The Official
Website
Writer David Kubicek
ARTICLES
For one company with which I'm
acquainted, the cost was about $715 per Website (but you must buy six), plus a $24.95 per month hosting
fee for each site that you activated. In addition, there was a $999 set-up
fee with a company to process credit card and PayPal transactions, plus monthly fees for each site
amounting to about $30 -plus a
small percentage to the credit card company when a sale was
made. These companies pray on people who want
to join the ranks of e-commerce entrepreneurs but have little knowledge
and experience with the Web. But despite what they would have you believe,
designing a Website is inexpensive and fairly simple. This article will
help you get started. 1.
Prices for Web hosting range from free to
thousands of dollars per month; however, for a simple site you can easily
find hosting for fewer than $10. You can opt for free hosting, but the
company will run advertising on your Website. This is okay for a personal
site, but I don't recommend it for a commercial site because you can't
control the ad content. 2.
Through the host you can purchase a domain name
for a modest cost. Use a name that contains some strong keywords, which
will result in a higher search engine ranking. Buying the domain name for
at least two years also will help your ranking. The search engines will
see this as a sign that you plan to be around for a while and that your
site isn't a fly-by-night outfit.
3.
I caution you against using a template to
design your site. The main problem with a template is that you don't know
how old it is. If the hosting company has been using the same template for
five years, it is out of date, making it difficult for the Web crawlers
(spiders) to read. This could
result in a much lower search engine ranking, which would lead to fewer
hits and fewer sales. 4.
Two other problems with using a template: a)
Your design choices are limited, and b) If you decide to switch Web
hosting companies, you must build your site all over again; since the
template belongs to the hosting company, you won't be able to take your
Website with you when you move. 5.
Design your Website on your computer and upload
the files to the host. This way, if you switch hosts you simply upload the
files to the new host (after having your domain "pointed" at the new
hosting company; your host will handle that for you). Designing a Website
is easier than it sounds. You'll need an HTML editor. I used the one
CoffeeCup sells for $49. The software allows you to design using either
HTML or XHTML. Be sure to select XHTML, which is fast replacing HTML as
the preferred language of the Web. Save all of your pages in a folder on
your computer - inside that folder have another folder containing all of
the photographs and other graphics you'll have on your site.
6.
A basic knowledge of HTML and XHTML is helpful
so you can understand how the code translates into visuals on a Web page
and make changes in the code when necessary. Check out your local
bookstore and community college. 7.
Set up your pages for easy spidering by using
tables, which are essentially boxes containing information. Web crawlers
scan a page the same way we read, from left to right, top to bottom. Once
they enter a table, they read everything in that table before going on to
the next. When they find a link, they will follow it. That's why, on my
Website, the links are down the right side of the page and across the
bottom - I don't want the spider leaving the page until it has scanned a
good chunk of it. 8.
If you are selling merchandise, PayPal has a
simple shopping cart which processes major credit cards and PayPal
transactions. There are no set-up or monthly subscription fees; the only
charge is a small percentage when you make a sale. Since payments are made
on PayPal's Website you have the added advantage of PayPal's tight
security; if you processed the transactions on your Website, you would be
responsible for security. Call PayPal, and a customer service
representative will help you get started.
9. After the pages are designed, use an FTP program like to upload
your files to the host. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. There are
lots of FTP programs available, some you pay for, some you don't. I use
FileZilla Client, which is free. Go to http://filezilla-project.org to download it. Filezilla has four windows
arranged in two rows. On the left side are the two Local windows, on the
right are the two Remote windows. The top left window contains paths to
all of the files on your computer. Find the folder that contains your
Website files, click on it, and it will open in the lower left window. Now
put the host (your domain name), username and password (which you set up
when you opened your hosting account) in the proper spaces at the top and
click Quick Connect. When a connection is made, the root directory of your
Website will appear in the top right window; the root directory is a
folder followed by a /. The lower right window should contain the files,
including images, in your Website folder. If any are missing, drag them
from the lower left window and drop them into the lower right (I spent
three days going over XHTML code, trying to figure out why some of my
images were not displaying while others were; finally, out of options, I
stopped looking at the XHTML and turned my attention to FileZilla - it
didn't take long to notice that the images that weren't displaying weren't
in the lower right window). When everything is set up the way it should
be, drag the Website files from the lower left window and drop them into
the Root directory in the upper right window.
10.
Go
online to view your Website. These are just the basics. There still is much
to learn about building and maintaining a Website but it will become
easier as you continue to study and gain experience.
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