For Those Who'd Like to Make a Web Site and Think They Can't
Phyllis Wheeler
Now is the best time in history for small businesses, because of the Internet. You can reach customers anywhere in the world from your living room. All you need is an idea and a Web site. But you don't know how to make a Web site--yet!
Access to the world's marketplace isn't the only big change. Traditional jobs are becoming scarcer. Maybe your job future doesn't look as assured as it once did. This is a good reason to look at income from a small business. In fact, there are entrepreneurs out there who have made a lot of money from the Internet.
But you are a novice, and you aren't moving on this idea. Plus, you think you can't afford a Web site.
Novices can get plenty of help creating a Web site. Many people are in business to help novices set up a Web site using a template. There's a problem with the result, though--you don't know enough HTML to add affiliate links, shopping carts, or clickable ads, the items that will earn your Web site money. What you really need to learn is a bit of HTML, just enough to get the job done.
So how can you learn HTML? There are tutorials on the Internet, and books on the subject. Here's a tip: you don't need to learn a lot of HTML! You just need to know a little to be able to modify your Web site for links and shopping carts. And we'll let you in on a secret: it isn't hard!!
To make your Web site, you will need special software that creates the Web site and the HTML code. Here are your alternatives: Macromedia Dreamweaver, the top of the line at several hundred dollars; Microsoft Front Page, at around $100; and Nvu. Nvu is open-source software, in other words free. Open-source software is maintained by programmers or companies who donate their time, and it's available to anyone at no cost. Why would programmers work for free? Many of them want to provide us with an alternative to Microsoft.
You'll need Web site hosting, too. (That's renting space on someone's server in cyberspace.) You can pay a lot of money for plenty of bells and whistles. But what you really need to get started is a simple hosting solution. You can find these for as little as $25 per year, including domain registration (that's reserving a domain name that is just for you, such as www.myspot.com/. The secret is usually this: the hosting company wants you to deal with them for both domain hosting and domain registration. You can put "cheap domain hosting" into a search engine and look for simple, user-friendly solutions.
One of the products that the Internet has generated in the past couple of years is an e-book. That's information that you pay for and download immediately. It's in the form of a document that you can read from your computer or print out on your printer. In our instant-gratification culture, it's catching on. If you're budget-conscious, plan to use Nvu, and look in the search engines for an e-book on how to use it!
About the Author:
Get six open-source, no-cost Internet business lessons from author Phyllis Wheeler. Learn how to make a web site on a shoestring, using open-source, no-cost software Nvu, using Phyllis Wheeler's e-book Web Site ABC's.
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