always pays to research any you choose to make sure service is as you would expect, and look for any offers such as free domains or savings for paying a year in advance and the like.

The website
Depending on the web hosting chosen this varies somewhat, as what platforms are available vary from host to host. WordPress is by far the most common and relatively easy way to build a professional looking site in a timely manner, with the added benefit of the platform being search engine friendly.

WordPress themselves have plenty of documentation and guides on how to achieve most things and the internet itself is awash with tutorials and tips for almost anything that may be required.

If it all seems a bit too technical, and it does for many people, the alternative is to hire a web designer to do everything, they may even offer hosting and domain purchase deals in with the cost so if a professional designer is a possibility it is best to consult them from the beginning.

Whichever way you go it is important to remember that the reason for the website exists is to attract people to read it and purchase whatever products that are being offered, so optimization for search engines must be considered during the creation of the site itself, it is much easier at this point than as an afterthought. It is always best practice to keep up to date with the best marketing strategies from a site such as VisitMetrix.com which is updated regularly.

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