Websites 101 - Guide To Getting A Website Online
by Little Star Webdesign
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Welcome to Websites 101. This is a basic guide that strongly encourages you to do your Research! Research! Research! The Internet brings on a lot of new opportunities and a lot of new options. Always do your research before deciding on a new option.
This general guide will cover the different steps/options you must take to creating and getting a website online. Click on the titles below or scroll down to begin our Websites 101 Guide.
Knowing what your website will be about will help you determine many options you will have (Business, Informational, Online Store, Personal Site, etc…). These choices include, how big your site will be, hosting options, domain options, design and advertisement options. Also, knowing what your website will be about will help you inform and express to service providers what you need, this way you'll get what you want.
Applies to individuals who plan to sell products or services. If you decide to sell products or services online you will need to accept payments. We bring this up early, because depending on what type of payment you'll accept will, will also determine how your website will be designed and created. There are several different ways to accept payment online and offline.
Offline payments will need to be sent through postal mail and often you will want to wait the appropriate time for them to clear with the bank. You will need a bank account to accept checks, cash, money orders, and travelers checks. You will need a merchant account to accept credit card offline, as well as computer software or other types of hardware that enable you to accept credit cards. Online payments will be sent to you online and often can be approved instantly as well. When accepting payments online you will need to insure your customers that there information is secure, by transactions through an online secure sever. You will also need an Internet merchant account. Many offline merchant accounts do not handle online sales just yet, but if you do your research in your area, you may be able to find one that offers on and offline services. An Internet merchant account will enable you to accept credit cards and checks online through a secure server, which THEY should provide for you. You should also have the option to have instant approval, which basically means they verify your customers' payment info instantly. You should also look for a virtual server, which enables you to enter their info manually, through an online interface. If you accept checks and credit cards offline, there is still an option for you to accept them online. What you would need to acquire is a secure server and a secure server certificate. With a secure server you may place a form in which you may accept secure transactions of your customers information. And yet one more possible way to accept checks and credit cards offline is through a shopping cart. Many shopping cart providers can provide you with a secure order form to accept payments.
internet merchant/secure server:
shopping cart/secure server:
Depending on your budget, it will determine how and who will build your website. You may pay others or you may learn how to create a website by yourself. If you do not have time or do not have the patience to learn how to create a website on your own, then hiring someone else should be your option. There are many low cost companies that can help you find the right package to fit your needs. At Little Star Web design, we have many options you can choose from which are fully customizable and come with full support. Signup for a Free Design Quote and compare them will other companies (Always do your research!), to find that we offer the lowest, easiest and unique package deals for our customers.
webdesign:
create web pages:
Advertising your website is a very important aspect of building a website. If you build it, they won't necessarily come unless you tell them! There are several ways online and offline to advertise your website.
Coming Soon! We will have separate guides on each advertising aspect, so stay tuned to learn more about adverting your website on and offline.
start here for promotion ideas: RexSubmit - Free online promotion resources
There are many types of web addresses to consider. Each option has their advantages and disadvantages.
domain names:
After determining which domain name you would like, you will need to find out what type of hosting you'll need. Finding a hosting company is not difficult, but for new comers it may seem a bit complicated. Web hosting is where your website will "live". You will upload your website to your host. When you type in your websites domain/address (see What type of web address) it will be forwarded to your website (well actually to your IP address if you must know exactly. An IP address is just a bunch of numbers that was assigned to your website). This transaction is done instantly. There are A LOT of hosting options! As I said before, DO YOUR RESEARCH! Here is a list of the most common:
paid hosting:
free host:
This may not seem very important, but it is! Website maintenance is something that needs to be done! Changing text, graphics, and other items on your website monthly or even weekly is a good consideration. It may not seem very important, but when things change in the outside world, you should change them on the online world as well. Letting your visitors get updated and also to prevent them from looking at the exact thing every time they visit. Website maintenance should be on the bottom of your stress list. Only because you can easily pay someone or learn to update your website yourself, for very low price. Maintenance for a website generally should cost less then the actually building of the site (but it is not a general rule, so do your research and find the best price). Website maintenance can be referred to as hiring a "webmaster", which is just someone that not only updates your pages, but also "should" be checking on your site often to make sure everything is working, answer technical questions about the website, and keep track of visitors coming to the site and where they are coming from. They can also do many other things for you, just ask! You do not necessarily have to hire a Webmaster; you can just hire someone whenever you need your pages updated. Contact Little Star Webdesign for inquires about website maintenance.
Well that's it for Websites 101. I hope you now have an idea of what you need and what you should be looking for. I know that before you get out there and start to learn the ropes, it is a bit tricky and without doing YOUR RESEARCH, you could be stuck with something you don't want. So, as I've said before, DO YOUR RESEARCH, this way you won't be dissatisfied and you'll get what you deserve!
Below is a quick list of places to start doing your research:
Web Design
Web Hosting
Web Domains
Internet Merchant Accounts
Promotion and Search Engine Submission
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