What do I need to make a Website?

What do I have to know? How Do I Begin?

If you need to create a website, but don't know where to start, you've come to the right place! Did you know that anyone can create a website?

Quick Note: If you decide to hire a web designer to create your website, there are two main key elements that you will have to get: Hosting and a Domain Name.

In this overview, we'll take a brief look at what it takes to create your own website — in plain English
Essentially, if you are determined to build a website by yourself, you will need the following:

1. A COMPUTER (This goes without saying, but I've been asked),

2. AN INTERNET CONNECTION,

3. BROWSER ( A web browser is a program you use to surf the Net — like the one you're using to view this page. e.g., Google Chrome, MozillaFirefox, Netscape etc..)

4. A DOMAIN NAME Your domain name is what your website is called. It's the bit that people type in the address bar after all the www's to visit your website. e.g., www. yourwebsite .com We buy Domain Names at companies that are called registrars.

Domain names are registered on an annual basis, and you can usually register it many years in advance (or set 'auto-renew').

All you need to do to get a domain name is go to the registrar you want to use. They will have a search box. Just type the domain name you want in the search box and it will tell you if the domain is available.

5. WEB HOSTING SPACE This is where our website lives and the whole world can access it using the Internet. Our hosting companies server is basically one giant mighty computer, which can store a great deal of files and folders.

Your web host will also provide your email services, technical support, security, file management system and a dozen other services and resources required to run your site.

This is actually the most important step of all: some hosting companies are easy to work with and reputable, and others are unnecessarily complicated, too expensive, or just plain not very good.

It is very important that you choose a good web host. Good doesn't mean expensive. Good means reliable with great support. If you happen to have a problem with your website you will want help now, not in a day or two. So, how can you tell how responsive the web host you are considering actually is? You test them. If they have a phone number (and they should) call them late at night or on weekends to see if they are really there..

6. AN HTML EDITOR Once you have your domain name and web host, the next step is to actually build your website. To build a website yourself you need some type of web building software. A program to create a web pages on our home computer. Using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get ) editor does not require any HTML knowledge, they are easier for an average computer user to get started with. There are FREE HTML Editors and PAID HTML Editors.

7. AN FTP CLIENT Publishing is the act of putting your web pages on the Internet so that people can find them. This process is called "uploading" your files. Some places call it "publishing your website." Either way it's the same process. We need a program to upload the web pages, images and any other files that we created on our home computer with an Html editor ( or any other program ) to our hosting companies server.

If you take time and learn how to create a website, you will gain knowledge that is essential and paramount in today's world...But...you will have to put some extra effort and invest your valuable time.

To help you understand what is Hosting and a Domain Name and how to Buy them, I created a page that covers it in a great detail. To learn more about Hosting and a Domain Name please click here.

I would never, ever recommend to you Free hosting or a free website. Although it could be useful " only " if you are creating a personal site, or want to create an experimental site (where you would learn how to design a web page). They may also be handy if you want to create a hobby site..

If you decide to go with a free hosting, at least make sure you buy a Domain name. That way if your website becomes successful and you loose your free hosting people would still be able to find you.

WEBSITE

Here are some of the basics you need to understand in order to make your site.

Website is made out of pages ( web pages ), images, audio and video files. Web page is just a document, it's a file, just like audio or any other file. Image for example is a file as well.

You need to know file types like:

- E books could be a Pdf File format.
- Images could be Png file format ( with transparent background, you will get this when you start to work with images ), they could be Jpg or Gif format as well.
( animated images are in the Gif format ). Just to name a few.
- Videos could be in the Mp4 format, Avi, M4v and many others..

These are just a quick example overview of the basics. It is much easier to learn from the video when you are the beginner.

Before you get started, you should ask yourself a few questions: what do you want to do with your website? Are you interested in making a business website or a personal website? Do you want a website just to showcase your content, ie, photos, texts, and videos, or do you want a blog and even an online store? Take heart: there is an easy solution for most everything you want to do with your website.

Ways of Building a Website

There are so many ways to build a website, that it really boggles the mind. But it all comes down to: what is the easiest way for you and what do you want your website to do.

Before you get started, you should ask yourself a few questions: what do you want to do with your website? Are you interested in making a business website or a personal website? Do you want a website just to showcase your content, ie, photos, texts, and videos, or do you want a blog and even an online store? Take heart: there is an easy solution for most everything you want to do with your website.

The best way for an absolute beginners to start building their websites

First is with an Html Editor

Second is with CMS ( Content Management System )

An HTML editor is a software application for building web pages. An Html editor is downloaded and installed on our home computer. We need this software to create our web pages. Using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get ) editor does not require any HTML knowledge, they are easier for an average computer user to get started with.

There are FREE HTML Editors and PAID HTML Editors.

In my research I concluded that majority of people agree:

»» Dreamweaver is the best HTML editor money can buy.

»» And that Kompozer is the best free, (open source) HTML editor.

However, if you choose Dreamweaver, prices may vary from $399 to $2.599 and this program does have a steep learning curve. In my opinion it takes to long to master Dreamweaver.

Kompozer is the best choice among free HTML editors. Kompozer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding. It is so called (WYSIWYG) HTML editor. It doesn't take long to learn this program. This website was created with Kompozer. You can download Kompozer here.

A content management system or "CMS", is a piece of software that you install on your web host's server. Basically, instead of installing the program on your own computer, the way you do an Html editor, you install it directly on your website. You then use your browser to log into your site and use it to add articles, photos and modify it instantly.

WordPress as a Free Blogging platform is a subset of CMS software. It is mostly like the CMS, except it has fewer features since it's designed primarily for people who just want to blog (write short articles).

To help you decide Kompozer or WordPress or both, ( as I do for all of my websites ), please read the Kompozer vs WordPress blog post as both of this choices have cons and pro's..

To Recap

Which ever way you decide to go with your site creation, make sure you based your decision on what you really need.

Build Your Own Website With Free Programs Click Here --->>>