Are You a Novice Who Would Like to Make a Web Site?

November 16, 2008 · Filed Under Ecommerce 
by Phyllis Wheeler

Since the dawn of time, setting up a viable business has never been easier. Through the Internet, you can now tap the world’s marketplace from your living room. But here’s the problem: you don’t know how to make a Web site!

Access to the world’s marketplace isn’t the only big change. Traditional jobs are becoming scarcer. Maybe your job future doesn’t look as assured as it once did. This is a good reason to look at income from a small business. In fact, there are entrepreneurs out there who have made a lot of money from the Internet.

There’s a hurdle first: you don’t know how to make a Web site. You may think a Web site costs a lot. So you haven’t done anything.

Making a Web site is easy for novices these days. There are plenty of Internet businesses set up to create a template Web site, so you don’t even have to learn HTML. But there’s a drawback–without HTML, you don’t know what you need to know to manage your Web site! You will need to know at least a bit of this formatting language for Web sites. As Webmaster you will need to add affiliate links and shopping carts, not to mention clickable ads, if you want your site to earn money.

Learn HTML? Isn’t that like learning a programming language? Isn’t it hard? The answer is, no it isn’t really a programming language. It’s a formatting language. And it’s really not hard at all. The basic principles are very simple. Here’s another bonus for you: you don’t need to know very much HTML at all to do what you need to for a simple Web site.

You will need special software that makes both the HTML code and the Web site as it looks in a browser. There are three alternatives for you: Macromedia Dreamweaver, the most costly at several hundred dollars; Microsoft Front Page, a simpler piece of software that you can buy for around $100; and Nvu, which costs you nothing. Nvu is open-source software. Open-source software is available for free; those who create and maintain it donate their time, often to provide us with an alternative to Microsoft.

Another expense for you is Web hosting. When you buy Web hosting, you are actually renting space on a server. There are plenty of hosting companies out there, many offering fancy solutions that you as a novice don’t need. There are hosting companies offering inexpensive solutions, too. For example, you can find a Web hosting company that will give you both hosting and domain registration for about $25 per year. Domain registration is something else you need–reserving your domain name, such as www.mywebsite.com. Usually it costs under $10 by itself. Try this: put “cheap domain hosting” into a search engine and look for user-friendly and simple solutions.

E-books are becoming more and more common. When you buy an ebook, you are paying for the information in it, pure and simple. In fact, that’s all it is, information. You have to provide the printer if you want a hard copy. E-books are popular because they provide information instantly–something that folks in our culture are happy to pay for. In fact, you may be able to find an e-book on how to use Nvu.

About the Author:

Comments

Leave a Reply