I got into blogging earlier this year, so when I read Chapter 16 of the YOU CAN DO IT book, I realized it was something that I could check off the list. But if you’re thinking about starting a blog and not sure how to do it, this chapter may be helpful to you.
The steps to putting together a website were written by Arin Fishkin who manages Web graphics and designs for a living. She said that, “Anyone can have a Web site, and it can be “about” absolutely anything.” How true that is!! I’ve listed her steps and given some examples of what I did to get started.
Step one: Decide what kind of site to build.
I can personally attest to how important this step is. I initially wanted to start a website to make money as I had heard about all of these people who were making a living off of their websites. So I did some research to see what were the key topics and areas of interest. The first topic I decided on was weight loss products, so I wanted to do a website that featured reviews of various products. Here is what the site looked like (more on development in a minute).
Before going any further, I want to stress how important it is to choose a topic that you enjoy. The weight loss product idea is a good one and someone can probably make it profitable with time and effort. The problem is, after I got it up and running, I realized it was a lot more work than I had anticipated. It was difficult to find time to do it and I ended up dropping the site.
I can’t stress enough: choose a topic that interests you and that you think you can write about long term. It will make the work rewarding and satisfying rather than feeling like an obligation.
Step 2: Plan Your Site.
What do you want your site to look like? Will it be full of pictures or just text? Will you have a blogroll which includes links to other sites? What will the home page for your viewers look like and what will the landing pages be? (By landing pages, I mean the places you want people to visit after landing on the home page.)
Here is my home page for this site.
And here is an example of one of my landing pages. I have my landing pages listed as categories:
You’ll also want to decide what your 2nd tier pages will be, in other words, when someone is on your landing page, where will they go next? My 2nd tier pages are my subcategories, which are shown below.
Step 3: Choose Your Host
By this point, you should have your topic and you should know what you want your site to look like (and have hopefully written down a list of your various pages and tiers). Now you need to set up your site. First you have to decide where to host it. If you’re like me when I got started, you have no idea what a host even is! It’s actually pretty easy - all of the information that you put on a website has to be stored somewhere, or hosted. Just like you save your pictures to your computer (hard drive), the posts and images and comments all have to have a home or a place where they’re stored. There are several options to choose from, but I believe it depends on what kind of site you are going to have and what software you will use to design the look of your site.
My very first site, the one I used for the Avon charity walk, was hosted through Square Space. It was great because everything was kept on their servers and they had very easy-to-use software that allowed me to choose a pre-set look for my site. It only took about a half hour to set it up and this was the end result:
For the From Single to Married (FSTM) site I went a little more complex. The site was created using WordPress. Wordpress uses HTML coding which allows a web designer to create whatever design he/she wants. Since I don’t know how to use HTML, I purchased a site template from Woo Themes (WordPress offers several free ones as well) and had Jeremy from PaperTree Designs set it up for me. He has made numerous tweaks and customization to get the look I want, which is the benefit of using HTML. The site is self-hosted, meaning that I pay someone to host it for me. There are hundreds of hosts to use – I chose Liquid Web. For a monthly fee, all of my data is stored on a server with them and if there is a problem, I can just call them or email them and ask them to check on it for me.
If you don’t want go the HTML coding route or self-hosting route, you can always use other services such as Blogger (which is free, I believe) or Typepad (which has a monthly fee). Typepad is actually really nice too. I used it to create this site:
and this site
by simply setting up an account and creating my page by using their software. Then I contacted a web designer (DCR Design) who designed the headers for me and voila! Easy as pie.
Step 4: Name that Website
I personally think that this should be step two, but for the sake of following the book, I’ll just leave it here as step four. You need to name your site or give it a “domain.” (For example, my domain name is www.fromsingletomarried.com.) Ideally your domain name will include your business name, if that’s what your site is about, or it will have your topic, if you’re trying to use the site to make money. The problem is that manyof the “good” names are gone so you may have to be clever. But you don’t want to be so clever that it’s difficult for people to remember your site. For my Organic For Baby site, I chose www.organic4baby.com. It is simple, easy to remember, and tells what the site is about.
To see if the name you want to use is available, go to Go Daddy (or a similar site) and enter the site name. If the domain name is available, you will be able to purchase it for around $10.00- $30.00 a year.
Step 5: Build Your Site
Now it’s time to actually put your site together. If you are using Typepad, Blogger, or another similar service, this process will be outlined for you so you just need to follow the steps provided. If you’re self-hosting your site and using WordPress or another development program, you will need to create the site or have someone do it for you.
This part can be a lot of fun. I’ve learned so much just by playing with the different sites and trying to add various features. Of course I’ve messed my site up a couple of times too and had to get help to fix it, but in the end it’s worked out. Just be sure that you save your work (back up your site) so that your information is not lost.
Step 6: Refine Your Site
Once everything is put together and you’re ready to start posting, send your site to some family members or friends. Ask for their opinions or suggestions and be sure to see how your site looks on different computers. If the flow of the site is not easy to follow or if the font shows up as unreadable, you’ll want to make the necessary changes before publishing your site.
After that, you can start posting to your heart’s content. Keep in mind that It takes awhile to get your site for search engines (such as Google or Yahoo) to pick up your site, so be patient. I find that it helps to reach out to authors of other blogs and to link to other sites as well.
So that’s it! Those are the YOU CAN DO IT steps to building a website with some of my personal suggestions and experience thrown in.
Are you ready to build your site now? What are you going to write about?
Good luck and send me the link to your site… I’d love to see it!
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