25 Aug Creating a Website – a Guide for a Noob
Somehow you’ve managed to come up with an idea that you should create a website. Great! Well, it’s all going to get a lot harder from now on. Whether you are thinking of creating a database of cute pictures of kittens, posting your hand-drawn weekly comic online, or even selling your products, creating a website is a really important and necessary task for establishing your online presence. The procedure is long and hard, filled with technical details most people do not know, so we are going to delve into some of them and explain what is needed for a new site to be created and, finally, accessed from the World Wide Web. You are going to need a bit of money, and a lot of patience.
After the initial idea, you need to put that idea into some HTML code. HTML is a sort of language created for developing web pages and all other things that you see in your browser. From pictures of cats, to audio files of their purring, it all needs to be incorporated into this HTML code. If this is the first time you are hearing this, then it is probably much simpler for you to think about something easier, like free-to-make website tools, which will help you create a modest site, without all this hassle. Of course, free to make websites are not unique, and you’ll not be able to edit them without learning about it. One of the simplest ways is to have good friends who know web developing and who owe you a favor. And once they make a website for you, with multiple galleries of cats, you can move on to the next phase. I believe that you already know that you’ll be required to update your site regularly if you want it to be a success. That means that you’ll have to post a lot of new content daily (more cats!), engage with your audience, create natural conversations between your visitors, which will make a nice atmosphere they will want to come back to. Another important thing is that you will probably need to work on your Facebook and Google+ page. Think of them as an additional advertisement to your website. You can link all the stuff you post on your website there, and people will have to click a link to see the content. Facebook is also nice for talking to the public, and it is used for fun and relaxation, so it is easy to post casual content. Ask questions that will require some feedback, create some social games, and subtly direct users to your website. People on Facebook just love cats. I know I do!
As the number of visitor increases, you’ll need to start thinking about some other factors. Where are you hosting your site, how much are you paying for it, and what are some of the special offers that the provider is offering you? All of this can be really technical in nature, but there are some specialized sites that compare all hosting companies and their quality of service, giving them a star rating. A good host provider will have excellent technical support who will be able to help you with all your requests, and he or she will also have good and reasonable terms of service (ToS) which you should read carefully, and the price of service should be within your desirable range. Not all cheap hosting companies are bad, but also not all expensive ones are good. Look up a hosting company, and see other user experiences before you sign up to anything.
So, this is pretty much it. You’ll need to come up with a good idea for a website, you’ll need to realize that idea, either using some free online website creators, or hiring a professional to do it for you. Once the site is made, it must be hosted by a reliable company, with a good price and a nice set of services and support offered to you. Use other sites dedicated to reviewing hosting companies, and then decide. Once your site is up and running, advertise using the available social networks, especially Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. If everything goes right, pictures of your cats will be viewed all around the world.
