Develop Your Own Website

Introduction

We mentioned in the first twelve articles that you should consider having your own website, and the reasons for doing so, this article is a follow on, to emphasis how to not only get yourself a website, but how to develop it.

There are a number of things to consider and I realise that in some parts, not only am I repeating myself but going over old ground. The reason is simple I believe that it is important that you fully understand the basics, for those that do my sincere apologies.

As mentioned in my previous article there are a number of first class sites out there that will not only host your site for you, sometimes at a very reasonable cost, but help you to choose and set up your domain.

Basics

So where do you start?

• What business will you be running?
• Will it be digital or product based?
• Do you have a business name?
• What would you like your domain to be called?
• How will you have it hosted?

As discussed before, these are just the basics to launching your new website.

But if you are serious about having a website that will eventually start to earn you money, then these five questions need to be answered, in the not too distant future. If you have not already done so, in a book or folder dedicated to your business write down the answers to those questions.

This book or folder will also help when you need to make notes on both your business and website, mine has web sites in that I might like to look at or even use, plus all sorts of other bits and pieces.

Any of these questions that you are not yet able to answer, spend some time thinking about that particular question, as all five are very important to setting up both your business and your website.

Who Can Help

I have used several hosting services, and find most of them more than adequate for my basic needs, but must confess to being a little biased when I recommend without hesitation Wealthy Affiliate, the reasons are quite simple, whilst I have a detailed review at

https://learningandwealth.com/review-of-wealthy-affiliate-in-2019-no-credit-card/ ,

A few of the important points are:

• You can start for free, there is no time limit to this free trial, but obviously there are some restrictions on use, which you would expect.
• They do not need your credit card, when you sign up for free.
• You can have two free websites, so you can play at your hearts content to see how things work.
• Not sure of a domain name, use the search facility to see what is available, a hint from me, always try for those with .com where available, you will normally have to pay to have a domain registered, somewhere between $11.99 and $15.99 per year. This is very reasonable and that domain is yours as long as you renew the registration each year. It cannot be taken away.
• Also includes free basic training in how to set up your website.
• There are a number of other benefits as a free member, but suggest that you read my review, or visit the WA site

A Few Ideas

Who ever you decide to sign up with, to help you on your way, in the wonderful world of internet marketing, be a little cautious of certain things. Some companies offer very attractive rates when you first sign up, but $3.99 for the first month can rapidly turn to £10.99 and more.

Some even offer extras for another fee, a lot are fairly straight forward apart from the monthly cost. Was offered one the other day at $1.00 per month for twelve months then rising to $12.00 per month, so do be careful. Especially as this is for just one site and I now have several.

Should you decide to upgrade to Wealthy Affiliate, you would get fifty, that is right fifty free websites, just paying the cost of the domain registration.

The cost to upgrade is $49 per month, many other benefits are included, and yes I do get a small commission should you upgrade. If you consider the fact that I mentioned earlier that I was offered hosting rising to $12 a year, the cost to upgrade would allow me four websites, plus all the other extras. But as I said hosting on Wealthy Affiliate is free.

To me this is a no- brainer, but I am biased and I have been a paid up annual member for over fifteen months.

Further Thoughts

When you begin to develop your site you will need to consider the addition of graphics and photographs. These are obtainable from a variety of sources.

Would suggest, as I have done before if you wish to design your own graphics, canva.com they do a free trial, did design my logo from that site. A number of firms will do free photographs that are royalty free, suggest that you build up a library of those that you like, they come in very handy. Your posts look much better for some graphics and photographs. Imagine how you would feel just reading line after line of script, bored or what comes to mind. It is much better to break it up with photographs or graphics.

You will need to write blogs or posts on your site on a regular basis, the number of words in each one is often open to debate, you will read that 500 words is ideal, some say 1,000, other at least 1500. It really is entirely up to you, how much content that you have and feel that you need to inform your visitors about. One word of warning to not make it so long that it becomes a book, and therefore possibly boring.

I often switch a post off if it starts to bore me because of its length. Personally I aim for at least 1,000 words, with a number of photographs or graphics.

If you write just one post a week full of good content, post it on the same day of the week, your followers will then get used to when you are posting, making a point of visiting your site on a regular basis.

One final thought, I always leave my website details at the bottom of every post, this then reminds the reader of your website and more importantly how to get in touch with you directly should they wish too.

Conclusion

As always do so hope that you enjoyed this article on developing your own website, gaining some ideas that you can use. Please do feel free to leave any comments below. We do enjoy reading them and appreciate the feedback, also appreciate that you have given up your valuable time to let us know what you think.

The next article will be “Can you use power point?”

Be Happy, Healthy and Wealthy,

Stuart (aka Edwin)

https://learningandwealth