Owning your own website is not as difficult as you might think. It is well within most people's ability to completely set up their own website -- you just need a little knowledge about computers and how the Internet works. If that scares you, then there are plenty of individuals or companies who will start a website for you.
Domain Name
Choose a domain name. You should set about choosing and purchasing a domain name for your website. The domain name is the Internet address of your website and is followed by an extension such as .com or .net . Your domain name will be unique to your website and should ideally be related to you or your business. If, for example, your name is Georgie Pie, you might try registering the domain name georgiepie.com or georgiepie.org. Remember that domain names have to be renewed annually. As of December 2010, this costs about $12 a year.
What Type
Decide what type of website you want. Is it to be a personal website or a company website? Is it to be an information website or will you be selling products from it? It is possible to download free Content Management Systems such as Wordpress or eCommerce systems for an Internet shop.
Landing Page
Design your front page. Your front page is the page on which visitors to your web page will first land, so it should be eye catching and informative. There are hundreds of free templates on the Internet that you can download and use as your landing page. If you don't feel capable of doing this yourself you will need to pay or otherwise persuade someone to do it for you.
Hosting
Get yourself a Web host. This is the Internet company that will be "hosting" your website, and is the place on the Internet where all of the information that comprises your website is stored. Remember that you will have to pay for this hosting. As of December 2010, hosting with such a company should not cost you more than $4 or $5 a month.
Attract Traffic
Determine how you wish to attract readers to your website. You can attract visitors in several ways. One way is by using SEO or Search Engine Optimization, which is the correct use of keywords and phrases and the addition of relevant articles containing keywords to the website. These are seen by search engines such as Google when people type in a search phrase. You can also get people to visit the site by exchanging links or by some careful plugging on social networks.
Advertising
Remember to put advertising on your website. Allowing advertising such as Adsense, Chitika or Kontera onto your website will bring you an income -- whenever a visitor clicks on an ad you will be credited with a few cents. This is how very popular websites make their income.
Updating
Remember to keep updating your website. Search engines like new content. The more you add to your website, the more popular it will become to search engines, and the more visitors you will get.
Contact Me
Remember to add a "Contact Me" page. This is best done by either having a page with a form that visitors can fill in and submit, or by the careful addition of your e-mail address. Never just place your e-mail address where it can be seen as you will be inundated with spam. Use a method of encrypting it -- there is a free code that you can download to do this.
Tags: your website, domain name, December 2010, e-mail address, front page, Remember that