If you don’t yet have a website, or if you’re trying to figure out the best way to build another one…this lesson is for you!
It can be really confusing if you’re not familiar with the process. But it’s probably a lot simpler than you think…
You may have questions like…
- Do I need to know HTML?
- What’s the best site building program?
- What if I’m a total non-techie?
These question and much more will be answered for you in this lesson
The Main Points of Today’s discussion will cover: Launching a website before the product is done because…, Getting your website online is a milestone-You can start marketing it before the product is done, Website vs web page Ways to build a website (from scratch or using a web authoring program etc., Using templates or site builders, Using a script or CMS (ex.Wordpress), Outsourcing it (paying someone else to do it for you).
In previous lessons we discussed why you need a website, how to get your domain and choosing a web host. So the last few lessons have basically been leading up to this point of launching a website, and it’s exciting, particularly if this is your first website. Getting your website online is a major milestone in your internet marketing journey. Today we’re going to talk about your options for building a website, and making it a reality.
Now you might be wondering, why am I showing you how to build a website before I show you how to build a product? Isn’t that kinda like putting the cart before the horse?…
Well not necessarily…there are a few good reasons to launch a website before you have a product finished or other method of monetization in place.
Reason #1 is because getting your website online is a huge milestone, and i would rather get you there sooner than later. If we waited until you have the product done and the sales copy written and everything else before launching a website, but it is important to get your website online, again, particularly if this is your first because it helps solidify your vision for your business. And it might give those who never thought you would ever be able to build a website something.
Reason #2 is because you can actually start marketing your website and your product before your product is done. We will talk about that a little more when we cover product launches in the future. If your are familiar with Jeff Walkers Product Launch Formula, you will know that the pre-launch is in many ways the most important part of a launch.
Reason #3 is because some of you already have products and are itching to figure out how to get them online with your own website.
So let’s get started, and just so you know, we will be covering Product creation after we spend the next few lessons learning the ins and outs of building your website.
First of all-What is a Web site?
You have obviously seen a website before otherwise you would not be here reading this lesson, but maybe you have never stopped to think about it, so I am going to try to avoid getting all technical on you, and try to put it into fairly simple terms.
A Web Site is a virtual collection of data that can be accessed via the internet. Most often a website consists of one or more web pages. So just to make that clarification, a web page is just one page, and a website is one or more pages. I am making that distinction for you because quite often I will hear a newbie say, hey have you been to my web page, which makes them sound like they are stuck in the ’90’s and they got themselves a free webpage on geocities or something. So if you want to sound like a Pro, then call it a website, unless it truly is just one page.
Ok, so websites are accessible via the internet because they reside on web servers…Now you don’t need to worry about that because that’s what your web host does and we already talked about and signed up for web hosting in the last lesson. Web sites are visible on web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox because those browsers receive the data from the web server and they translate it into what you see on your computer screen. They translate, because a web site or web page is written in the language of the internet, in fact there are many code languages of the web, but the most predominate language of the web is HTML. Other common languages include PSP and ASP….and additionally languages are often combined, such as the case of JAVA script or FLASH embedded in an HTML Document.
So simply put…. if you want to create a web page you either need to know the languages of the web, or you need a tool that will do it for you… Ok, so this is not a comprehensive list, but here are some of the main ways you can build a website:
- Build it from scratch
- Use a web authoring program
- Use a template or site builder
- Use a script or CMS
- Outsource it
Now these are the 5 choices we will be talking about. But there are lot of variations even within those five choices.
In this lesson, I am going to break it down and show you the options and what is involved in each of them so you can make the best decision for your own business.
Building it from Scratch: You would have to learn a web code language such as HTML or PHP. Here is a great free web site for learning the code at http://www.w3schools.com. You can write the code by yourself, and this may sound pretty difficult right?…Well, yes and no…the good news is that you do not have to be a total nerd to understand the basics of HTML. It really is a very, very mild coding. In fact it is no where near as difficult as learning a foreign language. It is really very simple. It is just a matter of learning some basic tags. Do you need to know HTML to be an internet marketer? Absolutely not…….and you see it promoted by nearly all of the ads you see stating ‘you don’t need to know html or be a geek to make money on the internet’, etc. etc. and that’s true, BUT, it can be very helpful. There are some great advantages to knowing html. You have so much more control, giving you more freedom which can be an advantage in this business, particularly in situations where you need to get something done quickly. Sure the entrepreneurial model is to outsource everything, including website creation, and that’s true, I agree with that philosophy, it can be so much easier to outsource everything and you don’t need to know a lick of html or anything. However the caution is that it is costly. If you are just starting out, this may not be an option for you, unless you have a great webmaster friend that will do it all for free for you, but then remember you do get what you pay for. You will probably encounter situations where you will be glad you know HTML…for example, I have seen product launches where there was something wrong with the page, and it can take days to get your web guy or gal to fix it. Knowing a little HTML, you can fix those pesky problems in literally seconds or minutes. Or maybe you just need to set up a simple landing page, and you need it up immediately to take advantage of a certain opportunity or market condition. In a case like that, expediency is the priority….so even if I had an in-house web master, it would take me longer to convey my idea to the web master than it would for me to sit down for a few minutes and throw together a web page. So again there is more than one way to skin this cat….Some of the wealthiest online gurus are those who have absolutely no technical skills, and they focus solely on building their business, and that’s great, but in my experience and knowledge of those that are making a good six figure income online DO know HTML, and they use that knowledge to their advantage even if they also have a team of people working for them. It’s a skill you may want to consider learning.
Using a Web Authoring program: Depending on what program you use, you may or may not need to know html. The most popular web authoring programs are what is know as an html editor such as Front Page or Adobe Dream Weaver….most use what is called a WYSIWYG element (What you see is what you get)…in other words, what you see on your screen within the software is what your web page will look like in the web browser. This is how you are able to create a web site without knowing html. It used to be that WYSIWYG editors had a lot of downfalls in their ability to efficiently and accurately create web pages. But today they have become quite good, and there is are some fairly well known FREE wysiwyg editosr out there. Since I am focusing on FREE and LOW Cost methods in these lessons, I will eventually be showing you how to create a web site with one of these.
Now another option would be to use a template or site builder, and I could have easily separated these two options into individual categories of their own but I combined them because often templates and website builders go hand in hand. A template is basically a shortcut. Someone has already designed a web page or a website which constitutes the template. In many cases all you need to do is customize the template to include the content for your web site, and then it is ready to upload. The really nice thing about using templates is that you do not have to be an artist and you don’t have to pay a web designer, yet you are virtually guaranteed to end up with a decent web site because your website will look like the template. They can save a lot of time, particularly if you are launching a lot of web sites. A site builder on the other hand is either a software program or a web based application that enables you to build a web site through a user friendly interface, similar to a web authoring program except for it has a little more of a point and click, fill in the blanks type of interface. Site builders use templates as the basis for the web site, and that is why I grouped these two together. I have a favorite that I would recommend on my web site. It is really a hybrid between a traditional web authoring program and a site builder, it’s kind of in a category all it’s own. You can build a website from scratch or you can us a template, you can write the code or you can go fully wysiwyg. One thing is liked so much about my recommendation is that it is built with online business owners in mind. It actually helps you create a website that is good for your visitors and for the search engines. So if you are an internet marketer and want to invest in a really good site builder, my recommendation is said to be above Front Page or any other on the market. The difference is clear being, while there are many other programs available to help you build your website, this one intuitively helps you build it the right way. I personally have used both FrontPage and still use WordPress for certain types of sites.. My recommended website builder can set your business on auto pilot.
A template or site builder (which as I mentioned in the last lesson is offered for free with my recommended Host ). There are some good ones you can purchase or some free ones. The free ones quite often have their own agenda, like advertising etc. Now remember a lot of hosts do have a site builder built into their armory of tools. I will be offering a future lesson on using my recommended Hosts website builder to build your web site.
Using Script or CMS: A script or CMS (content management system), such as Word Press which is a Blogging platform that is essentially by my definition a type of CMS. There are also specialty scripts, some made especially for internet marketers. Depending on what kind of site you are building, a script like that could be a great choice. There are also membership site scripts, they can act as Content Management Systems, in other words if you wanted to have a password protected member area of your website, one option is to use a special membership site application or script but also acts as a CMS. We may have a lesson on setting up a membership site at some point. We will be using a script that is not a CMS but rather works on any type of site you build, in other words it would fit right in with you html, etc.
Another type of website script is a form application such as phpBB, or Vbulletin….that is what you would use if you want your web site to be a bulletin board or a forum…..there are many different kinds of scripts and CMS that you could install on your domain, many of which would give you an administration panel to publish your content to your website without even needing to know html…Frankly there are a ton of them out there, but the only one I am going actually cover is WordPress because it has become my publishing application of choice over time….in fact many of my sites are a WordPress site. If your domain is hosted on a C-Panel host like HostGator, then there is a good chance that you will have one click installer for WordPress. The details for using WordPress on your site will be covered in another lesson. The great thing about WordPress and other such applications is that they essentially structure and organize your web site for you. You just simply log-in to your control panel and add some content and it will automatically integrate that content into your website. It will create a page for it or archive it or whatever you want to do with it.
If you don’t want to do any of the above then you can…
Outsource it: paying someone else to build your web site for you.
Your site would still be built by one of the methods above, but you will paying someone else to do it for you. If you are paying someone else to do it for you, you probably won’t care what method they will be using, what you would care about is the end result. There may also be a lesson on effectively outsourcing your website at some point in the future…
I hope this has been somewhat helpful, and welcome your input or comments. Please share what has worked or not worked if you already have a website.
ACTION STEP:
1) Choose a method that you will use to build your website with. Think about all these options, do some research and choose ONE of these options.
To your success
Cindy
