How to start a website

How To Start A Website
By: Jennifer Shircel

I’m one of those people that always wanted a website, but had no clue as to using the internet. I could check my email and that was about it. I never heard of ISP, FTP or all those other “words”.

When I discovered that I had the website making program Microsoft FrontPages I was determined to learn something about html. Then when I discovered I could earn some money by having a website I wanted to start yesterday! And here I am, still don’t know hardly anything, but I’m running a website! So believe me when I say, “if I can, you can!”

Here are some basics to get you going:

1.) Pick a topic. Decide what you want your site to be about. Be sure to choose something that is very interesting to you so that you keep your site new and exciting and your visitors returning. Research, research, research! Get a lot of information for your visitors to read. Add a lot of content to your site, not just link exchanges. Search engines (like yahoo and google) love content.

2.) Get web hosting and a domain name. The host is who holds your site on the internet and your domain name is www. What you want it to say .com. You can get free hosting, but these usually are not good for making money. They typically post their own ads and will not let you post any. But, if you’re looking for a free host to start with, find one with a ton of freebies that you can use like web templates, visitor counters, chat rooms, guestbooks and a lot more. For inexpensive web hosting and domain names, I like 1&1. I purchased my domain name and web hosting from them for $6.95 a month!

3.) Design your site. This is the fun stuff (if you’re the creative type). You may either do it yourself or you could pay a professional to do it. If you don’t know any html then you can purchase a program like Microsoft FrontPages or Dreamweaver and do it yourself. These programs make designing a website a snap! You can also find free web templates out there which have the basic design, you just have to add the words.

4.) Get affiliates for your site. Now this is where the “make money” part comes in. Being an affiliate means that you are helping companies to sell their products. Typically they will either pay you a commission on a sale of their product or by a click on their link. Be sure to choose affiliates that coincide with your topic. Some great places to go for affiliates are Google AdSense, Commission Junction and Click Bank.

5.) Start Advertising. Add your sites url (the link to your site) to all of your signatures. Tell everyone you can about your new site; family, friends, coworkers—everyone! Add a link to your site in all of your emails. A good site to check out is www.MomPack.com You can find many other moms on there looking to help you advertise.

6.) Start Making Money!!

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