1. Get a domain name
2. Get a hosting space
3. Get a website developer
4. Pay site developer
5. pray.

That was and still is generally how most websites are made nowadays

Getting a site is a committed process that you as a business owner (to be) will have to take an active role in. There are many ways to do a site out there, and a good looking efficient website that tells the world who you are and what you do -> need not be expensive. There are plenty of web jargon out there and what i aim to do with this article is to cut through all those to give you a better perspective on how you can really use the internet to make your business work.

Step 1: Finding the type of site that fits your business

The first step is to select a type of site. There are really only 2 types of sites:

Type 1: Sites that don’t change and will never change unless you pay someone to do the change AKA static sites.

These are the sites that you pay the web developer to do and once created will stay that way. The site developer will tell  say you need 10 pages for $30/page, including contact us, about etc. once the negotiations are done they will give you a site that stays that way in perpetuity. Great if you are in a business that has no promotions, no new content, or like the website, static.  If the next day you found out a competitor is selling a similar product at promotional prices and you decide that you should offer better packaged deals or even better discount and you want that to be displayed prominently online. You call your web developer and the conversation will go somewhat like this:
You: Hi can i change my first page to include yadayada
WebDev: eh….. well you know the page was done in <insert web jargon here, html, css etc.> and cannot be done easily
You: Ok how much to change it?
WebDev: well as we need to redo the entire page as it will affec the structure of <insert web jargon> it will take us 4 days and $300.
You: …
Most flashy sites with fancy animations falls under this type.

Type 2 : Sites that changes it content but your web designer tells you it costs at least $1000 because it involves the integration of .net mysql and other web jargon – Dynamic sites

You can call these sites Content Management Sites (CMS), dynamic sites or any other acronyms. What differentiates these type of sites is: you can modify the content at will without a developer. But it may take a little getting used to with respect to how to use and the price. And why that exorbitant price tag of at least $1000? This is “usually” because of the need to coerce several pieces of technologies together and make sure the site does not break under different browsers or ensure the content that you have updated is correct, in addition to the millions of the other strange caveats that arises from random human fiddling and a rigid software program.

Large companies have sites like this where they can update frequently to suit their present business needs. They have impressive hardware couple with teams of programmers to create that at least $1000 look. So where does that leave a small start up like you that needs the ability to modify the site’s content quickly and for free?

The word is frameworks – these are software packages that allow you to build a site quickly and efficiently, usually involving a few simple installation steps. There are tons of free ones out there, waiting for you to try it out, some of the famous ones are opencms, joomla, oscommerce and wordpress(what we are using) They are well tested used by millions of users, and most if any bugs are ironed out.

Step 2: Making the website for cheaps

There are things to look out for when making a site, it has to:

1. looks good/professional – a sloppy looking website draws no customers.
2. Easily searchable webpage – the search engine must know how to find it, this is a HUGE topic and falls under the category of Search Engine Optimization. You must remember this at anytime you wish to use the internet to market your business “if google can’t find it, it does NOT exist”
3. Upgradable – you really do not want to be running yesterday’s technology on today’s web, being that security compromise, the look and feel or even just the simple usablilty of your site will be gimped.

Here are a few basics your website designer/developer or yourself must know before embarking on a site creation process, html, css, php, bit of sql, using ftps, understand how relational db works, digital graphics, font and typography, a little bit of design sense, how to use the any nix console, javascript, net security, some simple net protocols and the list goes on. Yes there are a lot of skills involved in working with webpages. And if you have the time, picking up a programming language is a fairly worthwhile pursuit.

What about those point and click What You See Is What You Get (WYSWIG) editors for webpage creation like Dreamweaver, flash etc. those are amazing tools in the hands of a skilled designer, but in a novice you will probably not do better than a secondary school student’s holiday project.

Sounds daunting doesn’t it? So how can you on a really really low budget of time and money get the site you want? I can say here “gimme $100 and you will get the website you need and can maintain yourself” but I won’t as that will be a sales pitch and lower the informative value of this article. One of the easiest ways is to use an existing framework like wordpress which we are using to create all our sites in the $100 package. It’s well tested and easy to install, check out their simple 1 click installation on their documentation and you will find out more. For the designs, you can use any of the free templates available online just do a google on “free wordpress themes” and you will get tons of sites with beautifully designed templates. A few good ones I recommend are Free WP themes, more Free themes, Skin Press I am fairly sure one of them will fit you needs.

Step 3: Finding a good host

I guess by now you should have realized by clicking and looking at the links here, you are not going to be hosting your webpage from the computer you are reading this article from. You will need a web host or some guy who will rent you a space to place your webpage on with some bandwidth so people can traffic to your site. There are a variety of hosting plans and programs out there are only 4 things you need to look out for when selecting a host, on top of price(the cheaper the better) of course.

Thing 1: The space available for you

The space is important if you plan to have plenty of product images, videos or other media on your site. A 10 mb space will definitely not hold videos. As of date you can check out top10hostings for more the latest and the bestest in webhosting in the world. There are some unlimited schemes going for only $3.95 USD per month. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Thing 2: The speed

Do note that bandwidth does not directly translate to speed. Bandwidth just determines how wide the channel for transmitting data is, speed is you perception of how long the website takes to load. The speed may be different even though the bandwidth may be big, find out more here hosting info or here the fine print in web hosting, consider the server is hosted in US or UK, but your customers are in Singapore or Southeast Asia due to logistical constraints, an electric signal can only take so long to run itself around the world. For testing speed, you can use Speed Test.

Thing 3: Apps that can be installed

You need to find out if your host allows you to install the required software to run your website. Some hosts are more particular about what they can allow you install, less trouble or lower consumption of processing resources on the server. This is especially true if you use a frame work, for instance joomla and oscommerce will need your host to have mysql, php running. You may also need an ftp to upload your site to test.

Thing 4: Tech support

You will always need tech support, when your site drops connection you need someone to scream at, or when your site is compromised(hacked) you may need someone to reupload it for you.

Step 4: Domain Name or URL

This is what your customers and yourself will be typing in to reach your site. Choosing a good Domain Name can be tricky. It should best describe the product or the services you provide. An easy way to pick your company name as your Domain Name. There are several sites that provide this service, some will allow you to check if the domain name is available. A great article to check out for Domain name information is here.  After your purchase you will need to configure it to point to the space which you rented off Step 3. Of course if your hosting company has an option to purchase the domain name it will be automatically configured for you.
Stuck? Check the faqs of the domain name service provider. They will usually provide a good idea as to where and what you can configure the site with.

Step 5: Upload and go

This is the final leg of your website creation for your business. After you have the site, the space and the domain name. What is left for you to do is to upload your site to the server space provided. This is done via a ftp program like Filezilla or WinSCP. Usually it will be a html folder where the site you develop is ready to run once thrown in. And if everything is right, you will have a site running!

Of course if the site does not run… “For $100 I can solve your problems for you” ?