Needless to say for many aspects of working online you will need your own website. Depending on what you want to do it is not always possible to function without one.

If you are going to be working as an affiliate or are considering doing freelancing or data entry then you may be able to get away without one but for everything else you will need to build a website. But, it’s ok, I am here to tell you that that doesn’t have to be as frightening a prospect as it may at first seem.

There are many people who will build your website for you and not all of them will cost an arm and a leg although the price does vary depending on what you want.

The other option of course, is to build the site yourself and although this is not something that you will be able to do over night there is a lot of technology and software out there that will help you do just that. Again the prices can vary dramatically depending on what you want to do but there are also a lot of free resources if you look.

But before you get to building your site you need to have a name for it. I once received some very good advice about deciding on a name for your site and it was this “Just get on with it”

Many people find themselves suffering from what’s known as ‘Analysis Paralysis’. We so desperately want to come up with a success sounding name that we spend days deciding what to call ourselves only to find when we go to register it that it has already been taken.

How to choose your domain name:

Consider this:

1.What does your business do?
2.Who does it do it for?
3.What is you unique selling position – in other words what have you got that the others haven’t that will make people want to come to you?
4.What is your name?

The last one may seem a bit odd but I’ll get back to that in just a minute. After considering the first 3 points come up with a list of several names that you could use and then take them to a domain registrar and see which ones are available for you to use.

Prices don’t vary too wildly but it is worth a look around.

.com names are among the most expensive and with good reason, as it is the first extension that people will type if they are unsure of your full address and also the most professional sounding. Stay away from cheaper more obscure extensions they may not cost as much but you need to consider what kind of image you want to portray to your customers.

Almost all domain registration services will offer free extras such as domain and email forwarding, if the companyyou are using doesn’t offer these basic add ons then say thank you and move on to one that does.

4. What is your name?

There is one domain name you should definitely register and that is yourname.com.

Why? Because branding yourself in your market is a brilliant way of letting people know not only who you are and what you do but also that you are very serious about it and take pride in your position. Think about it, would you want your name branded on something that wasn’t up to par, and that’s exactly how your customers are going to see it too “Oh, Denise has put her name to this so she must think it is a quality product/service”

And as long as it is a high quality item your name will become synonymous with quality in your field.

Warning: some domain registrars, upon closing your account due to spam complaints, missed payments or any other reason will retain the name that you purchased and assume ownership of it. Meaning that you will not be able to re-register it anywhere else and so will loose all the traffic that you may have spent months directing to that address. As with all things be sure to read the small print – it’s small for a reason.

Ok so now that you have your name it’s time to choose your web host.

Quite often this can be one I the same provider and so if you are going to use your registered name as the address for your site then be sure to register it with them as it saves you having to transfer things over at a later date.

So what do you need from your web host?

It is essential to know that whatever goes wrong with your site there will be someone that you can contact, preferably by phone 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There is nothing worse than sending a helpdesk ticket for support and not receiving a response for 3 days, and the best way to find out how good the support system is, is to ask their customers. Visit forums and ask questions or search articles and read reviews also ask your friends and colleagues who they use and if they would recommend them.

Building Your Site

As I mentioned before there are many people out there that will build your site for you. All you need to do is give them the details and the premise and they will take on all the technical work for you. To have your website professionally designed and built from scratch can cost you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. And there are many places where you can find companies to do it for you.

However if you like a challenge and have basic computer capabilities it is perfectly feasible that you can build your own site depending on just what you want it to be.

If you decide to take the challenge on yourself then my first suggestion would be to find some help, support and guidance. If you are quite new to web design there will be many things that can throw you and if you don’t have someone to ask it can become frustrating. Again joining a forum is one of the best ways to find help from like minded people or you can just use the power of the web to find a place where you feel comfortable enough to ask.

There are some things that you will need:
A domain name – Clear, concise and easy to remember. Also be careful with names that people can easily misspell.

A web host – Good customer support is essential. Also check uptime and bandwidth.

Web page templates – Depending on your products/services your site should have a certain consistent feel to it all the way through.

Html editor software – Html is a very complicated language, if you don’t know it or don’t want to learn then you will need software that can do it for you. There are lots of free programmes.

Ftp software – This is how you get your site from your desktop to your server. All FTP software is basically the same but if you are new then stick with the more basic versions until you figure out what you’ll need the rest for.

Header, footer and other graphics – All websites need graphics of some kind. There are packages that you can buy online and edit to your liking or you can spend around $60 – $100 and get the basics done for you.

Those are the very bare basics that you need to be able to start building your site, you will also need to consider e-commerce, download protection, and a few other factors depending on what your site will do.

You have something to sell or a message to spread and you want a website. What should you do? Should you pay a lot of money to hire someone to do it for you? Or, should you learn the art of web design yourself. There are pros and cons to both sides of the fence.

The Do It Yourself Web Designer

If you do decide to learn building a website as a do it yourself project, you can save some money and gain some knowledge. Web design programs are out there that are boxed solutions that you can use to create your own brochure-ware type website or to even a robust online store. There are products that you can buy for cheap or on the higher end that can help you manage and create your website. You could even go with an open source platform like OS Commerce. Those with a bit of a technical aptitude might find the process interesting and fun.

The downside to this is that many of these web design software products either are too advanced for the novice user or are too simple and not advanced enough for the purpose you want it for. You could find that you are frustrated easily by the technical aspects of the software being above your comfort level or could find that the web design software doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that you were hoping for.

A word of caution: Don’t bother signing up for a free community website that’s hosted by someone else. The publishing on the website might be super simple but no one is going to take you seriously if you have a free website and are trying to promote a business on a professional level. A simple and hosted point and click website is ok for playing around but not for a professional business.

Hiring a Pro Web Designer

Hiring a web design companycan be a great way to get a professional looking website and even your own online store. The downside here is that some of these sites charge a lot of money and when you’re a beginner web entrepreneur you might not have that kind of cash floating around. If you want professional results but don’t want to pay a fortune, you might choose to look for a freelancer. You can find them on webmaster forums and online bidding sites where you can create a service request and allow professional freelance web designers to bid on your business. This can be a great option as you can control the pricing and see a professional web designer’s portfolio of work before you use their services. Some website owners do part of their web design. You choose the web designer that’s in your price range and that provides the quality you want. A word of caution here is that you don’t want to go based on price alone otherwise you might be unhappy with your results.

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Your Web site needs to do more than make your companylook good. It has to support your overall business operations – customer service, sales and marketing and collaboration. Whether you’re planning an intranet or Internet site, don’t start before you check your strategy against this comprehensive checklist.

The following checklist and the associated answers will facilitate the analysis process ofr designing and building the website that allows your companyto turn the corner.

GENERAL
1. Where did you hear about us?
2. Do you have a domain name? If not, do you have ideas on one? If so, what is it?
3. What is your companyname? Do you want to use the entire name on the site, logo, and graphics?
4. Do you have special features in mind like ECommerce shopping cart, BLOG, RSS, Forms with emails, EZine, Newsletter signup, autoresponders, advertising landing/call-to-action pages, etc.?

MARKETING
5. Who is your intended audience? Are they regional, industry specific, companysize specific, etc.?
6. Do you intend to provide a call to action – make a sale, call in to your office, fill out a form, etc?
7. Describe your ideal client and the specific attributes that we’ll be targeting in the website.
8. What are your website expectations, main emphasis and primary goals – increased sales, increased leads, etc.? Please prioritize.
9. What separates your companyfrom your competition and what do you expect will draw clients to the website?
10. How do you plan to market the website?
11. What companyproperties do you want to emphasize on the website? Please prioritize.

IDENTITY
12. Do you already have a logo and other graphics to be used? If not, do you want to have one created?
13. Have you identified a tagline? That would be something like “Just do it”, “Reach out and touch someone”, etc. Here is some information on the subject http://advertising.about.com/od/copywriting/a/guesttagline.htm.
14. What keywords do you want to be found by in the search engines?

LAYOUT
15. Please provide a list of websites that you like and don’t like. Why do you or do you not like these sites?
16. Please provide a list of competitors websites.
17. Do you have ideas of the colors to be used, and colors you don’t like? Please provide example sites.
18. Do you have an intended website screen size – 1024×768, 800×600, or stretch to the entire width of the screen?
19. If the site isn’t the entire width of the screen do you have a preference for left or center alignment?
20. Do you have a horizontal or left-side vertical preference for the main navigation?
21. Please provide the main pages you need in the website.
22. Have you created the copy text for any of your pages?
23. Do you have existing business cards or other printed material we need to match?
24. Are you leaning towards custom drawn artwork or photographs?

POST-CONTRACT
25. Once we start designing the website we’ll need the following (Note that this information will be kept in strict confidence):
a. FTP access information – username and password
b. Hosting companyand their tech support phone number