While having your own website isn’t absolutely essential to making sales online, it’s pretty close, as you will have a much harder time building your brand without having a central presence on the World Wide Web.
Additionally, most people expect you to have a presence on the World Wide Web or will not take you seriously as a business. Thus, having your own business website is near the top of priorities in establishing yourself as a legitimate online business.
The two things you need to establish your website online are a doma in name and Web hosting. A domain name, also known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), is a specific location on the Internet that identifies where your site is. It’s similar to your home address - you have a specific number and a specific location, which identifies the place where you reside. In a similar fashion, your domain name is the address where your site resides on the Internet- people must enter that domain name to reach your website.
It is strongly recommended that you choose a domain name that tells what your business is about. For example, if you are planning on selling ebooks, you probably would want to have “ebook” somewhere in the domain name. Not only will this alert Internet users and website visitors to what your website is about, but it can also give your site a boost in the search engine rankings, which can make it easier for people to find your website when using their favorite search engine(s).
To register a domain name, you need to go to a domain name registrar, select it, ensure that it is available for purchase, then purchase it. Two well - known domain name registrars are GoDaddy.com and Namecheap.com Both of them have a search utility on their sites that will allow you to input your desired domain name to see if it is available. If it is, you can purchase it; if it is not, the utility will provide some other domain names that are similar to the one you entered in an effort to help you pick a comparable domain name to the one you wanted that is available.
Note that there are many URL extensions, the part of the domain name that comes after the dot that appears after the name of your site. For instance, in www.mybusinesswebsite.com, the extension is the .com after mybusinesswebsite. Some of the most well-known domain name extensions are the following:
The first three, .com/.net/.org, are the most well-known and well-respected by Internet users across the world. These are really the three domain extensions you should go after, particularly .com. However, they are also the three hardest to obtain, particularly in a specific domain name you want. Thus, you may have to turn to one of the other extensions, something the domain name registrar search utility will point out to you when you put in a prospective domain name.
When you finally have chosen a domain name that is available, you can select it and go through the checkout process to obtain it. You will usually be given a selection of years to choose from that you wish to own this domain name. It costs more upfront to buy several years in advance, but if you plan on keeping this domain name long-term and building a brand and company around it, it may be worthwhile to pay the higher cost upfront, as it will cost more over the long run to renew ownership of the domain name year after year, since the 1-year buying price is higher than the per- year price of the multiple year buying options.
The other key to having your own business website online is to have Web hosting. Web hosting is the capability and capacity to store your website on a Web hosting company’s server so that anyone who enters your domain name into their Web browser will actually see your site and not a blank error page.
There are many Web hosting providers- some of the more well-known ones include HostGator.com and BlueHost.com. It is strongly advised that you carefully research all of the ones you are considering based on reputation (i.e. customer reviews), the features of the plans you are considering by each host, and pricing. Note that the lowest-cost plan isn’t always the best one to go with, though you don’t necessarily have to go with the highest-cost plan either.
Most Web hosting providers have a 7-day trial period for either free or at a lower introductory rate. It often is beneficial to take advantage of this trial period and put the Web hosting provider through its paces to see if it is a good fit for you or not.
Specifically, when you are trying out a Web hosting provider, you should make note of the following:
Also take the time to look for coupon codes that can cut the cost of your Web hosting expenses further- some Web hosting providers will post coupon codes either to their email lists or on various websites (Slickdeals.com, FatWallet.com, etc.) Thus, it can pay to sign up to the email list of the Web hosting provider you are thinking of using, as you can save yourself additional money when starting your new website.
Once you have decided upon the Web hosting provider you are going to use for your site, spend some time working with the website creator provided by your Web host or via a software program you are comfortable with to create your Web pages. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and other software programs can help you to create professional-looking Web pages that can present your brand in a positive light to convince website visitors to consider and purchase your offers.
While you can hire someone to create and manage your Web pages for you, it is preferable if you learn how to work with the software yourself- this way, if you need to make a change to your Web pages, especially a time-sensitive change, you don’t have to rely on someone else to make the change for you because you don’t know how to work with the Web page creation software.
Thus, take some time to work with whatever program you are going to use to create your Web pages and become comfortable enough with it so that you know how to create and edit Web pages yourself- it will pay off for you and your business in the long run.
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