Introduction To Web Sites and Web Design - Steps to building your own web site.

Total Web Solutions - Web Design

Step 2: Obtain a web hosting account.

Step 3: Create or have a website created.

Step 1: Choose a domain name.

"www.YourNameHere.com"

The domain name is your web address, for example ours is DMasters.net.
Domain names are registered in one-year increments though many companies have a two year minimum for first time registrations.
Domain names may be registered for up to 10 years.
Many extra features are available with the registration of a domain name and features vary between registration services. Most of these features are for registrants (that's you) who want to register their domain name to reserve it for the future. These features include:

Web forwarding - forwards to an existing webpage. When a internet user type in the name you registered - "www.YourNameHere.com" you may have them see "www.YourExistingWebsite.com" until you decide to develop the new name.

E-mail forwarding - Forwards "yourname@YourNameHere.com" to your existing e-mail address.

Auto-Renewal Service - So you won't lose your name by forgetting to renew at renewal time.

Domain-Lock Service - Helps prevent high-jacking of your domain.

TIPS:

A. Make your domain name easy to remember.

B. Try to use a name that won't be misspelled or typed.

C. If possible include what you do in your name.

D. Don't use misleading names. Stay away from using the competitions name or slight misspellings to attract other peoples traffic. If you do use misleading names and your website is successful, this same competition may be able to legally take your website, profits, or even damages from you.

Typically, registration costs about $35 a year, however you can register your domain name for a significantly lower investment through our links below. All of the extra features discussed are also available at no extra charge through theses links.

See if your domain name is available here and reserve it today for only $19.95: Check Domain Name Availability

$19.95/year .com/.net/.org domain registration.

Step 2: Obtain a web hosting account.

A. This is the place online where your website is actually stored and is often referred to as web space.

B. This is also where you can obtain e-mail accounts for your domain name.

C. Options for web hosting vary a great deal between venders. Many times the larger corporations such as Earthlink and Verizon will offer less features for more money than smaller more specialized businesses.

D. Make sure that your hosting plan is compatible with your web design software. (We can help you with this)

We also provide web hosting services with the most comprehensive hosting plans at the best rates. We focus on speed, reliability, compatibility, ease of use, and valuable add-on features such as web traffic monitoring and statistics and advanced e-mail features.

Click here for web hosting plans and pricing.

Step 3: Create or have a website created.

There are two rather obvious options for the creation of the content for your website. Either do it yourself or have a professional web designer do it for you.

If you'd like to do it yourself you will need to be ready to invest a large amount of time. In addition to creating the text content of the website you will need to learn a few things. There are many software options, we recommend using Microsoft FrontPage as it should produce the cleanest end result. In addition to choosing good software you will need to research search engine optimization and learn how to optimize your pictures or graphics. Some graphics utilities for this usually come with your digital camera or scanner if you have one. Once you have the tools you will need to learn how to use them. There are books and videos out there on utilizing the popular programs and optimizing for the search engines. You should plan on spending at least 100 hours for about a 5-10 page website if you are a quick study. If you choose to design your own website please contact us if you have any questions or need advise.

If you choose to have someone design a site for you be sure they have experience because if they don't you'll need some patience. Your web designer should be proficient at the tasks you wish to accomplish with your website. For instance, creating an content oriented website is very different from creating a e-commerce or shopping based web. Other areas to examine are the quality and tone of their work and search results. They should be able to tell you what makes their product a better choice for you than their competitors. If you are thinking about outsourcing your web design needs please check out what we have to offer by clicking the links below:

Full Service Web Design

View Our Work

Step 4: Market your website.

Your website address should be placed on all your current traditional marketing media. Along with traditional advertising your website should be marketed through the web.

The current estimate is that for web based marketing 85% or more of traffic is generated by the search engines. Search engine optimization should be started from the beginning of your website design and then "tweaked" once your site is complete and you are able to start testing for results.

We recommend you stay away from Spam e-mails and pop-up windows. They are not only annoying but they take from the validity of your enterprise.

Other effective web based marketing should include link exchanges with non competing websites. Another useful tool is e-mail newsletters to your current clients with useful information or incentives to get them to pass them along to potential viewers.

Design Masters provides specialized search engine submissions along with internet marketing plans and information. We try to stay away from pay per click and costly solutions. We found many low cost or free methods to properly market websites. Please take a minute to click our link below and see how are clients rate and what we have to offer:

Search Engine Submissions