Lesson 4 What Sites Are We Gona Build?

Basic Website Plan

You've learned some HTML, you've acquired a few applications to get you started, and you're anxious to launch your first site... so what's first? Well I don't know that you have any *one* thing that is first as much as doing many things simultaneously. So let's consider a checklist --- not in any particular order:

Domain Registration

Register your own domain and start your empire. Domains can be registered for as little as $8.00 up to $35.00. Some registrars will allow you to "park" your domain there if you don't have a host. Some park for free, some for free. Be sure to research your domain choices before registering one. Use this Free Domain Search Engine to help you find just the right one!

Hosting

If you've bought a domain, you'll need a host. Not sure how much it will cost? Visit here for a great tutorial on estimating bandwidth. Then use this Bandwidth Cost Calculator to help you figure the cost. Be sure to read up on hosts to get the best deal. Or maybe you don't have a domain and you'd rather use a free host. Free hosts are okay for beginners b/c you can sort of practice on a free host. But remember on a free host, you will be sharing your traffic with your host.

Site Building Process

Start building your site. Get a concept in your mind. If you are building a freesite (and this tutorial assumes that is what you are doing), then you should sketch out what you want the site to look like. You might sketch out the navigation plan. Generally a free site might consist of about 5 pages. An index page, 3 gallery pages, and one recip links page. Each gallery page should have no more than 10 images for a total of 30 images on the entire site. More than that and you are really giving away too much free stuff.

Keywords

Consider the keywords you want to add to your site. Be familiar with Search Engine guidelines, you don't want to do something that is considered spamming the search engine. Use this Search term Suggestion Toolto generate keywords. There are many other keyword generators, take advantage of them!!

Targeting Traffic

Since this is a free site, you will not be submitting your site to TGP lists. Think about it.. where would you submit? To search engines, link lists, and maybe trade recip links with other free sites. Be sure to put a link on each of your sites to the other sites. Increase your own link popularity !! If your freesite is "Mature Mommas" then you prolly don't want to list your site on a Teen Link List. Be logical!! But you can diversify a little.. Mature Momma fans might also like to buy some new sextoys!! So you might to channel some of your incoming traffic to a sextoys store site.

Marketing

Marketing is the fun part and it's so crucial! If you have 8 different sponsors on your site, your surfers are not going to believe you when you say "This is the very best blah blah blah" nineteen different times for nineteen different sites. Your slogans need to be credible. Don't slap up too many banner ads, text links have been shown to be just as effective and take less time to download. Visit your sponsors and study their tours. See what they are using to sell the site. What words do they use? What features?

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