“The RoseBouquet”

I am still convinced that it takes a good three to four months to build a decent website, if you are only working on it two or three days a week. But in spring I had someone insist that he wanted a website in a big hurry. I managed to pull it off in one afternoon. Now someone else is asking for this, so I thought I’d lay out the barebones minimum. But I’m afraid my attitude will still be that you should spend more time at it.

A web site can be compared to a flyer nailed to a power pole on the street corner, or a kiosk in a mall, or a large department store or even a small college. What scale have you got in mind? A website whipped up in an afternoon or evening is likely to be nothing more than a poster or flyer.

First, let me point out your range of options.
1. You could shop around for a web designer, and pay anywhere from $85/hr to $5000 for a simple site of three to six pages. You would likely have to pay a handsome fee for any changes or updates you want later on.

2. I would highly recommend getting a SiteBuildIt subscription for $299/year, (or less when there’s a holiday special). Nothing is taken for granted as you are guide through the whole process of building a web business, not just a site. You would be the master of the whole thing and understand exactly each step you take. - Or, you could have the experts do it for you, for about $2000.

3. You can do-it-yourself (D-I-Y). Of couse, the more you already know the faster it will go. Assuming you don’t get distracted. From experience that if you have more time than money, it is a good way to go.

Let me outline this third option in greater detail.

Preparation -

Take time to research and study the topics you are interested in, and look for sample sites to see how they handle the topic. You should not steal content, but you can certainly borrow ideas as springboards for your own original treatment of the subject.

Domain name and Hosting -

Here are your main costs. You need to register a domain name, and it is possible to get one for under $10 at GoDaddy. (Perhaps some other places too). When you have brain-stormed for just the right domain name, and found it available, you can register it in about 10 minutes or less. If you know where you will be hosting the site, you can enter the DNS addresses at the same time.

Then you need a host, a place where your site can be set up for the world to see. Here you must pay fees like rent or a lease for your website or business. It pays to shop around, because this is a huge opportunity for hosts to make money. I have a reseller package, so for friends who have honourable plans for their site, I offer them a good deal with hosting that just costs $12/year for 100 MB. (I have two larger packages but most sites under 50-100 pages will fit on the small one). When your host provides the DNS addresses, you must go enter them at the domain registrar, if you didn’t do it earlier.

Building and Publishing Your Website -

You really need two programs on your computer to build a site. They may already be on your computer, but if not, you can download some of these for free. No need to spend money here. One is an HTML editor program, in which you create and code your web pages. I love and recommend Quanta Plus for Linux systems, but there are others for Windows too.

The other is an FTP program to upload the pages to your hosting account. If you have Firefox for a browser, you can just download their FireFTP program as an extension and it works right in your browser window. But there are many other free ones.

There are also many websites that give basic lessons in coding a web page, although some HTML editors have features that allow you to put a page together without even looking at the codes. (Be aware that some day you are going to need to fix things in the coding though).

If someone helps you find and choose a simple template for your web pages, then you can sale along faster, by merely putting your content - the information you want to share in the specified areas. Name the page, and check it over in a preview mode. (The first one has to be called index.html, or index.shtml, or default.html - index.php works if you’re using php scripts on the page).

Uploading Your Web Pages -

Usually one can’t wait to see that first page up in a browser, so you go into your ftp program, set it up to access your private ftp address, and drag the first page from the one window pane showing your page on yoru computer, to the other window pane, which shows what is up on your site. Presto. Now hurry off to your browser to see how it shows up there.

If you are promoting affiliate links that will benefit you, you can of course, include them on your web page.

Getting Visitors -

Just recently I wrote an article on my blog about how to draw traffic to your site; When You Really want Visitors to Come. I’ll let you jump there to get more details. That is usually not something you will accomplish on the same afternoon as you do all the above.

Remember a site is like getting a new family member or pet. There is the continual maintenance that must become part of your life as you care for and feed your site. With time you can have a very productive and fulfilling website. May that be your case!