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this tutorial shows you how to make or create a website. it is intended for the beginner and layperson, taking you step by step through the whole process from the very beginning. it makes very few assumptions about what you know (other than the fact that you know how to surf the Internet, since you’re already reading this article on the Internet). Since some steps are more involved, it also links to selected relevant articles on thesitewizard.com that you will need to click through to read for more information.the Essential Step-by-Step Guide to making Your own Website
1.Get Your Domain Name
The first thing you need to do before anything else is to get yourself a domain name. a domain name is the name you want to give to your website. for example, the domain name of the website you’re reading is “thesitewizard.com”. to get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. getting a name does not get you a website or anything like that. It’s just a name. It’s sort of like registering a business name in the brick-and-mortar world; having that business name does not mean that you also have the shop premises to go with the name.*
Detailed information on getting a good domain name can be found in the article Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name.*
After you read that, you will need to know the steps to registering a domain name and the things you need to look out for when registering. You can find a detailed guide in the article how to Register Your own Domain Name.*
It may also be wise to take a look at some of the important Precautions to take When Buying a Domain Name, just so that you don’t commit the same mistakes that some newcomers make when buying a domain name.2.choose a Web Host and Sign up for an Account
A web host is basically a company that has many computers connected to the Internet. When you place your web pages on their computers, everyone in the world will be able to connect to it and view them. You will need to sign up for an account with a web host so that your website has a home. If getting a domain name is analogous to getting a business name in the brick-and-mortar world, getting a web hosting account is analogous to renting office premises for your business.*
There are many issues involved in finding a good web host. Read up on the various things you need to look for in searching for a good web host in the article how to choose a Web Host.*
After you have an idea of what to look for, you can search for one from the Budget Web Hosting page. You can also find out which web host I’m currently using from the Which Web Host Do You Recommend? page.
After you sign up for a web hosting account, you will need to point your domain to that account on your web host. Information on how to do this can be found in the guide how to Point a Domain Name to Your Website (Or what to Do After Buying Your Domain Name).3.Designing your Web Pages
Once you have settled your domain name and web host, the next step is to design the web site itself. in this article, I will assume that you will be doing this yourself. If you are hiring a web designer to do it for you, you can probably skip this step, since that person will handle this step.*
Although there are many considerations in web design, as a beginner, your first step is to actually get something out onto the web. the fine-tuning can come after you’ve figured out how to get a basic web page onto your site. one way is to use a WYSIWYG (“what You see Is what You Get”) web editor to do it. Such editors allow you to design your site visually, without having to muck around with the technical details. they work just like a normal wordprocessor.
There are many commercial and free web editors around. for those who don’t mind spending money on a good commercial web editor, one of the most highly-regarded WYSIWYG web editors is Dreamweaver. If you are planning to use this editor, thesitewizard.com has an online tutorial on how to create a Website with Dreamweaver CS4 (Dreamweaver Tutorial). the tutorial takes you through all the steps of creating a fully-functional website with multiple pages and a feedback form, and provides you with the theoretical and practical foundation that will help you create and maintain your site.
If you prefer to use free software, you can find a complete tutorial on using KompoZer, a free WYSIWYG web editor, in the article how to Design and Publish Your Website with KompoZer. Like my Dreamweaver tutorial, this one also guides you through the process of creating a website that has a home page, an about page, a site map, a links page and a feedback form. it also shows you some of the main features of the KompoZer software so that you can go on improving and updating your website on your own.
There are many other web design software around. If you prefer not to use either of the above, you can find some others listed on thefreecountry.com’s Free HTML Editors and WYSIWYG Web Editors page.*
After you have followed my tutorial, and are on the way to designing your website, you might want to read the article Appearance, Usability and Search Engine Visibility in Web Design as well. the article takes a brief look at some of the real world issues that every web designer must deal with.*
An integral part of web design is search engine readiness. Search engine promotion does not start after the web site is made. it starts at the web design stage. the article 6 Tips on how to create a Search Engine Friendly Website is a must-read. my article on how to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google is also important for the simple reason that Google is the most popular search engine around, at least at the time this article was written.*
There are many other issues regarding the design of web pages. the above will get you started. however, if you have the time after you get something out onto the web, you may want to read my other articles on Web Design and Website Promotion and Search Engine Ranking.4.Testing Your Website
Although I list this step separately, this should be done throughout your web design cycle. I list it separately to give it a little more prominence, since too few new webmasters actually perform this step adequately.
You will need to test your web pages as you design them in the major browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 6, the latest versions of Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. Since all these browsers are free anyway, it should not be any hardship to get them and install them. the trick however, is testing with more than one version of Internet Explorer since the later version will overwrite the earlier. for that, please see the article how to Check Your Website with Multiple Browsers on a Single Machine (Cross-Browser Compatibility Checking). although there are two possible ways given in the article, I suggest that you use the emulator/virtual machine method to do this. (It’s probably easier.) Read the article to find out more.
One way to improve your chances that your website will work in future versions of the web browsers is to make sure your web pages’ code validate as correct (that is, the underlying code has no errors). You can read more about this in HTML and CSS Validation: should You Validate Your Web Page? There are numerous free web page validators listed on the Free HTML Validators, Broken Link Checkers, Browser Compatibility Checkers page.5.Collecting Credit Card Information, making Money
If you are selling products or services, you will need some way to collect credit card information. You should read up on how to Accept Credit Cards on Your Website. I also have a step by step guide on how to Add an Order Form or a “Buy Now” button using PayPal to a Website for those using PayPal.
If you need advertisers for your website, you might want to read how to make Money from Your Website and the follow-up article how to Increase Your Website Revenue from Affiliate Programs. a list of advertisers and affiliate programs can be found on Affiliate Programs: Free Sponsors and Advertisers. those companies are on the constant lookout for new web publishers to display their advertisements.6.getting Your Site Noticed
When your site is ready, you will need to submit your site to the search engines, particularly Google. You can find the Google submission page by clicking on the “about Google” link on Google, and then locating the “Submit your content to Google” link on the page that appears. however, submitting your site to Google alone is, quite frankly, a pointless endeavour. If there are no other links to your site on the web, Google will be appear most reluctant to index your site and show results that include your pages. If there are many other links to your site, you don’t even have to bother to submit it to Google — it will find your site by itself.
This is where promoting your website is important. this involves many things, including the usual way people did things before the Internet: advertisements in the newspapers, word-of-mouth, etc. You might want to consider advertising on places like Yahoo! (which puts your ads on Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN), or Google. as discussed in my article more Tips on Google Search Engine Results Placement, ads can be a quick way to get onto the first page of a search engine’s results page.
There are also Less Obvious Ways of Promoting Your Website, which you might want to consider.
Naturally the above guide is not exhaustive. it is a distillation of some of the essential steps in getting started with your site. If you want more information, you should read the other articles on thesitewizard.com. however, the above tutorial should be enough to help you put your website on the Internet.
How to Register Your own Domain Name
If you have a web site, you should seriously consider registering your own domain name. a domain name is a name like “thesitewizard.com” or “thefreecountry.com”, which you can use to refer to your website. Note that you do not have to be a company or organisation to register a domain name. Any individual can do it too.Importance of a Domain Name
There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:
If you ever change your web host, your domain name goes with you. Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.thesitewizard.com (for example) would not have to be informed about a change of URL. they would simply type your domain name and they’d be brought to your new site.*
If you are a business, a domain name gives you credibility. few people would be willing to do business with a company with a dubious URL like http://www.geocities.com/whatever/12345.*
If you get a domain name that describes your company’s business or name, people can remember the name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents. in fact, if you get a good name that describes your product or service, you might even get people who were trying their luck by typing “www.yourproductname.com” in their browser.*
If you want good sponsors (advertisers) for your website, a domain name is usually helpful. it tends to give your website an aura of respectibility.
Registration Overview
Getting a domain name involves registering the name you want with an organisation called ICANN through a domain name registrar. for example, if you choose a name like “example.com”, you will have to go to a registrar, pay a registration fee that costs around US$10 to US$35 for that name. That will give you the right to the name for a year, and you will have to renew it annually for (usually) the same amount per annum.
Some web hosts will register it and pay for the name for free (usually only the commercial web hosts), while others will do it for you but you’ll have to foot the ICANN fees.
My personal preference is to register the name directly with a domain name registrar rather than through my web host. I’ve heard stories, in the past, of less-than-reputable web hosts that registered the domain under their own name, making them the owner of the domain rather than you (although I don’t know if such web hosts still exist today). Registering with a domain name registrar allows me to make sure that I am registered as the owner, the administrative and technical contacts. Being the owner is vital — if someone else places himself as the owner (such as your web host), he can always decide to charge you some exhorbitant fee for the use of the name later, and there is little you can do. the various other contacts are less vital, but still play important roles. for example, the administrative contact’s approval is required before a domain name is transferred out of a web host. If he/she cannot be contacted, the technical contact is used.
Although some web hosts suggest that you put them as the technical contact, you may prefer to keep yourself as one, so that when you want to transfer your name to a new web host, you don’t have to wait for your old host to approve the transfer. Apparently a few have been known to take their own sweet time to do this, while unscrupulous ones have actually refused to do it.
Domain names disappear extremely fast. many people claim that all the good domain names are gone. I doubt that — but it is probably true that most good domain names that are descriptive of products and services have been taken. If you want a domain name for your site, I suggest you act now, or face the anguish of having lost that name later. After all, US$10 (more or less) for a year’s ownership of the name is pretty cheap when you realise that you’re cornering a good name for your website.Step By Step Instructions
If you want to register a domain name, here’s what you need to do. Please read it all before acting.
Think of a few good domain names that you’d like to use. it won’t do to think of only one — it might already be taken (it probably is!). You can find some tips on choosing a good domain name from my article, Tips on Choosing a Domain Name, at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/domainname.shtml
There’s more to it than meets the eye.*
You will need either a credit card or a PayPal account to pay for the domain. this is a requirement of most if not all registrars. it will allow you to claim and get the domain name immediately on application. this is not an option (unfortunately).*
If you already have a web host, obtain from your web host the names of their primary and secondary nameservers. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what these things mean. Just save the information somewhere. the information can usually be obtained from their FAQs or other documentation on their site, usually under a category like “domain name” or “DNS” or “domain name transfer” and the like. If you can’t find it, email them. You’ll need the information to point your domain name to your website after you buy your domain. Don’t worry if you don’t have a web host yet. Just read on.*
If you do not have a web host, you can always allow the registrar to you to park your domain name at a temporary website specially set up for you. this way you can quickly secure your domain name before it’s too late and still take your time to set up the other aspects of your site. as far as I can tell, many registrars automatically park your domain by default whether you ask them to or not, so if this is your situation, you probably don’t have to do anything special to get it done. some of those registrars also provide you with a free email address at your own domain name while it is parked at their site, like sales@example.com (where “example.com” is your domain).
List of Domain Name Registrars
There are numerous domain name registrars. Listed below are just a few, along with my comments, if I know anything about them. Note that the domain name industry is highly competitive, with prices wildly fluctuating throughout the year, every year, so it’s impossible to really mention accurate prices below unless I spend all my time updating this page. Please check their sites for the latest rates. (Note: all prices are in US dollars.)
World’s largest Registrar – GoDaddy.com — this extremely popular registrar (possibly the biggest today) offers .com domain names for $9.99 (plus 20 cents) per year ($6.99 plus 20 cents if you transfer from another registrar). they have a web interface to manage your domains, free web redirection (where people who visit your domain will get transferred to another URL of your choice), free starter web page, free parked page or free “for sale” page, and an optional private domain registration where your domain is registered in the name of a proxy company. they offer .com, .us, .biz, .info, .net, .org, .ws, .name, .tv, .co.uk, .me.uk and .org.uk. Note that (as with all registrars) the exact price varies depending on which domain you are registering (for example some domain extensions are more expensive than others). Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted.*
Dotster.com — this fairly popular registrar provides fairly cheap domain prices ($15.75 plus 20 cents per domain), a convenient web interface to manage your domains, an optional privacy facility where your domain name is registered in the name of a proxy company, etc. they offer .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .ca, .tv, .name, .cc, .de, .sr, .md, .co.uk, .us.com domains, etc. If you’re transferring a domain here from other registrars, the price is even cheaper ($6.99 plus 20 cents). Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted here.*
Register.com — this domain name registrar has been in business for a very long time: they were one of the biggest around when I started my first websites. they are currently running an offer (only via the above link) where they charge $9.99 for the first year for a domain name with a free business email account. Domains qualifying for this offer include .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info. Country-specific domains have different prices. Note: the special offer link is rather flaky. If you don’t get the $9.99 offer the first time you click it, but instead get their normal $35 price, return to this page again (for example, by clicking the back button on your browser), and click the link again. the $9.99 offer should appear the second time you click it (or at least it did for me). [I've no idea why it works that way; I don't run their site.]*
Moniker — this domain name registrar allows domain name registrations for a plethora of top level domains (TLD), including .com, .org, .net, .info, .mobi, .biz, .us, .co.uk, and so on (the full list is too long to include here). Prices for domain names differ, depending on the extension. their normal prices are about $10.49 for .com, $6.04 for .net, $10.95 for .org, $5.49 for .info, etc, although at the time I write this entry, it seems like they are having a sale, with $7.59 for .com, $5.59 for .net, $7.97 for .org, and so on. their web interface allows you to manage matters pertaining to your domain, such as DNS, web forwarding (where you forward visitors to your domain to another URL of your choice), etc. You also have the option to add “Whois privacy”, where your domain is registered in the name of a proxy company. Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted by this registrar, although PayPal payments have a surcharge.*
1&1 Internet — this is primarily a large web host that is also a domain name registrar. You are charged $6.99 for .com, .org, .net, .us domains. they also offer .info domains for $0.99 (first year only) and .biz at $8.99. the fee includes private domain registration, which means that your particulars are hidden from public view (done by registering the domain in the name of a proxy company). You also get a free email account, DNS management, domain forwarding and masking, and a starter website with each domain. Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted by this registrar.
In addition, as mentioned earlier, a number of commercial web hosts will give you a free domain name if you are hosting with them, as will many (if not all) of the registrars above.After You Register Your Domain Name
If you’re not sure what to do after you register your domain name, please read the the Beginner’s A-Z Guide to Starting/Creating Your own Website.Conclusion
Once you decide, you should not procrastinate. I’ve lost more than one domain name by procrastinating (I lost the latest one by only one day). After all, at the price you’re paying, it works out to be less than $1 a month for the majority of the registrars.
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