How to start a Website

---

Websites are classified into 2 categories namely static and dynamic.

What is a Static Website

Static websites doesn’t require changes or frequent updates. Many of you might come across a 5 pages or 10 pages information or marketing website. The cost for developing and hosting a static website is affordable. It is very easy to setup. Small business and personal sites comes into this category.

What is a Dynamic Website

Dynamic websites on the other hand are big websites with database and functionality. Server side scripting languages like asp or php or cold fusion are used to develop dynamic websites. Dynamic websites may give facility to the users to add content or upload videos and photos to the website. Dynamic website can be well managed by content management system without involvement of the developer every time.

The best examples of dynamic websites are :

-Social networking sites like Facebook and Google+
-E commerce sites like ebay and amazon
-Microblogging sites like Tumblr and Twitter
-Photo sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket
-Email providers like Gmail, Yahoomail and Hotmail
-Social bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon and Digg
-Discussion forums like Digital point and Warriorforum

and the list goes on.

Dynamic websites are more expensive to develop and hosting can cost you more when compared to static websites. But, you can create wonders with dynamic content.

So, it is up to you to decide whether to go with a static website or dynamic website.

Steps involved in starting any website

1. Register a Domain Name ( Ex : www.yoursitename.com)

As all you know domain names are used to identify websites. You need to register domain name of the site with the top level domain you like. For example, way2earning is the domain name and .com is the top level domain. You can also go for .org (organization),.net (Network) or .edu (Education) depending on your requirements.

How to choose a better domain name?

Choose the shorter domain name as it can be easily remembered by the users or else you can go with your brand name or company name. It all depends on the type of website you are going to build. Try to use keywords in the domain name for which you want to rank higher in search engines. I’ll let you know more about search engines and keywords in the later sections.

2. Take Web hosting

In simple words a web hosting company provides server space, connectivity and necessary web services required to individuals and companies. You need to pay fees to store your website pages and files on web server.  Some companies provide free hosting services to the users.  But I recommend self hosting as you can utilize all the resources to the fullest.

You need to choose the best hosting plan for your website. The plan literally depends on your requirements.

For example if you are planning a static website then you can go for basic hosting plan ( 1 domain allowed+100 MB disk space+1 GB bandwidth+10 Emails ) . Please remember that these figures may vary with hosting providers. You can always upgrade to better hosting plans. If you are planning a large dynamic website with huge database then it is always advisable to choose unlimited web hosting plan  ( Unlimited domains are allowed + Unlimited disk space + Unlimited bandwidth + unlimited email accounts) . Unlimited hosting is very expensive when compared to basic hosting.

These days hosting providers come up with 4-5 hosting plans which suits well with every customer requirements. The most common categories of hosting  are Linux hosting and Windows hosting.

3. Web designing

Web designing plays a major role in driving traffic to your website. The visitors should find your website easy to navigate. The designer need to balance colors, navigation, graphics, layout, user interface  and fonts. Web designers use technologies like HTML, XHTML, CSS,  Javascript, Photoshop, XML, Flash etc to design a site. The most popular software for designing website is Adobe Dreamweaver.

Do your homework before meeting a web designer. Be specific about the layout, colors and everything related to the appearance.

4. Website development

Website development deals with backend of the site. Web developers use server side scripting technologies like PHP, ASP.NET, Perl, JSP etc and database technologies like SQL, MySQL to develop a website. It would be better if you leave the choice of developing technology to the developer. Be specific about your goals, functionalities and all the necessary things related to your website. It would make developer easy to understand and develop according to your needs.

Ex: Facebook is developed using PHP, Orkut using Asp.Net and Twitter using Ruby on rails.

5. Content

Developing a website without Content is useless. The basic logic is that visitors visit your website only for the information.  The web content is classified into 2 types : Text and Multimedia ( Images, sound, animation, video) .

In the previous post I explained why should we need a website. Visitors don’t bother about the technology you used to built the website. The content matters the most and the popular slogan is ‘content is king’ . Be precise about the topic you want to share with the readers. Make sure that the articles are neatly explained, well written, useful, professional, understandable and unique. Try to avoid harsh words as you may lose visitors and reputation.

In the next post I’ll let you know about choosing good web hosting, web designing and writing killer content.

I hope you like this article and please show your appreciation by posting comments.

Image courtesy : 123rf