ABC of Building Your Own DIY Website on a Tight Budget
A. FIND A WEBHOST FOR YOUR WEBSITE
You want to build your own diy free personal website, blog, small business / e-commerce website on a tight budget. Make a quick search on google, using keywords "free webhosting": you will find there's lots of companies offering to host your free website. Mostly offers of 'free webspace' are advertising sponsored.... so expect ads and popups to appear on your website. There are some exceptions to the rule. If you don't want sponsored ads on your website, and you are on a tight budget, take a look at the high quality low cost entry webhosting packages offered by many hosting companies. They usually offer excellent value. Their webhosting packages are tailored to particular markets. There are excellent value low cost e-commerce packages available for small businesses. Your account will have a unique address, with the package from your webhost providing a choice of domain or subdomain name, email accounts, as well as your Mb of webspace. There are plenty of helpful detailed online directories of free and budget webhost sites. When you find an affordable budget host package that suits your needs...sign up.
B. FIND WEB PUBLISHING SOFTWARE
Almost certainly you will already have some software you need to get started making your diy budget website. Your Desk Top Publishing software usually has a web publishing section. Then there is Microsoft Word which converts to Html, Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver. Even if you haven't got any publishing software to start with, virtually every webhost has free to use site building programmes available on their sites.
C. BUILD YOUR WEBSITE
It is essential to pre- plan your free website, and to map out what you wish to do with pencil and paper first. To use some of the third party website building software there will be the usual learning curve, often with 'wizards' to take some of the strain. It is made very simple to build your website using your webhost's software. Using the professional design templates provided by your host you will be up and running very swiftly, so that you can quickly build your own professional website online, making use of the great range of high quality themed templates they provide for you to choose from. Just select a webpage template that suits your purpose, enter your content into it following the on-screen instructions / wizard to produce your finished free website You're done! It can be that easy.
D. UPLOAD YOUR WEBSITE FILES TO YOUR WEBHOST
Your webhost gives your account a unique address. You should be able to select your own domain name. Use free FTP software (freeware)- very straightforward to set up- to upload your website files to your account address. Many 'free webspace' providers (eg Lycos Tripod) integrate web based FTP so you don't have to worry about external FTP software.
If you want to upload your website files yourself to your host's server there is excellent FTP Freeware available on the net to help. Try FTP Commander, FTP Edit, CoffeeCup FTP Direct.
E. TAKE A LOOK
When you have finished building your website, and uploaded it to your host, key the website address into your browser. Your website should appear onscreen. Happy with the result ? Great!! Maybe one or two adjustments ? Make any changes in your website building programme, and upload the files again to your host. (It maybe that you only have to upload the index.htm file again.) Only when you are happy with the look and content of your website move to the final step of submitting your website to search engines.
F. SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO SEARCH ENGINES
The final step is getting your free website onto the 'net. Submitting your website to 'search engines' is automatic with some 'free' webhosts. Some do their own indexing of sites into headed directories. Third party sites offer free website submission. Many offer free to use website testing tools, to run the rule over your new creation. Where you need to or wish to, make your own submissions to search engines. It is recommended that you submit your site's url to the top engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Optimizing your website so that it is picked up and indexed by search engines is a whole related ball game !! The net is awash with advice on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
About Author
John Swan authors websites and blogs. Link to http://www.swanelite.co.uk/budget_webhosting/
Source: ArticleTrader.com