| Learning to build your own website can be | | | | it for a business, informational purposes, family |
| challenging, but a great outlet for your creativity, as | | | | pictures or reference? Maybe a combination of types. |
| well. Take a look at this general overview to find the | | | | Next, work on site navigation. Do not make your |
| answer to the question "How do I build my own | | | | visitor hunt through layers and layers of pages to find |
| website?" | | | | the information he or she is looking for. Most people |
| Hosting Your Site | | | | will leave the site if they cannot find information they |
| Both free and paid web hosting have their pros and | | | | want quickly. Navigation needs to be simple and |
| their cons. If you opt to use a free site, you will | | | | clearly laid out. Plan your content. What topics will you |
| undoubtedly have ads from the site on your pages; | | | | cover? What formats will be available: audio, text, |
| that is how the free sites keep the site free. If you | | | | video? Free articles are available at sites like or you |
| are fine with that, then a free site may be the right | | | | can outsource content for about a penny a word at |
| choice for you. If you do not like the idea of having | | | | an article writing service. |
| advertising on your site, you may want to go with a | | | | Page Building and Publishing |
| paid web host. Free sites also tend to have less | | | | The web host you have chosen may have a page |
| space allotted to each site, while paid hosts have all | | | | editor as part of the package, but often these are |
| of the space you will need. | | | | quite limited in what they can do; whether it will work |
| Free blog hosts have become very popular over the | | | | for you depends on your needs. You can also use an |
| last few years and there is a good reason why. Blogs | | | | editor such as Dreamweaver or Sandvox. |
| are very easy to adapt to most types of sites, | | | | Filezilla and Cyberduck are two free FTP programs |
| there are a variety of easy-to-use templates from | | | | that you can use to transfer your files from your |
| which to choose, the search engine optimization is | | | | computer to your hosting site. These two programs |
| taken care of and they provide plenty of space. If a | | | | are not the only free FTP programs around, so if you |
| blog host does not appeal to you, some free web | | | | already have one or do not like either one of these, |
| hosts include doteasy.com, 50megs.com, and For a | | | | you can choose another. |
| fee, most of these hosts will remove the ads from | | | | Site Promotion And Maintenance |
| the site. | | | | To promote your site you can hire a search engine |
| Domain Name | | | | optimization specialists or do it yourself. If you decide |
| Businesses will need a unique domain name. Personal | | | | to do it yourself you will need to read several SEO |
| sites have more flexibility; it is a matter of personal | | | | do-it-yourself sites that have instructions on the |
| preference. Domain names are not expensive. | | | | basics of SEO (search engine optimization). |
| Average cost is about $10; you should be able to find | | | | Maintaining your site is paramount in order to keep |
| a domain name registrar for less if you look around. | | | | the visitors and search engines coming back to see |
| Domain names can be purchased at a registrar and it | | | | what is new. But, once your initial site is up and |
| does not have to be the host you decide to do | | | | running, maintaining it will not take more than two or |
| business with; however, many hosts offer domain | | | | three hours a week at most. These are the basic |
| names as part of the hosting package. | | | | steps I took when I decided to build my own |
| Planning The Site | | | | website. |
| Consider what kind of a site it is you want to build. Is | | | | |