Having your own website is an excellent idea especially if you have a small business that you want to promote, you want to advertise your services or you want to sell a few of your items.
But a website is not only for business. You may also want to create a personal site where people can know more about you, read your rants and raves, and have a dedicated space on the web for sharing opinions or advices.
Before you go to a professional web developer, you may want to try out a few steps on how to build a web site.
How to Build a Web Site: Do-It-Yourself Tips
1. Programming – First of all, if you are not going to use any of the free templates available online for ready-made websites and pages, you will need to understand HTML – at least the basics of this program. –
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, a type of scripting program that allows web browsers to read your inputs and show these online as your web page/s.
Do not be discouraged if you do not know HTML because there are HTML editors that you can download from the internet and install on your computer. These editors will help you come-up with your basic program scripts to enable you to include texts and graphics into your page/s.
As you go along, you may incorporate your own HTML scripts to give you more options for your design and content.
2. Content – Now that you know basic HTML, the next important thing to consider is your web content. This also includes your site’s name or title. Usually, the title of your site is also your domain name – the address that users will go to when they want to visit your site.
This being said, it is very important that your title or domain name is very powerful in that surfers will immediately know what you’re all about without having to read your content first.
3. Web Host/Server – Again, if you are opting to do your own programming and design, you will need a web host to upload your web site and pages online. There are very affordable web servers that you can find online, usually costing less than $10 per month for hosting services.
Sometimes, web servers offer free domain name registration so you don’t have pay extra to have your domain name listed and registered. You may also want to check with your Internet Service Provider if they offer hosting services as well.
With these three very basic steps in creating your own website, you will have it up and running in no time at all. The most challenging part is perhaps working on your HTML and content but once you’ve learned the basics, you will find that these are actually very easy to do.