|
|
|
|
Earning an Income from WebsitesPart One: Thinking In difficult times, we will do of several things: We may become depressed, sinking lower and lower into a back hole of despair and hopelessness, until we completely give up trying. We may get angry, lashing out at friends, family members, neighbors, pedestrians and drivers, the government, or even our own selves. We may begin to become especially creative, coming up with fresh ideas, crazy ideas, all kinds of ideas. Many of us have experienced, to at least some extent, all of the above reactions. Difficulties are not fun. Financial difficulties are especially hard on the nerves and the mind. We need to find ways of stirring up our creativity. Make lists of ideas. Write down every idea that pops into your head. Follow up on the lists with research. Don't just use the Internet. Go visit a public library, even if the trip into town is a long one. Give special attention to the ideas you really like. Gather details of the equipment you will need, the skills you need to learn, the kind of office, showroom, storage, manufacturing or workshop you will need. How will you need to dress? How will you reach contacts or potential customers? Know everything you will need to do to make this idea a reality. Part Two: Starting a Website While you are gathering the information you need to pursue your ideas, why not build a website information center for others who might be in the same boat? As you help others find the information they need, you may also be able to produce your own income, in come that will come in handy for paying bills until you get something else going. Or you may even turn your creativity and research into whole new career. You need to realize, before you begin that literally millions of people are building websites every day. Websites that cover the very ideas you want to cover may already number in the thousands, or even in the hundreds of thousands. Getting attention from search engines and potential visitors is not automatic. Your site will need to have good, quality content and real information if you hope to make a meaningful income. Part Three: How to Set Up a Site In order to build your own website, you will first need to own two things: 1. A domain name 2. A connected server, or a rented space with a hosting provider Buying a domain name is not difficult. People buy new domain names every day. Getting the one that you really want may be a little more tricky. Once again you will need to make a list. List words that somehow capture your idea for a website. If you can't think of anything, then run a search on some of the websites you like. Don't just look for sites in the same field of interest as your new site. Run all kinds of ideas, like advertising, construction, graphics, airplanes, offices, art, earth, animals, and so on. In the search results, look at the names of the sites listed. Visit the sites that seem most interesting. See how the name fits (or does not fit) the theme and content of the site itself. How important is the name? The name does matter. But the name is not all that matters. Promoting the site in various meaningful ways also matters. Once the general public knows about the site, the name may not make much difference. But until then, the name had better work pretty hard in getting attention. Seeing the kinds of names that other sites have chosen should rattle your brain cells a little, and help you get started on finding words and ideas for names for your own site. In many cases, a domain name will combine more than one word. Make sure, when you begin actually selecting the name that you include no spaces and no punctuation, except for a dash, if you want or need one. From your list of words and ideas, begin to make up some names you think will work. Run a Google search on the names, (don't forget to add the ".com") to see if they are already being used. On the names that seem not to be in use, run a domain name search, using a service such as www.whois.net or even www.godaddy.com to see if the names are registered or not. Be sure to write down all the names that have not been registered. When you have come up some good names that are not already taken, pick the one you like best. I suggest you register the domain name with the hosting service you choose. While you can register the name with any domain name registrar, there are benefits to keeping the package together. Picking a hosting provider can take a while. There are some good ones out there, and there are some that are not so good. Searching for lists of providers is complicated by the fact that many of the sites listing and "reviewing" hosting providers are either owned and operated by a hosting service, or at least paid to put in a good word. Even so, if you take some time to make a good list, and then visit the various services and compare the options available, the costs, and other details, you will begin to get a decent picture of what's available. Users have had good experiences and bad experiences with every hosting provider. Sometimes, the fault lies with the user, and sometimes the hosting company has failed in some way. The reliable ones tend to stay in business while the shoddy ones tend to eventually drop from site. Popular hosting providers at this writing include: www.1and1.com, www.hostgator.com, www.ipower.com, www.rackspace.com, www.fatcow.com, www.godaddy.com, and a number of others. Be careful. You tend to get what you pay for, but not always. I would avoid any so-called free web hosting service. I also avoid the cheapest possible service. I look for reliability because if the site is not available to web visitors, it will not do any good to set it up. I also look for value in the amount of space and bandwidth for the money. I have used both GoDaddy and 1and1, and have found them acceptable in terms of price and service. I'm sure that others in the same range are also very good. If you will only build one site, and that site is all you will focus your time, money and attention on, you may prefer to go with a higher priced, more secure service. Just be sure you are actually getting more for your money. Check references. Ask for a list of clients, and then check that list with whois.net or similar, to see if they really use the service.
|
|
|
Copyright 2009 by Jim Sutton All graphics and other contents on this site are copyrighted material and may not be used without the express written permission of the author. For permissions and other information, contact webmaster. |
