New websites

Building a new website from scratch can be a daunting task. If you are new to the net, or should I say new to the webmaster site of things, do not despair, there is plenty of help available, if you know where to go. This is just small piece of info to try and help you. Understanding what is required to make a successful website is a fairly complicated process.

You need a few things to get the ratings that you require to get people to visit your site and make you money, or get your message across, after all this is what you started the project for.

A domain name is very important, it will probably determine how your wesite will perform. I would try and go for a .com domain, as this is by far the most popular. Sites, such as www.thesitedude.com allow you to pick a name and then it will check if it is available. Once you have picked your name you will need to register it, this will cost you about $10. Make note of this site, because once you start your website you will need hosting and this is available at a variety of prices.

You can hire someone to make a website for you, depending on your budget, this will save you a lot of heartache and time, but you will need keep puting your hand in your pocket to update the site and attract traffic. a webdesigner can charge you $2000 plus, but can produce a very proffecional site and it should be all you should need.

Do it yourself ! Trust me this is mind blowing when you first start out, but all is not lost. There are lots of ways to get help. Templates are are available, either by buying one or getting a free one. A template is a ready made webpage and is a grest way to start, but you need to pick the right theme to suit the product you wish to promote. Templates can be changed by adding information and in most cases changing the look to make it more personal. If you look up templates on such sites as jezon.com you can find a variety of templates to choose from tahtshould suit your needs. These templates cost about $65 to $70, check them out, they are very good.

Hosting

How do you pick who you will host your website with ? There are thousands of hosting sites to choose from ! If you are like me and are not sure what you require, then how do you go about picking the one that will suit your needs the best and also not send you bankrupt.

A lot of websites selling hosting are only affiliates of other companies and when you buy hosting through them, they just flick you over to the real provider and they get a commission. You will probably only pay the same as dealing with the parent company direct, but if the affilite website closes down you might have problems. Don’t get me wrong, I think that being an affiliate is a great way to make money through your website.

The average website does not require state of the art technology, so top of the line hosting will probably not be needed, just a reliable host at a reasonable price. A good site to have a look at is www.thesitedude.com

Domain names

The shorter the domain the better, but unfortunately short descriptive names are all gone. These names are now worth huge amounts of money. A couple examples of this are www.sex.com sold in 2006 for us$14,000,000 and www.business.com sold in 2005 for us$7,5000,000. Of course these are at the top end of the market, but it shows what value people put on a good domain name and how important a good name is and more so, how much people will pay for them. Choosing your domain name will make your website a success or just another website.