Your website is your window to the world and your home on the web. It can be
used as a powerful marketing tool and a way to make money. Having the right
technology and a little knowledge allows you to build, develop and promote
your site with little or no outside help.
Domain
Creating a home on the web starts with choosing a domain name. Options are
increasingly limited as so many combinations have been snapped up, but there
are a number of domain registration companies whose websites allow you to
check for available domain names and will often suggest available
alternatives.
(www.1and1.co.uk, www.123-reg.co.uk,
www.easily.co.uk, are some of the more
popular websites offering this service)
Hosting
Most domain registration companies also offer the web space you’ll need to
host your site. Basic hosting packages grant about 250 MB of web space, but
anything over 1 or 2 GB is more sensible as it will allow you to handle the
increase in traffic as the reach of your site grows.
Design
Once you have secured a domain name and somewhere to host your site, it’s time
to start designing and building the landing page and product and service
pages that will constitute your web site.
Most hosting companies provide some sort of web builder tool that helps you to
build your site without the need for any specialist technical know-how.
Bear in mind that your website is often the first impression potential
customers will get of your business and they’ll make their judgement in
seconds. So, if you are in any doubt about producing a professional looking
site, consider hiring a professional web designer who can translate your
ideas into something visual and accessible on the web.
Attracting visitors
With a shiny new home on the web, you’ll be eager to welcome visitors and the
key to traffic is promotion.
Write articles and syndicate them to sites that your customers are likely to
visit. Your articles will provide the host site with good, free content and
net you free promotion while also raising your profile in your field.
Post in forums where your customers hang out. If you build a reputation as the
person who offers helpful advice, people will immediately think of you when
they’re in a position to buy.
Build relationships and have reciprocal links to sites that are complimentary
to yours. This will improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and
thereby make it easier for people to find you when typing search terms into
search engines. The greater the number of links to and from your sight, the
higher you will appear in the search rankings.
Submit your site to your site to the major search engines:
www.google.co.uk/addurl/?continue=/addurl
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/uk/free/request
search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
With a careful design and build, plus some well-targeted promotion, you’ll be
ready to start making money online.
Emma Jones is the founder of online home business company Enterprise Nation
(www.enterprisenation.com)
and author of Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home.
