Start a website can yield you good bucks. In the starting, you may find it not working very well but your continuous effort will yield you later. The process is very easy and at the end of this guide you will able to make your website.
The website is a great way to start a blog or sell your product or services. There are so many businesses that are generating so much revenue online by their websites.
I know you are here to clarify your doubt about starting a website. To simplify this procedure, I have explained the topic in detail.
Anticipate Before Start A Website:
Here I have listed the things you need to know before starting a website.
- Know your purpose of starting a website. It can be for personal blogging, business promotion, selling a product or service.
- know your targeted audience (men, women, child, old, businessmen, corporate people, etc.)
- If you are starting it for business or services purpose, make sure you own the licence regarding the business or insurance for services.
- Calculate the funds you need to start a website including domain name, hosting, designed themes, blogging software, etc.
Step By Step Process of Start a Website:
- Domain Name for Start a Website:
- Web Hosting Service for Start a Website:
- Choose Website Platform for Start a Website
- Setting up Your Website
Step 1: Domain Name for Start a Website:
Domain name is the name by which your website gets known to the world. website and Domain name are closely related things. Domain name is the name of your operating website platform. So your domain name must be catchy, memorable and brandable. It shows about your website; it must be related to it.
You can change your domain name later if you want to attach it to your existing website. The same way you can change the existing website and keep the same domain name for a new website. The conclusion is you can disconnect the domain name and reconnect it again. The domain name is flexible.
Free Vs. Paid Domain Name:
- You have to buy paid domain name from the service provider. You take the membership for paid domain name and pay for it annually. Generally, it costs $10 a year. Free domain name you get while using the free website development platform.
- Domain name (free) is generally sub-domain name like you have taken the domain name from free website builder Weebly.com then you will get sub-domain name like yourwebsitename.Weebly.com
- Free domain names are long and add suffix of the company website at the end. They are not catchy. Paid names are short and exactly show about your website. Paid domain is what you choose for your website.
- Free domain names are static. You cannot disconnect and reconnects it to another website. Paid domain names are flexible and easy to disconnect and reconnect.
- You don’t own the sub-domain name. Free Service Provider Company has all the rights related to your sub-domain.
Some Tips to Choose a Domain Name:
- Choose the name which is easy to remember. Don’t complicate with obscure spellings.
- Domain name matches your company/brand name
- Your name or nickname as your domain name can be an option to recognise it.
- It must be unique to identify.
- Don’t use hyphens and special characters in your domain name. It will be troublesome to remember for visitors.
- Try to get top level domains (TLDs) by adjusting your domain name according to it.
How to Choose a Domain Name for Start a Website:
- Go to the domain registrar (Go Daddy, NameCheap, Hover, Gandi, Dreamhost and Name.Com) and check the availability of your domain name.
- Try top level domains like .com, .org, .net, .co, etc.
- If you don’t get it, the registrar will show some suggestions. Choose from the suggestions or try another name.
- After getting the name register it and purchase it.
Step 2: Web Hosting Service for Start a Website:
As domain name is the name of your business, Hosting is like you are taking a rented shop for your business. Web hosting is holding a space for your HTML, CSS files, images and photos on servers. Servers are the internet connected computers where you store your files.
The web hosting companies charges a fee in exchange of hosting and maintaining the security. The company takes care about loading the files quickly to the browsers and website doesn’t go down for duration.
You can try to host your web site by yourself. But it is lengthy and complicated process and not a cup of tea for all.
I suggest web hosting by Bluehost. It costs only $2.95 a month. The price is quite affordable and this price includes web hosting, domain name, free site builder and 1-click WordPress installation. There is one more plan called plus plan available on blue host. It costs $5.45 per month. In this plus plan, you will get unlimited features and able to host more than one website.
How Users Access Your Files From Servers?
User types your website name or domain name in his browsers. Domain name Registrar Company keeps DNS server. DNS server lists the domain name to the related IP addresses. When user types your domain name then DNS server shows the IP address where the files are hosted. His computer connects with the server (where the files are stored) and your files and information are delivered to his computer through the browser.
Step 3: Choose Website Platform For Start A Website:
A few year ago developing a website was a time taking procedure because of HTML coding, CSS and flash use. But nowadays, content management system (CMS) takes care about it and it is easy to build website.
The most of the web building platform is covered by WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Concrete5, ExpressionEngine and Adobe Business Catalyst. More than half are using WordPress as a website platform.
Here is the chart showing the statics of popular website builder in 2017:
WordPress is the best website building platform for beginners. But i have covered other options also for you. So, read them out and start your own website within 30 minutes.
1. WordPress.com:
WordPress is an online open source website builder platform. It provides the content management system which is easiest to handle your content. More than 73 millions websites are using this platform for running their website.
WordPress keeps it simple and easy to use. You will get pre-hosted and free sub-domain with it. Today, 28% of the world is using WordPress as a website platform.
Within few minutes by simply downloading, installing, signing up for your account, you will be able to get a website. Lots of customizable designs and themes you will get here for free.
There are three price plans:
$0: for hobby bloggers
$99: for professional bloggers
$299: for advanced business ideas
2. WordPress.org:
It is a downloadable website building tool. This is totally free to use platform but you have to buy hosting and domain name from outside. It is simple and so many free templates and themes are available which makes it more flexible.
No doubt it the most powerful CMS in the world. It has best customizable framework to let developers create and design in a more appealing way.
It has 4200 Plugins in the directory such as contact form, slideshows, SEO optimization tools, etc.
Anyone can use it. Designing the website is simple by WordPress. The destined users of WordPress are beginners to skilled. The platform is for all.
3. Joomla:
Joomla is open source web content management tool to design your website and publish content. It is in the market since 2005 and improving it continuously. The latest version of Joomla is 3.7.3.
Initially it is totally free but you have to pay for template and designs if you want to buy designs of your choice.
Joomla is multilingual, flexible, mobile and SEO friendly. You will get multi user accessibility and many exciting unlimited designs here.
Joomla can be used by non technical users. The platform interface is designed to use by all.
Joompla provides so many Plugins and extensions like Popups, Typography, Slideshow, Galleries, Rotators, Panorama, Comments, Content Infos, Quotes, Notes, Reading list, etc.
4. Drupal:
Drupal is content management system powering a lot of websites. There are so many features which makes it powerful such as advanced menu management, graphics modification tools, user management and polls management.
With Drupal you can create a simple website or an advanced website. It allows you to create kind of contents like video, audio, polls, user management, text, blogs and podcasts. The features make it useful for mid-to-large sized projects.
There are thousands of Plugins available and as it is an open source platform you can create your own Plugins too.
Drupal is more on the technical side. The beginners find it a bit difficult to use.
5. Concrete5:
Concrete5 is written in PHP language though it has easy to use tools. It is an open source content management system to create and share more content.
It has so many features to surge its awesomeness such as Mobile Friendly, Secure, Flexible, Marketplace, Efficient, Drag and Drop Content, WYSIWYG Editor, Theme Control, Media Manager, Addon Support, 1000+ Add-Ons, Simple Installation and SEO tools.
The changes we make are easily visible to users without publishing it. It is easy to edit and manage website with concrete5.
6. Squarespace:
Squarespace is all-in-one platform for build website; register your domain, hosting your website, and blogging.
Squarespace platform is simple and easy to use. You will free quite comfortable working on this flexible platform. It is for all kind of purpose like photography, music, writing, blogging, business. You can start blogging about any topic here to showcase and build a professional looking website without thinking about coding.
The price plan is quite reasonable; it is $8 to $24 per month. The plan includes customizable domain name and hosting service. You can use risk-free trial version for 14-day before actually subscribing for the paid plan.
7. Weebly:
Weebly’s simple drag and drop editor is quite helpful in designing the professional looking website without technical knowledge. The amazing thing is it’s totally free to use though you have to pay for advanced features or plans. But the free version is also satisfactory to build a beautiful website.
You can buy the pro-plan from $8 to $ 50 to switch onto advanced features.
Today more than 40 million people are using Weebly to build their websites. It is perfect for all as it is easy to use and give your website a touch of professionalism without any coding work.
8. Wix:
Wix flourishes your website with stylish and numerous templates which look extremely daunting. It gives your website professional touch by its drag and drop tool, templates, images, photos, galleries, SEO tool, hosting service, mobile-friendly platform.
Wix is completely free with numerous templates and Plugins. You can upgrade it to premium level for more storage and bandwidth, to remove the ads and connect with your own domain. The premium plans are $7 per month for domain name connectivity and $20 per month for ecommerce.
Step 5: Setting Up Your Website:
At this stage, you have all to start your website. You own a domain name, web hosting company and web platform. Now the time is to make your website alive.
- Install any platforms of your choice like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. though it sounds hard it just a single click procedure. Here are the simple steps commonly found in CMS:
- Log in to host account.
- In your hosting account, go for control panel tab
- Just click “install”
- Find the icon of your platform and click
- Choose the domain name
- Lastly click on “install now”
Choose a theme to make your website look professional. It includes:
- Website complete design or style
- Font design
- Blog post style
- Menu style
- Page layouts
- Color themes
- Widgets
- Add content and pages to your website.
- Add Plugins and extensions to beautify your website.
That’s it. Now you own your website.
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