Website Creation Process Introduction

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Website Creation Process Introduction - HostingCentral

The following is an overview of the web site creation process. We will discuss four steps to launching a successful web site: registering a domain name, choosing a web hosting service, designing your site, and online marketing.

Let's start with domain registration, the natural beginning of the process for building a website. First you need to choose a domain name. if you haven't already thought of the name consider something that will reflect the nature of your online business. For example, someone wanting to sell flowers online will naturally choose a name that includes the word "flowers". Several rules to follow for choosing an effective name:

1. It has to describe your business

2. It has to be catchy

3. It has to be easy to remember

4. It should not be too long

5. Avoid using numbers or other ambiguous characters

6. It should sound brand name, one of the kind, the best in the business.

7. A .com if you're engaging in a commercial enterprise But if the name you're looking for is only available with another extension a .net. .org, or .us will suffice. Keep in mind that the name is important but what is going to be vital to the success of your business is how well it is marketed. We'll discuss marketing strategies further along in this lesson.

On to hosting the domain that you have chosen. What kind of programs will you run on your website? Do you have any specific ideas about how you would like the layout Have decided to look? These are an important questions to ask before choosing a hosting service because some of the applications You might like to use for your web site They only run on certain platforms. For instance, There are multitudes of php will only work if installs on a Server that as php support. Microsoft ASP on the other hand will only work on a windows server. There are certainly comparable solutions for the most popular platforms so if you have some flexibility in your choices you can put more of your attention on costs.

Something else you want to consider about the hosting package you is the look and feel of the administrative panel. This is the backend of your website, where you'll check site statistics, perform backups of your website, create new e-mail addresses set auto responders, managed databases, install new scripts, customize error handling messages for requests to pages not located in your website. These features along with the reputation of your web host the difference in the long run. Not to worry though, so long as you have your web site stored on your local computer and perhaps in another remote location, changing platforms or web hosts is not a problem. You've got your name, you've got some space on the world wide web.

Next comes design. You can hire your own designer or you can build your site on your own. How are your computer skills? If you're able to follow some instructions and know the basics of pointing and clicking you should be able to make do with an entry level design program. Microsoft front page is in any way as an extension of the office suite so if you comfortable using Microsoft office you probably just fine using frontpage. A step up And industry standard is Macromedia's DreamWeaver. As a standalone application for if you wanna work in conjunction with their of their applications you might want to try Macromedia's Studio MX. This flash MX which is quickly taking prominence on web for multimedia and all purpose website applications. Personally I think flash along makes the switch to Macromedia worthwhile. Many of this standard development practices of yesterday are now being programs using flash. If you see some moving buttons, twirling menus, or maybe a logo that jumps out at you, it's probably done in flash.

Successful online marketing is the results of consistent and dedicated effort over a period of months or even years. Your marketing effort will undoubtedly be in spurts with some periods of more intense required effort and some periods of more maintenance and quality assurance. That said, on any marketing campaign for your business, you want to have a clear vision of who you are marketing to and what results you are trying to achieve. You will find a particular marketing methods work for you and your business as you go along. Here a few that have found useful in marketing online businesses:

1. Friends & Family

2. Site Optimization: choose target and niche keywords for your metatags and place those keywords in the first paragraphs of your index page.

3. Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture, Superpages

4. Affiliate Marketing: ClickXchange, Commission Junction, ClixGalore

5. Blogging: Free blog at blogger.

6. RSS: submit your blog to rss directories like Blog Directory Submit for wide content distribution

7. Backlinks: the best thing for your online success is to get top search engine placement. One factor is how many relevent sites are linking back to yours.

8. Articles: contribute content to article directories with a link to your website. These articles may get picked up by other sites and thus be a source of backlinks to your website.

Also two marketing mottos you might want to consider:

1. It's not necessary to spend money to get your name and there.

2. It's easier to stand out if you can find a niche I hope you found the above information useful.

Good luck on your online adventures!

HostingCentral is a full service low cost web host offering Web hosting, domain names, web design Personal Site Hosting, Dedicated Servers & Colocolation. We offer affordable hosting, domain name registration and dedicated ad-free web hosting. HostingCentral is a leader in small business website and personal web site hosting.

About the author:

James Randolf has written a numerous articles for online technical publications. His posts to the HostingCentral blog and HostingCentral website are part of an ongoing web design and hosting series for web hosting newbies. The following article is an introduction to the website creation process.