Build Your Own Website

Want to build your own website? Website building is a blast if you know what you are doing. This site will help you with that. If you are building your first website (or second, or third) don't try to do anything fancy. Stick with the basics. The rest of this article focuses on the basics.

What's the goal?

The first thing you should ask yourself when creating a site is, "Why build a website?" The answer should be clear to you. Do you have an interest, hobby or passion? Good. Focus on that. That is your goal. A website is your way to reach that goal. It is not the goal itself.

Build a Website that Works

If you are going to build a site to share your hobby or passion, or even to make money, build a website that works. In other words, make a site that will people visit. See The Basics of Search Engine Optimization for more information.

Find out what people are searching for. Then make the content of your pages supply that information. Build the whole site, site structure and individual pages based upon what people are searching for. This is the most important traffic building concept.

For instance, I'm really into the Philadelphia Eagles. Go Eagles! What if I created the greatest Eagles site in the world and nobody ever saw it? :-( ...

From the beginning, keep in mind website traffic building concepts. Please see these articles for more information: Keyword Research and Build a Niche Website.

Plan your Site

Plan your site before you build it. For more about planning your website see: How to Plan a Website and How to Plan a Website (part two). Additionally, part of planning your website is Choosing Your Domain Name.

Ways to Build a Website

There are three main ways to build a website:

• Point and click software (fast, not flexible).
• Manually writing the HTML (important to learn, requires time).
• Using an HTML Editor (efficient once learned, HTML knowledge helps).

Which of the above is the best way to learn how to make a website? There have been many discussions about this. I say use all three. Use the "point and click" software to quickly build your own website. See Build Your Own Website for a free trial. This will give you a feel for having your own website. Then learn some HTML. Then pick an HTML editor and learn how to use that. This can be done in a few days. Give it a try.

Building Your First Website?

Just learning to build websites? Here are some things you should keep in mind:

• Build your site around your passion. Your passion will help you to be persistent. Your persistence will help you succeed.
• Learn HTML. HTML is the main language of the Web. You are limiting yourself if you don't know it.
• If you want to learn how websites work see this article first: Learning to Build Websites from Scratch.
• Building a website for your business is not a "get rich quick" scheme. But if you work smart you can be successful.
• Be prepared to create lots of web pages with lots of valuable information. People search for information. If you provide valuable information people will come to your site.
• Writing for the web is different than "regular" writing. Get to the point. Make it short and sweet. Use lots of subheadings. Use lots of bullets. For more on writing for the Web see: How to Create Content.
• Build a niche website. For instance, don't build a site about "All Sports." Build a site about your favorite team in one sport. Keep the focus of your site narrow. See also: What is a Niche Website?, How to Choose a Niche for Your Website? and Build a Niche Website.

Do You Need Money to Build a Website?

It is possible to build a website for free. In fact, I recommend building a free website to all beginners. You can get almost any tool or technology you need for free at first.

Free tools have their limitations. At some point you'll want to invest in better tools so you can be more efficient.

I used to build websites for small businesses (and some not so small). From my experience, you should be clear on all of the points above before you build your own website. Good luck with sharing your passion with the world. Let me know how it goes.

Best,
Cha