So you want to build or have built, produce or have produced and operate or have someone else operate a web site for you? OK, the first thing that you need to do is think of a good name for your web site. This is called a Domain Name. The domain name is what folks type into the address block of their browser to find your site. You will need to go to a company online that sells Domain Names. You will pay for your domain name yearly and the average cost should be no more than around $15.00 per year. You can secure a domain name from PowWeb for this cost. Domain names end in several extensions, with "com" being the most common. Then there is "org", "gov", "bus" and several others. It is best if you can obtain one with the"com" ending. Also remember that your visitor has to be able to spell your domain name, so keep it short and easy to remember if you at all possibly can. You can find PowWeb at http://www.powweb.com.
Once you have secured your domain name you will need a host for your web site, this is a Hosting Service. A web site host is where you will upload all your files once you have created them. The host should have an uptime of around 99.5% or better and have your site on more than one server. Remember, anytime that your site is down, your store is closed or your services are not being offered. There are many hosts available on the internet for hosting your site. Once of the best that I have found is PowWeb. They have lots of storage space and very good services for a very reasonable price. Since I started with PowWeb several years ago they have continually offered more and more services with no price increase. Currently PowWeb offers 500 megs of space and a bundle of services for $7.77 per month. I have looked hard and long to beat this price and services and have yet to find a company that beats PowWeb for customer support, service and uptime.
A web site can be an extension of an existing brick and morter store that you have or can be a completely web based enterprise. Either has to be maintained and kept up to date or you have just wasted your money and time and your visitors time, for they will not make purchase from you. Remember, whatever you are selling or offering on your web site, someone else is also offering or selling the same service or item. Depending you how well you build and guide your visitor from first page to the buying page will depend on your web developer.
One of the most important things to consider is what do you want your web site to do? Are you selling items, offering information or a service that you want your visitor to buy from you. Then you need to guide your visitor from the starting point, your offer, to the ending point, buying your item or service in an easy to navigate manner, this is called Site Navigation. Lay out your site so that it is easy to move around in. Don't hid links, or make them difficult to find. Don't take your visitor to a page and give them no way to move easily to the next area of your site, this will most likely cause your visitor (customer) to leave and go to the next site that is offering this service or merchandise.
No matter who build or developes your web site, you need to know what is going on behind the portion that is viewed on your browser. It is important to have the correct Meta Tags and Description part of your web site developed as well as the portion that your visitors will see. What good is the most perfect web site if no one but yourself, your best friend and your mother are looking at it. Properly developed web sites will allow the search engines to find your site, index it and bring it up when some one searches for items or service that you are offering. A properly developed site should show up within the first three pages of a search. Anyone or company who tells you that they can make your site number one in all the search engines is not telling the straight facts. There is no way to do that. You will be wasting your money. Ask your developer, "Do you use robot text?" If you get a blank stare, email me and I will tell you want robot text is and what it does for your web site. Anyone who tells you that they are a web site developer should know the answer to this question.
The next thing that you will need to learn to use is a FTP program. File Transfer Protocol or FTP for short is the program that you use to content to your hosting server to upload the HTML files that you have created for your web site. Without this program there is no way to get the files from your computer to your hosting server so that others can view your work. A very good user friendly program is located at http://www.cuteftp.com and is called CuteFTP. User friendly, easy to set up and easy to understand.
Did you know that your can use your computer just like a server to view the pages that you have created. Using a HTML Editor like cuteHTML, you can view what you pages will look like when you FTP them to your host server. Very useful as you can find mistakes before you upload your files and make sure that all your links, navigation table and other classy stuff is working like you want it to, before going public. The only thing that you need to do is connect to the internet, then check you links. They will work just like you have uploaded your site if everything is correct.
If you have used a form and want to get information from your visitor or have an order form on your site make sure that it is working correctly before going public. Does you no good to have this on your site if it don't work correctly. Upload your form to your host server, then get a few friends to fill out the form and submit it to you. This is the only want to make sure that your CGI (Common Gateway Script) is working correctly and that you are getting the infomation that you need to fill orders or send back information.
Come back often as more hints and other useful things will be added to this page. Right now, go forth and look over the tutors. Then contact me for consultation service for the proper and correct development of your web site.