Once upon a time you had to be a complete techno-geek to build a website. Now anyone can build one quickly and easily. There are several ways to build websites. Most of them don’t require any more technical skill than using a word processor. Of course, if you want to go and learn the programming languages used you can by all means, but it is not a necessity. As you become more experienced though, you will probably find that you want to learn some of the basics involved.
The first step
The first two things you need in order to build your own website are website hosting and a domain name. It’s a bit like which came firt the chicken or the egg. You can’t have one without the other. Many hosts provide one domain name -the website name e.g workathomeaussies.com – for free with their hosting plans. A hosting plan is like a permanent home for your domain name. The website hosting provider has a pile of servers – big computers where your website files are kept – and you are given a certain amount of space for your files. You are also given a certain amount of bandwidth for your website each month. This measures the amount of data that is sent to and from your website, a bit like your internet service provider measures your bandwidth for your internet connection each month.
Building your site
Once you have decided on a hosting company and domain name, you can start building your website. One of the easiest(and my favourite way) is using a self hosted WordPress blog. That’s how I built this site. WordPress can be customised in many ways to change the look and feel of the website. It also has many plug-ins – sort of like mini add-on programs – available to help you do really useful stuff like keeping track of your stats, or adding functionality to your site for the end-user. And the other big bonus is that search engines love blogs and so do people. This makes it very easy to promote your site and get good search engine placement relatively quickly. This method of site building is also browser-based making it very easy to build your site no matter where you are. You can even post remotely by email or from mobile devices.
If however you want to build your site in a more traditional manner you can use an HTML builder. Now before you panic and think “OMG I don’t know HTML!”, you don’t need to know HTML!! There are many fantastic site builders that have a visual interface which then converts what you build into HTML. These programs can range in price from $0 to thousands depending on what features you want or need. Some of the lower priced ones are just as good as many of those in the higher end of the market. There are even browser based versions of HTML builders that can be installed on your hosting account.
Other options for building websites include a CMS or content management system, membership sites, shopping carts or forums, as well as a number of others, but for the purpose of affiliate marketing, starting out with a blog or HTML site are the best choices.