Most everyone will agree, if you are going to do business online, you need your own web site. It can be a mini-site or a full blown multi-page site. These days, maybe you just need a blog as a web site. Find out what you need to know to build your own web site, get web hosting for that site and start your online business right.

If you are serious about sustaining a long term home based internet business, you should have a web site of your own. Having your own web site will give you much more flexibility on how you approach your online business as well as provide you with a means to give your web business a presence on the internet. Having this presence and making yourself known on the internet will improve the level of trust you will receive by your potential customers.
Having your own site may open up many possibilities that you could never have imagined. For the many who embark upon their own web site adventure, it becomes a learning experience with no equal.

Your web site will take on a personality of its own and be the front door to your online home business. You may see it as a very patient friend, waiting calmly for you to discover some little hidden function, which opens up a whole range of entirely new possibilities, and starts your thoughts racing – thinking about how to capitalize on that particular feature.

You may get a little careless, or get too relaxed with it, then bam! Right between the eyes – you end up with a big problem. But, building your own web site for your online business is fun, can be profitable, and most certainly can feed that creative flair in all of us.

The first thng to do when starting your web site is to pick a domain name. The domain name will be something like yoursite.com. A domain name should be researched carefully. Its best to have highly searched for keywords in the name. A neat and free tool to help you pick a domain name is The Domain Twist. There are many places to get domain names. I prefer Godaddy.com or Netfirms for domain name registration. Netfirms currenty has a promotion to receive a 1 year domain registration for $4.95.

You can also use Wordtracker’s FREE trial to give you keyword ideas: http://wordtracker.com

Searching Google at http://www.google.com will give you an idea about competition for any particular keyword.

Use Overture’s search box to find how many times your keyword was searched on last month:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion

Once you have a domain name you will need a web site hosting account to host the domain. Web hosting accounts vary significantly with disk space allowed, bandwith, number of supported domains, and other important considerations. Most annual hosing accounts that would be more than adequate to run your online business will cost between $6 – $10 per month. Currently, I recommend BlueHost and Host Gator web hosting accounts. Both have recently received performance awards and they have very competitive hosting plans for your web site. When selecting a web host, pay special attention and compare capability like PHP support, MySQL database allotment, subdomains, script support and others.

The next thing that you need to do is build your actual web site. I am not an html or javascript programmer per se, but I can do minor html programming/editing with a good editor. I like Coffee Cup or HTML Edit for small jobs and one page web site editing. You can also use a template to build your actual web pages. You can find them all over the internet for free.

http://www.ibdprince.com – has all kinds of webmaster goodies, including really great looking CSS templates.

http://www.diyminisite.com – templates and videos about mini site creation – click the “not yet a member” link to join. It’s FREE. Then go to the download area and pick what you need.

My absolute favorite for program for building web sites though is Killer SEO Site Builder. This is a PHP script that you install on your web host account. The script provides you with a real easy rich text html editor. It also has tons of features that optimize your site for the search engines.

Get a FREE copy of “7 days to Massive Web Site Traffic” at http://www.seoelite.com. It outlines the steps to a web page that can rank high in the search engines, and even goes beyond just your web pages, to tell you “the rest of the story.” I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When you get ot the SEO Elite web site, scroll through the sales pitch, then close the page. The “7 Days” popup appears. It sounds like a lot of trouble, but believe me, it’s worth it.

Don’t load your site down with slow loading banners and images. Use low-res images that have been optimized for use on the web.

Write your web site page content, commonly referred to as copy, then play editor: write, hack, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, until it is crisp, clear, to the point, and utterly understandable. Repeat your strongest point or benefit a number of times (at least three). Some people just don’t get it the first time or two. Spread your text out a bit. Don’t double space, but use very short paragraphs, and lots of headings with some space between the heading and the paragraph.

When you put together your web site, target your audience. Don’t talk about network marketing to veterinarians. They may be interested in network marketing, but they probably got to your site via a search for a pet animal product and that’s what they’re looking for. When you know your target audience you can be sure not to speak (write) above their heads. Use words they will understand without Webster’s help. You may get by with writing a little below their level, but never above it.

Keep your fonts constant throughout your site. Variety may be the “spice of life” but can really look lousy on a web page. You can vary the size a bit, and throw in a little color, but stay conservative with the type style.

Know your target audience, and be sure not to speak (write) above their heads. Use words they will understand without Webster’s help. You may get by with writing a little below their level, but never above it.

Highlight important selling words and phrases with bolding, italics, underlining, and color. Just don’t overdo it.

Don’t forget, purchases are never made on logic, but on emotion. Use copy that is designed to trigger an emotional response, such as a sense of loss, one of the strongest: “If you wait, this offer may no longer be available at this price. Get it now at this ridiculously low price, and it’s yours forever.”

Once you have your web site built you will need to upload it to your web site host (unless you are using KSEO Site Builder). A good and free FTP program to use for uploading and downloading to and from your host is SmartFTP. When you upload your site, you must upload the index.html file, any other linked HTML files, all the graphics files and any external CSS or Javascript files you may have created.

Once you are online focus on driving targeted traffic to your web site by writng articles, getting backlinks and Search Engine Optimization.