If You Are Searching For The Easiest and Cheapest Ways On How To Make Your Own Website –
we are here to help…
You want to build that website for whatever reason; you may desire to have a cooking site, or you want to have a Virtual Assistant website. Whatever your desire is, it can happen and we will give you some tips here on how to make your own website.
Many seek or simply wish to share conversations and photos of their family on a blog in their spare time. You may want to blog about being skinny, or how beautiful your life is.
It is easier than you may think – all you need are the directions that you can follow and you will soon be online.
What Is The Cost To Start Your Website?
What is the upfront cost? First, it depends upon where you go to purchase your domain name and hosting. However, it usually begins at $10 – $20 a month for hosting.
You must purchase a domain name that can be anywhere from $10 to $12 for one year period. You may be able to get your first year much lower than $10. The providers offer a lower cost for the first year. It will also be determined by the product you wish to obtain.
Yes, you can have a working website (Imagine https:yourname.com), available to anyone in the world with internet access.
(Yes, you can afford it!) There are also some ways of getting a free site – still residing at yourname.com, but first, here are some terms you need to be familiar with.
There are three basic components required for building a personal, custom website
How To Make Your Own Website – Starts here…
You need-
- A domain name
With the internet, you can choose what you, want your address to be (your domain name). What are you selling or writing about? What would make your site stand out?
Understand that after over 10 years of public internet access – many good names have been taken. So get creative, and be unique but understandable. An easy place to start with is your full name for a family/personal site or your product name for a business site.
Make a list of about 10 possibilities that you like in this format yourdesiredname.com
Domain Name Providers
A domain name is a name you want for your website or blog. This name usually describes what your website content will be similar to.
Name.com, a couple of the ones that I have used.
How long or short should your domain name be?
It depends upon what you are writing about, selling, etc. You actually want the domain name to be a short description of your website content. Some bloggers use their name, janieandrews.com – or janieandrewsstories.com.
I started this website long ago on Google Blogger and moved it to WordPress later. Life Chats…but I want to say this website is about Real Life. Therefore, that is how I came up with the name Life Chats About Life Things. I use Life Chats as the title of this website, but the basic domain name of Life Chats was not available.
There are examples all over the web, so do not feel challenged. However, once it is done you cannot undo it without some worries.
Taking your time to decide on your domain name is important; therefore think about it before leaping forward. You cannot use what someone else is using and when you input your choice, the vendor will tell you if it is in use.
Hosting Account
• A hosting account – the company will host your website for a monthly fee.
You will now find the hosting provider. I use HostGator at the present and it is a business account /shared which means that I can have more than one website within my account.
Many hosting companies will either give you or sell you your choice of a domain name at the same time you start your hosting account. Some people do not use the same providers for a domain name and hosting.
I have seen this done frequently and that it is better to use the same hosting provider for your domain, and I do it both ways. Some hosting providers will give the domain name and the SSL certificate free for the first year.
Bring out your list for your domain choices, and when instructed in the purchase process, enter your first domain name choice.
They will inform you if that name is available or not. Keep trying out your names in order of your preference until you find one that is available. Finish the purchase process and let the hosting company instruct you on how to access your account.
Hostgator *This link will get you 60% off for a period of time *HG has 4.5 stars
BlueHost 
**BlueHost has been rated slightly higher than HostGator at this writing. It has 5 stars.
Quick Note – some suggest that you do not have the same vendor for domain name and hosting. However, Bluehost is offering a free Domain Name with Hosting.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a must-security- meaning HTTPS must be the beginning of your website URL. You can purchase SSL with the Domain provider or the Hosting provider. One of the others may off free SSL for the first year.
**Update- many hosting providers now provide the basic SSL Certificate with their hosting package.
Please take the time to read all of the options available on their site. Do not rush through your decisions. Ask questions and be sure of your commitments that are lasting.
Building Your Website – Getting it set up
- You have some choices to make here:
A – You can ask someone to build you a site.
B – You can build it yourself.
C – *self-hosted WordPress is an option in Hostgator. WordPress is one of the easiest tools for building what you need theme-wise and writing.
Most hosting providers give you the option of WordPress inside their site. HostGator does and I have used it for 7 or so years. I have not had any major issues with support from HostGator.
All you need is to follow directions and not get into the building stuff until later. Get your site up and running and then you can go deeper later. *That is what I chose to do.
Each has its pros and cons.
The first option is great if you can afford it and can find someone reliable. If you want to save $$$, Fiverr.com is a place that helps people build their websites.
It is great to learn a new skill, and you can learn for free online – just invest a little time. Remember once you know how… you own that knowledge forever and you will never depend on someone else to build your site.
This is a fact – I have been doing this for 10 years plus.
Content Writing and Building Your Pages
Content writing is important and it is free for you to write it yourself. If you do not feel qualified, you can hire it done. There are many content writers online. They charge a different amount, however, you would want to make sure it is relative, not copied, and meets the needs of the audience you intend to bring to your site.
In writing the content, you need to offer something worth reading, and it needs to grab the attention of the reader, your audience. If you are writing about how to solve a problem, problem-solving content is the answer.
E.g. If you are writing about The Best Parenting Solutions – that should be your focus. For instance: How To Cope With Defiant Children.
Write simply, in understandable dialogue. Write clearly by making sure you are addressing the subject (do not get into a bunch of hype). You may need to research your material.
It is now clear that Google wants longer posts/articles. Google, of course, is the search engine that will index your website/post/pages and this is how you get to the front page. It is hard work…do not listen to those who say this part is easy. It is not.
This means more than 500 words. Some of my articles are 1200 words..900… 800 but there are all more than the first mentioned. You can research why here.
As time goes on, remember to keep your site fresh. Keep the content updated and relevant to your ideal audience.
Wrapping up…
The goal of this article was to give you easy steps on how to get a website for yourself. Naturally, you can learn more about each step, and there are many people who can give you help, but now you can start the journey.
Create your list of domain names, purchase a hosting account (including the domain name you want) and build your site and keep the content fresh.
A journey of a million miles starts with one step – so go to step one and start. (Do not worry – this is not a long journey – but it is exciting!).
Notice: We are an affiliate for these accounts Bluehost is one and may get a commission from the links in these articles. It does not change the pricing that you will pay. See the full disclosure here.
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