Free Website Design Development and Optimization help and tutorials for Beginners
Begginers to Advance level Tutorial to Create a new Website. Now Design and Create a Static or Dynamic website by following a simple step by step tutorial.
Creating a Website : A Step by Step Guide to help you design, setup and build your Website
If you search on net about Website Design and Development or just how to create a static or dyanamic simple website there would be enough sites trying to help you out but in the end they might just confuse you and you might end up clicking on Ads on those sites and reaching some movie channel. Not to discourage you but this is what I found when I started looking for some quality content.
Wheather you want to develop a website for fun or to share your hobby or to start some business or you just want to explore this whole world of websites, you will find useful Help and Tips on building a website here. Its all up to you then to make it popular and get millions of users around the world to visit your site.
I am writing this content as I have been through all this trouble to get some simple useful information about making a simple website.
I am not here to Promote any particular Hosting Site or Domain provider, but since people like to know some reference that why I will list my choice of services for this topic. But I would still suggest you to make decisions only after you have done some reasearch.
Without wasting time lets get started. I have tried to make this simple if still you have any queries please feel free to get back to me at admin@apnaarea.com
Lets break down this tutorial into few parts.
Part 1 : Site Concept
So you have some idea maybe for some business or maybe just to earn some quick money while having Fun. Let me give you two Facts. Website Creation is just a small step, to attract traffic and make money are Long term processess which needs loads of Patience and Perseverence.
Who knows if you are Lucky then things might come early to you. And the important fact that there are Billions of Hungry Users who are looking for useful information on the internet. Its upto you to get them to your website and let them explore your Content.
The First thing is your Site Concept. By this I mean that you need to have some clarity on thing you want to Present on your site.
Content is the PILLAR which can make your Site stand TALL among your competitors. I will suggest you to do some Research on your Site Concept.
See what the internet offers for your Concept. Goto search engines and start doing research on your areas of interest. See for your Competitors and what they are offering.
Next get down to write the Keywords related to your site.
Let me give a few examples. Suppose you are planning to make a website on the College Life and its experiences.
You can start by writing points on which you can start your website. Its contents can be related to providing guidance to someone about to start College or to share your experiences on that. Now certainly you would like to think how to get people to know that there is a website which is all about sharing College Experiences.
Thats where Keywords come into Picture. Imagine you want to search for something on the internet. Say some information about Websites. You would obviously go to some search engine and type "Website" to see the search results.
Likewise people looking for College Experiences can come to your site through Search Engines. So you need to select appropriate Keywords to get Traffic to your site.
One good way to sort this out is to try Google Keywords tool. You can visit https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal to find out more on this. I find this really useful.
Once you have done this then move to Part 2.
Part 2 : Domain Name and Hosting Service Provider
After completing Part 1, I assume you have some idea about the Concept on which you will develop your Site.
Next step is to choose a Domain name and Register it. Now this step is not so easy as there are few important factors to consider.
Below are few Guidelines for helping you out with this Part :
Choose a Domain name which Relates to your Site Concept. Try to find a domain which is close to your concept and is simple to remember. Like for a site concept of one we were discussing something like www.college-experience.com would do.
For this you can check if the domain name that you find suitable is available or not. This needs a little effort. You can go to any of the numerous Domain Register Sites like GoDaddy to see if your domain is available. Just click on the link below to check your domain from GoDaddy
Infact GoDaddy provides most of the things needed for Website Development from Domain Registration to Hosting and Blog Services. You can check out there Services :
World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com
Here is a search tool you can use to search available Domain Names
Once you are ready with your domain name then proceed to Register it.
Now comes the important part, which Hosting Company to choose to register your domain with.
Let me provide some information on all this so that you can have a clear Picture.
First important thing to consider is wheather your Site will be Static or Dynamic in nature. Static means the Content on your website is not coming from any Database or Repository. This means you are not using any Coding Language like PHP,JSP,ASP etc to fetch data and display it.
If this is so then the solution can be quite simple. You can purchase a domain from any of the service providers which can provide you some Hosting Space.
The charges can be from 6$ to 10$ yearly. You can check the services of Yahoo or Google. Godaddy.com also provides cheap services and is a good option.I will suggest you to do some research on the net but dont get trapped for free services as in the longer run that may not be benefecial.
Some Service providers help you in developing your Site. Like they provide Templates with simple Drag and Drop options. This may be useful if you dont have knowledge of Dreamweaver or other tools.
For User Interface my suggestions would be to use some open source web templates. These are freely available on the Internet and are suited to all needs.
On the other hand if you are looking to make some website which is Database driven like www.apnaarea.com , then you need to find some Hosting Service which provides support for Scripting Languages like PHP or ASP and also provides you enough Database and Storage options along with Bandwidth.
Few points to consider are :
1. Scripting Language Support. Normally Dyanamic Websites are made using PHP, so your Hosting provider should provide support for that.
2. Database support. Mostly MySQL database is used in Dynamic Sites.Look for Hosts who provide this option also.
3. Bandwidth Support. This comes in handy when your site starts attracting traffic.
4. Customer Support. This is also one important feature. You would not like to be in a situation where you are unable to use some service and there is no one from Hosting side to help you. Do check the Customer Support before making a Purchase. You can do this by Calling them or sending them mail and then checking there Response time.
5. Other Services provided by them. Some hosting services provide support for opensource tools such as Content Management Services and Blog support. You can directly download these and the Hosting Company helps you setup and use them in your website. A good example is the Blog I am using on my website. Its opensource and I just downloaded it from my Service Provider.
6. FTP Options. Once you start with website development then frequently you will be changing files on your system and transferring them to your Hosting Space. Check how easy is this to do with your service provider.
After you have done all this reasearch you can check the best rated Hosting Service Providers. There are a number of such sites on the internet giving this information.
My personal favourites are www.hostmonster.com and www.Bluehost.com . They also help you with Domain Registration services and there Customer Support is Excellent especially of Hostmonster.
I have been using Hostmonster from the time I started my Website and trust me I am delighted till date with there services. There is no reason that I will switch my Service Provider. But again dont take my word search on the net, you might find something cheaper and better.
Well Domain Registration and choosing Hosting Service are one of the most important decisions that you need to make.
Once you are through these, then you are ready to get down to designing your website.
The First part is to design the User Interface or the Front end, the look and feel of your website. You must have heard of tools like Dreamweaver Flash etc. These are undoubtedly best tools for designing the layout. But these are Expensive also. Let me give you some good options which are available for Free.
There are three ways :
1.You can use the Design Services,Page Designer, being provided by your Hosting Service.
2.You can choose from a Bunch of Open Source Templates available on the internet. These are worth spending time on as they can save you alot of time.
3.Use opensource Page Designer tool like Kompozer which is free of cost and I think its quite close to tools like Dreamweaver.
A Complete Package called Site Build It :
If you are looking to start your small business or looking for a complete Package and you are ready to spend a little extra then Site Build might just be the right tool for you. Its a Complete End to End solution which may just answer all your queries and help you make a Webiste which can turnout as a Business for you.
I will suggest going through this as this can prove to be a turning point for you and your Business.
Site Build it helps you find the Right Content, Right Keywords, Right Domain and Right Business for your site. It provides complete Website Solution.
Just watch there Video and you can decide for yourself.
Part 3 : Developing Dynamic Site
For developing a Dynamic site there arent many shortcuts. You need to have knowledge of PHP and MYSQL to make dynamic pages on your own.
To be honest PHP is one of the easiest languages to master. And you dont need to know much of MySql except to use it from PHP.
You can find a number of useful articles on PHP on internet and also Video tutorials. It might not take more than a couple of weeks to get good working knowledge of PHP and MYSQL and it may help you in Future also.
There are alot of things to discuss on Website Development but this will certainly help you get started.
Next topic : Website Optimization Techniques
Meanwhile please feel free to contact me on admin@apnaarea.com. I will try to answer your queries and help you out with your site.
For more Updates and tips keep visiting www.apnaarea.com
I will really appreciate your Comments on this article and what do you think should be included here. I am planning to start a Forum where you can discuss your problems and other stuff with others.