Saturday, November 29, 2008

Do You Wish You Could Make a Web Site?

By Phyllis Wheeler

Since the dawn of time, setting up a viable business has never been easier. Through the Internet, you can now tap the world's marketplace from your living room. But here's the problem: you don't know how to make a Web site!

There are other big changes happening as well. For example, job security isn't what it once was. Fewer companies are offering benefits, and the ones that do are charging for them. With all this considered, perhaps you'd like to start a Web site to earn some money. Perhaps you'd even like it to become your mainstay.

But you're not taking the first step. You don't know how! And you think you can't afford it.

There are plenty of tools out there on the Internet that will help you. They are template Web sites that do nearly all the work for you. But there is one problem with them: you don't learn the skills you need to know to manage the site! As a Webmaster you will need to some HTML, the formatting language for Web sites. You'll need to add affiliate links, shopping carts, and clickable ads -- three of the big tools you'll need for earning money on your site.

Learn HTML? Isn't that like learning a programming language? Isn't it hard? The answer is, no it isn't really a programming language. It's a formatting language. And it's really not hard at all. The basic principles are very simple. Here's another bonus for you: you don't need to know very much HTML at all to do what you need to for a simple Web site.

To make your Web site, you will need special software that creates the Web site and the HTML code. Here are your alternatives: Macromedia Dreamweaver, the top of the line at several hundred dollars; Microsoft Front Page, at around $100; and Nvu. Nvu is open-source software, in other words free. Open-source software is maintained by programmers or companies who donate their time, and it's available to anyone at no cost. Why would programmers work for free? Many of them want to provide us with an alternative to Microsoft.

Web hosting is something else you will need that can be costly if you are not careful. Web hosting is renting space on a server. Hosting companies offer fancy solutions for big bucks, and also simple solutions for little money. If you buy both Web hosting and domain registration from the same company, you may get a better deal. Domain registration is reserving your domain name, such as www.mywebsite.com. In fact, you can probably find companies that offer both for as little as $25 per year for a simple Web site. Open a search engine and type in "cheap domain hosting" and see what you find!

One of the products that the Internet has generated in the past couple of years is an e-book. That's information that you pay for and download immediately. It's in the form of a document that you can read from your computer or print out on your printer. In our instant-gratification culture, it's catching on. If you're budget-conscious, plan to use Nvu, and look in the search engines for an e-book on how to use it!

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