How to set up your own site easily

You’ve finally decided to put up your own site on the Internet, but have absolutely no idea how to go about it. Scared? Intimidated? Don’t be. After all, you really don’t need to be a rocket scientist to do so. Creating a website involves 9 simple steps. Following are steps to setting up your own website:

1. Get a good domain name. (Around $10/year)

The first step towards setting up your own website is to obtain a good domain name. It can be rather difficult to locate the domain name that you want. You will most likely find that many domain names that apply to your industry are already taken. But a good domain name is not always your company name or a common word. You should also consider a domain name that uses keywords that are commonly searched for on the internet. Search engines pay special attention to domain names in relation to popular keywords used for searches on the internet. I recommend using Google adwords Keyword Tool. If you are going to purchase an affordable domain name, you can go to Moniker to have one, the domain of this site is bought from Moniker

2. Find out if the domain name you are interested in obtaining is available.

I find that using the search interface on Moniker is the best way to find out if a domain name is available. On, Moniker, you can enter the domain name without hitting Go and the website will search for matching domain names using .com, .net, .org, etc. This makes the process of locating the domain name you want go by much faster than submitting a form request for each domain name.

3. Register your new domain name.

Once you have found a domain name to your liking, it’s time to register it. I find that Moniker Domains offers one of the lowest costs for registering a domain name. Domain of this site is registered on Moniker domain.

4. Find a professional web hosting company to host your website. (Around $60/year)

There are a variety of web hosting setups available, depending on your budget and the type of web site you want to put up. The most common ones are shared hosting, dedicated hosting and co-location. There are a variety of items to keep in mind when selecting a web hosting company.

* Experienced and professional web hosting company. You want to select a web hosting company that is truly experienced in web hosting. To simply host websites is not complex, but to do it professionally and in a complete manner can be very challenging. EmaxHosting are experienced and professional. Additionally, they support programming languages such as PHP and Perl.

* Large amount of storage space and bandwidth. Although web pages are very small in size, it is best to go with a hosting package that offers an excessive amount of storage space and bandwidth. EmaxHosting provides 1 gig of storage and 80 gig of bandwidth in their Budget hosting plan. This is a huge amount for any starter website.

* Charges for excess bandwidth. It is very common for web hosting companies to charge for bandwidth that exceeds the hosting plan you are on. However, you can still locate web hosting companies such as EmaxHosting that charge a flat rate each month and do not charge you for excess bandwidth. This way, you don’t have to worry about getting hit with a high bill due to increased traffic on your website. Once your website is using more bandwidth, you can simply upgrade to the next higher hosting package. It is not uncommon for some websites to drop off the internet because they have suddenly been hit with a large bill for excess bandwidth.

* Supports internet standards. There is a variety of software available for free on the internet that requires certain features be installed by your webhost. The ideal web hosting company has preinstalled these features for your use. Examples of these features are Cpanel, Perl, MySQL, PHP, the use of a personal CGI-BIN, CRON job modification, Fantastico scripts, SENDMAIL, etc. Most free open source website scripts are based on PHP+MYSQL, so make sure what features the scripts need when you choose web hosting.

* Streaming Audio and Video. It can be very expensive to provide streaming audio and video. Many companies such as PlayStream are in the business of streaming audio and video for websites. At EmaxHosting, streaming audio and video is included in the cost of your hosting package. For detailed information regarding hosting packages at EmaxHosting, visit http://www.emaxhosting.com/shared.html

To get the list of best hosting, visit best web hosting

5. Add the domain you bought to your web hosting.

Many hosting companies will offer a free domain if you buy their hosting plan, if so, the hosting company will finish this step for you, if not, you need to sign in to your domain dashboard to manage it, your domain company will tell you how to access to domain managemant dashboard and how to add your domain to your web hosting.

6. Find, download and install a free open source website script.

There are many free open source website scripts, go to http://www.opensourcescripts.com/ ,you can get open source for Ad Management, Affiliate Programs, Auctions, Audio, Bulletin Boards & Forums,Business & Enterprise, Calendars & Events, Chat, Classified Ad Managers, Content Management, Customer Support, Database, Development Tools, E-Commerce, Editors, Education, Email, FAQ & Knowledgebase, Form Processing, Games, Groupware Tools, Guestbooks, Image Galleries, Link Indexing, Mailing List Management, Miscellaneous, MP3, Networking, Polls & Surveys, Postcards, Ratings & Reviews, Search Engines, Security, Server Management, Software Development, User Management, Web Hosting Tools, Web Traffic Analysis, etc, you can download and build whatever sites you want based on these scripts.

Take the famous open source blog system WordPress as an example, go to http://wordpress.org, download the latest version, unzip it and upload all files to your hosting via FTP (your hosting company will tell you how to access to your ftp accounrt), then install WordPress so you can use it for your site, it’s easy to install, follow the instruction in the wordpress file. After installation, In order to use WordPress, you must set it up. Visit the WordPress site or contact your web hosting company for assistance on this step.

7. Need to sell your products online?

There are two options. One is through your own website which gives you more functionality and capabilities such as those listed in Step 4. The other is through a site such as Ebay. With an Ebay Store, you will not have to spend as much time to market your products online. This is because Ebay already has the traffic of visitors on the internet looking to purchase items. However, options such as streaming audio and other functionality is limited. If you prefer to sell from your own website, I would suggest setting up a Paypal grocery cart.

8. Do you want to design your site as well?

If you simply don’t want to mess with graphics and programming then you will want to work with an experienced web designer. The staff at Smartnetadmin.com would be happy to provide you with this service. However if you would like to do your own web design, you will most likely want to purchase Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop and other products. I would recommend checking out AtomicPark for these kinds of purchases. Or you can search Cnet Shopper.

9. Now, it’s time to market your website.

The last step and one of the most important is to market your website.There basic steps you should take to promote your site:

*Search Engine Optimize your site:

Make sure your site has the necessary meta tags (description, title, and keywords), alt tags, title tags, and copywriting.

*Add your site to local searches:

Most of the search engines have local search functions, and you should definitely appear there. Visit www.local.yahoo.com, www.local.google.com, and www.superpages.com to list your site.

*Register your site with search engines:

Submit your site to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and directories (DMOZ).

*Build links: Ask other related sites to link to your site.

You’ll have better luck if your site offers
solid resources, tools, or tips for readers. Also submit to related directories.

*Write articles:

Write articles about topics relating to your site, and publish them on your site. Also submit them to as many article directories as you can find. Just do a search for “Article Submit”.