Online Marketing & Business Opportunity

How to build a website is one of the first questions that a potential e-entrepreneur asks. Building a website consists of 3 basic steps. These are building the site, registering a domain name and finding a host to make the site accessible on the internet.

Theoretically this is correct. 99% of websites are built on this theory and no one knows they exist.

The 1% of website that are successful are doing something right. There founding question is not how to build a website rather it is:

How to Build a Business ?

As entrepreneurs we are eager to get started and see our dreams become reality. Sometimes in our haste we overlook the necessity of having a ground plan. To survive and grow every business needs one!

Our website is our message board. It tells everyone who we are, what we are doing and how what we are doing can benefit them. The right tools help us to do these things efficiently and effectively and must be factored in the moment we decide to build a successful website-based business.

But first, we need to know and understand (the):

• how to avoid the pitfalls in the world of e-biz

• important questions to ask

• basics of any e-biz

• 5 main ways to making money online

• getting started - raising money, a very basic start-up

To build a successful website-based business requires two sets of tools. The first is the tools of 'construction' and the other is the tools of 'propagation':

Tools of Construction

1) Buy a template or a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) html editor. FrontPage 2003 or higher and Dream Weaver 8 are two really good editors. For the beginner FrontPage 2003 is probably the easiest. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use FrontPage. It is very simple and intuitive and the preparatory lessons are very helpful. (Most hosts have FrontPage extensions, but remember to ask if they do. Without these extensions your site will not be seen properly by visitors, nor will it function as you want it to). Also remember a tool works only as good as its user. So learn how to use it well and pay particular attention to the extra code it notoriously generates by setting the options not to. FrontPage does not come with a handbook so along with Microsoft's preparatory lesson do due diligence when purchasing on e-Bay any by an independent writer /user also, peruse FrontPage discussion groups.

2) If you decide to use a template, you, will still need to have an Html editor. Templates are convenient and if they are made with FrontPage 2003 or Dream Weaver 8 you can have an unlimited number of pages which is important. The key drawback is that though the content may differ you will not have an original site. You will also be limited to where you place content and graphics et cetera. Another annoyance is that templates margins and lines shift and without the proper tools and knowledge you may have a site that ends up looking very unprofessional.

3) Another option is hiring a web-designer to build your site. Of the three, this is the most costly option as many web-designers not only charge for what you want done but by the number of pages. (Most successful website have more than 20 pages because the more quality content pages a site has the more rich key-words could be imbedded into the content and the greater its probability to have a higher rank by search engines). If you decide on using a web-designer make certain that he /she knows and understands Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and strategies and is building your site on these. For example extraneous code is removed, h2, h3 etc tags are used, researched key-word rich content, faster loading pages, smaller graphics, using 'strong' and 'emphasis' scattered in the right amount through out the pages and a variety of other ethical tricks.

4) Choose a domain name that is a highly profitable key word phrase. Use hyphens between words. This makes the name more readable to both humans and software for the visually impaired. Use Overture´s Key- Word Selector tool to determine popularity of key word. (Register your domain name with your host. It is easier to do it that way so later you do not have to transfer the site. Site transferring takes a few days and is not a completely problem-free process)

5) Choose a host that has packages that allow you to easily upgrade as your business grows. For more info see 'Netpreneurs' Frequently Asked Question. Also now that you know that there are 5 main ways to make money online, consider which of these monetization techniques you will be introducing as time goes on. If you are considering a membership site, you will need a host who, for example supports php scripts. Also make certain that your host will not charge extra for more band-with use. Learn more about choosing the right host.

Tools of Propagation:

1) Content, the experts say, is king! The sites which do well and have a loyal following are those with dynamic content that changes once or twice daily. Yahoo is a very good example of this. Their home page content, especially their ‘featured news’ change as news changes throughout that day.

In the beginning, when monies are tight and budgets have to stretch it may be difficult to hire someone to find and update news several times daily. But one way to automate this is to use RSS feeds. Another good alternative is to buy membership into an articles club. This is helpful as you can post many new articles throughout the day on your site and at various articles submission sites. You are able to imbed a link, into the article, back to your site. This helps your site and page rank because search engines count each link as a favorable vote for your site.

2) If you are going to buy a membership into an articles club, you need to maximize its potential. One way to do this is to buy an article submitting software. This cuts down on the time that it will take to laboriously submit each article to each submission site by hand.

3) Linking is very important, it is the life-blood of any site. As important as it is, it is also very tedious to maintain a one-person linking campaign. There are several ways to get good links while eliminating some of the tedium. A good software is one option. Membership into a link exchange program is also a good idea. Here each site is of an exceptional quality and webmasters are serious about winning at the e-biz game. Remember that what really counts is having links that are quality and relevant to your site´s theme. Avoid link farms!

4) It is not enough to build a site. It must be maintained. It is impossible to maintain a site without the right tools. Ideally you want a tool that- is not too expensive, updates are free or at least less expensive than the price of the initial product, checks for broken links, provide traffic analysis, does search engine optimization, has submission capability and a number of other relevant features. Most of all you want a tool that is easy to understand and use.

This is the correct way to think about not just building a website but building a website that works

Newbies: Ready to build site but where to start?

1. Intro to E-biz

2. The Basics 101

3. I am Ready to Build my Site