Now there is a new quick and easy way to put up a website:
a number of places are offering online website creation. See my page
at googlepages for
one example. Another example is my website on custom
postage, which is
created with the blogging software called Wordpress. Nowadays Wordpress is one of the very best ways to create sites, though like anything it has a learning curve.
But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here... more background
below!
I love the internet and web site creation. Not only am
I making money online no matter where in the world I and my laptop are located, there are excellent income
opportunities to people who may have young children who need a lot of
their time, live in a third world country or anywhere that good jobs
are scarce, have health problems, or simply think -- as I do -- that
this is one of the most interesting and enjoyable jobs I could have!
And I'm self-employed, so I set my own hours!
Anyone who can read and write can make a web site. But if
you want to make a web site that is of value to your readers and helps
you with making money, I do think you have to have:
a willingness to take care
of details -- seemingly endless and often frustrating details
a good bit of patience
about how long it will take you to make a web site that earns well
the ability to write and
spell reasonably clearly in English or another major international
language
a computer and internet
connection, even if slow... or lots of access to a computer
connected to the internet, through a library, school, friend, or job
What's Your Purpose?
Why do you want to make a website? There are many reasons, and it's good
to define yours. Do you want to sell a product, promote a cause, make
money? Whatever topic you are interested in, the internet can connect you with thousands of others who share the interest.
For example, my father was a science fiction writer who died some years
ago. My website, www.cordwainer-smith.com,
was one of my first sites and was really a labor of love more than a
moneymaker. I have have been
astonished and moved to learn how much my father's writings mean to people
all over the world.
That website and most of our others are examples of niche websites.
"I am impressed by your site. The navigation
is very intuitive, and the information is helpful, clear and professional,
with a lot of respect to your reader... I want to build my own Web-based
business, as well as streams of passive revenue from the Internet. Your
site is like a bible for me. Thank you for a great job and a fine collegiate
spirit."
--Elga Nikolova, Toronto, Canada, www.pnphotography.com
Getting that email made my day!
If you're selling products, don't overlook eBay
If you already have products, selling them through your own website is
one way to go. We have also sold a number of our books and videos on eBay.
We find that since far more people go to eBay than to our websites (to
put it mildly) that some things sell better there than they do from the
web sites. Plus once people have bought something from us at eBay, I let
them know about the web sites in my email telling them we are shipping
the products, so sometimes they go to the sites for further purchases.
I was surprised that we did so well on eBay, and I think one reason is
that when people go there, they may be slightly more in a shopping mood,
where when they are surfing the net, they may be more in an information-gathering
mood.
If you don't already have an eBay account, or if you want a separate
one for your business, it's a good idea to get the account a while before
you need it, as the little icon eBay uses to indicate you are a newbie
will disappear after 30 days.
Another way to profit from eBay is to create websites that link to items for sale there. You have to sign up for eBay's affiliate program to do this.
Does your web site need a domain name?
Yes.
Your own domain name gives your site a professionalism that you can get
no other way -- as well as being easier to remember than a long address
from a free server. (Also be aware that the search engines do not always
list content from free servers).
You may have heard that all the good names are taken. Not so. I have
never had any trouble coming with with several ideas for names for any
website idea I have had. Often the most obvious names are taken, but
that just makes me think harder. Nowadays, you are likely to need to
combine three words rather than two.
Be sure to choose a name that is easy to spell. You want a name that ends in .com if possible, or .net or .org are also okay. Stay away from .info -- they are usually cheaper and spammers have registered a lot of them. Put your keywords into the domain name in some way... that is, what your site is about.
Registering your domain name
You can do a search on Google to find the cheapest rates for domain registrations.
Kelly and I are plenty frugal, but we prefer to use a company which has
good prices plus an excellent reputation for customer
service. One popular registrar which we haven't tried but have heard good things about is namecheap.com.
Where to host your web site?
We have used a variety of webhosts over time. What's right for us, with our several sites, might not be what you would need. Three that we have used or are using are hostgator.com, bluehost.com, and downtownhost.com.
There are sites that compare hosting plans: Hostcompare
and Hostreview are
two such sites.
Make a web site that is well designed
Here are a few tips for good web site design:
Web surfers want quick-loading,
information-filled pages. So forget Flash and "cool" effects.
Provide lots of text. Any
images that you use should be quick to load.
White text on a black
background is often extremely hard to read. The most readable is black
text on a white background.
Don't run your text from
one side of the page to the other... use a table to run it down the
middle... or set your margins.... or use CSS, cascading style sheets.
Create an easy to use
menu.
Here's a forum
where people can help you make a web site that is well designed.
To find out how to create the actual pages of a web site, go to my web
site software page.
Why Linking Matters
Linking is the very essence of the internet! By linking to other sites,
and by being linked to, you establish a presence. Nobody knows exactly
how any given search engine ranks web pages, but linking is clearly an
important part of things.
This does not mean go out and put your links on "link farms,"
those pages of endless links to all kinds of junk. But do find places
to link to you.
I used to do a fair amount of asking other websites for reciprocal links,
but now the search engines are not giving these you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours
links nearly as much weight as they used to.
Now, I write articles that I post at places like ezinearticles.com.
Other webmasters can use them provided they keep my links intact, which
gives me another link, and in any case I get an inbound link from
the place I post the article. People reading the articles sometimes click through to my sites, too.
Here's a list of moar of the articles I've published at ezinearticles.com:
