On the index page create a navigation bar with graphic links to the homepage, about page, news page, contact page and any other pages you have set up.
The graphics can be simple buttons or graphics that fit the style of your site. (see example above) Copy and paste the navigation bar into the same position on every page. Tip: Avoid using pages with ‘frames’ if your software supports them. The search engines don’t like them and you want your site to be easy to find, not hard to find. Create the same links with text then copy and paste them at the bottom of every page. (See the bottom of this page as an example) In the main area of your pages cut and paste any text comprising of content that you have created with a word processor.
If you prefer, you can type it out directly on to your webpage and use the program’s own formatting options. Web Easy Pro makes it easy to drag and drop and resize text or pictures in any position you think looks suitable. Generally speaking, text can be placed either in the centre or to the left or right of your page and any pictures can be added to the opposite side, or in the case of centred text, above or below the text. Pictures that consist of clip-art, illustrations or digital photographs can be saved to your hard drive and imported into your webpage by selecting the chosen file from the folder you have saved it in. Keeping a designated graphics folder for each website is a good idea so you don’t misplace any important pictures that you need. Try to make sure that your images file sizes are not too large. Use jpegs or gifs. On your contact page include your name and email address or contact form. If you wish, you can also add your home or business address and telephone number. Once you have added all the information you want to publish on to your web pages you can then ‘preview’ your site and if everything looks good, build (or stage) your site into a folder on your hard drive. The files can then be uploaded to your web host server when ready to go ‘live’ (see below for setting up a web host account) Tip: Finding content to add to your site can be the hardest part of creating a popular website. If you’re stuck for ideas try visiting similar sites to yours but don’t use someone else’s copyrighted work without their permission. If you’re passionate about the subject you have chosen you probably won’t have too much difficulty in thinking up something to write about. Even so, it can be useful to find like-minded people to bounce ideas off or pick up information that may help you in your quest.
Try browsing the the social networking sites such as Facebook as well as blogs, forums and community sites like Squidoo where there are lots of people contributing information on a huge range of popular subjects.
Step 3
Set up a web hosting account Now your website has been designed you will need somewhere to publish it so that people can view it online. For this purpose you will need a good reliable webhosting service. Preferably one that offers good technical support, a generous amount of webspace and bandwidth allowance, plus an easy to use control panel through which you can access your account and check your website stats and organise your POP3 e-mail boxes. Here’s some web hosting services that you can compare. Check the features that each one offers and choose one to suit your needs. Hostgator
HostGator is one of the fastest growing shared and reseller web hosting companies in the United States and the World. Heart Internet
A leading web host provider located in the UK. Their hosting plans also include ‘reseller’ hosting and are an authorised reseller of domain names.  Yahoo!
Reliable small business web hosting from Yahoo! Recommended if you’re based in the USA and want to set up an ecommerce shop to sell products online.
After choosing a web host and opening an account you should receive your password and username to enable you to log-in and set up your website directories. Other information you will need include the address of the nameservers your website will use and the host address for setting up your ftp program to transfer files.
Step 4
Change your nameservers If you’re using a seperate web hosting company the ‘nameservers’ you’re provided with by 123reg.co.uk or whichever company you register your domain name with, will need to be changed in order to point to your website’s host address. To do this make sure you first make a note of the nameservers used by the company which will host your website. If you’re not sure what they are then check for this information on their website or contact them and ask them. Next, if you registered your domain name with 123reg.co.uk log-in to their control panel and go to your account. Click on the link ‘Modify nameservers’ and enter details of the nameservers you made a note of. Make sure you type them in correctly. Changes will normally take place within 24 - 48 hours.
Step 5 Uploading your site To give you access to upload your site to your newly aquired webspace you will need ftp software such as Filezilla which is free to download from www.snapfiles.com.
Your web design software may be able to accomplish this as well but I still recommend using filezilla for it’s excellent features and ease of use. To set up the transfer information for your ftp program to work properly you will need the host address of your webserver, a username to identify you, and a password to log in. When you set up your account with your webspace provider they will confirm these details with you. If not then contact them and ask for their assistance. You will need to create a directory where your website or blog will reside. Typically, this might be in the ‘htdocs’ or ‘public’ folder of the web space provided. You can then arrange to have your domain name point directly to the index page of your site (using the correct nameservers) When your domain name is typed in to the address bar of a browser the visitor will end up on your index page which will be your homepage. Once everything is set up it’s simply a matter of logging in and copying your files from your hard drive to the website folder you have set up on the host server.
Step 6 Promote your site How well your site gets noticed will depend largely on how well your site ranks with the major search engines. Most people use search engines to find what they’re looking for on the internet, so it’s important to understand a little about how they find your site. To get an in-depth understanding of how search engines work visit searchenginewatch.com or searchengineguide.com The main things you need to know are how to use page titles to increase your profile and how to optimise the relevancy of your body text content in order to target the type of visitor you’re aiming to get to your site. If you take a look at the source code of this page using the view> source option in your browsers menu you will see that between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags of the html code the title is shown as ‘creating a popular website’ and if you take a look at the top of your browser window you will see the title in the title bar. The words or phrases you use in your title will largely determine how the page will be found. Taking the same relevant words as those used in your title and incorporating them into the body text of your page will give even better results. Be aware though that repeating words too many times can have the opposite effect. Don’t try and trick the search engines into getting higher rankings. The algorithms the search engines use to determine the relevancy of your site are constantly changing so visit the sites I mentioned and stay up to date with new methods and techniques. Once your site is complete and your titles and body text have been optimised you are ready to submit your site.
Google should be the first search engine to submit your site to, then Yahoo! and MSN. It’s also worth getting listed with directories such as dmoz and any other business directory if your website is about your company. Also, make sure you register your business with Google Places to gain further exposure. There’s millions of websites already out there, so the chances are someone has already produced a site based on a similar idea to yours. Choosing a niche market with limited competition will greatly increase your chances of getting found. When you consider the fact that most people will only visit sites listed on the first page a search engine brings up, you can see why uniqueness is important.
Step 7 Making your site pay for itself Have you noticed how many sites incorporate advertising these days? Some people feel that the web has become too commercialised and that it should only be used for what it was originally intended, a source of free information. Whichever way you look at it, advertising seems to be here to stay. And it does have some advantages. ISP’s and web hosting companies invest a lot of money in expensive equipment to create their services and enable website producers to host their sites with them. Obviously this equipment has to be paid for somehow and in many cases the cost is recovered through advertising and charging web production companies to use their servers. The website owners in turn can often recover their own costs by selling their own products or advertising and promoting the products of other merchants. Providing your site is popular, it may be possible to pay for it’s running costs through pay per click advertising or by joining an affiliate program that pays out a commission when a visitor you send them purchases a product. You can learn more about affiliate marketing here. If you decide you would like to join an affiliate program then take a look at these affiliate networks first. When you sign up as an ‘advertiser’ or ‘publisher’ it costs nothing to join them and they list a huge range of companies looking for affiliate partners to promote their products and services. A list of the best independant affiliate programs I have personally used with success can be found by clicking here Everyone knows that pop-ups can be annoying, but banner ads are less intrusive. Providing you don’t go overboard and splash banners all over your page, (this rarely works) adding a single banner at the top or bottom of your page to blend in with the design of your site is usually far more acceptable and effective. Best of all, a personal recommendation, using an affiliate text link incorporated within a useful article, can produce surprisingly good results.
Google’s AdSense is also a great way to generate income from your website. You can learn more about AdSense by reading the article
A simple guide to making money with Adsense
Step 8 Checking your websites popularity In order to keep track of how many visitors you are receiving on a daily, weekly and monthly basis you should refer regularly to your website stats. The statistics revealed about your website visitors, including which sites sent you traffic, which pages are the most popular, how many pages they looked at and how long they stayed, can reveal a lot about how your site is performing. With the information you obtain you can see the strengths and weaknesses of your site and make improvements where necessary. |
