Okay, you’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching this whole internet thing grow. At first, you thought, “Maybe this is a fad.” But you now realize that this is not going away. The internet is still growing by leaps and bounds both in terms of people getting access and new sites being developed. You want to start from scratch and put a website up. There are many ways to go, but all of them involve some sort of plan to get you there. It’s kind of like building a house. Without a plan, that house would turn into a disaster.

  1. Step number one is thinking through what you want to do with your site. Do you want a place to put your thoughts out there? Maybe you want a place to post photos of your family and share them with others. Whatever the case, you need to start there. Figure out what you want your website to do.
  2. Be honest about your technical ability. Building and administering websites can be an enormous job. If you aren’t tech savvy, then you will need tools that bridge that technical divide. Be honest now to save yourself a lot of headache and heartache later.
  3. Think through how much maintenance you want to do. As you can see, this list really is a lot like house considerations. Do you want to be updating the site continually or just every once in a while?

That’s a good start. More than likely, if you are technically savvy, you can build what you want with some decent upfront planning. If you are not savvy, let me recommend some tools that we have that could really help you:

Website Tonight – This tool allows you to build sites simply, easily, and cheaply. It functions a lot like other desktop applications that you are probably already using like Word and PowerPoint. This allows for a point and click website building experience. Take our Website Tonight Tour. Here are the features included:

Building

Publishing

  • Seamless integration with Google’s® Site Mapping Tool
  • Publishing Times
  • Publish From Application
  • Add Meta Tags
  • Add Page Keywords and Descriptions
  • Site Analysis
  • Publish Log

Page Elements

  • Guestbooks
  • Customize and Add Label
  • Supports JavaScripts
  • Navigation Buttons
  • Hit Counter
  • Music Plug-in
  • Scrolling Marquee
  • Date / Time Stamp
  • Add Photo Album Links
  • Slideshows within Photo Album
  • Easy Form Builder

Web Site Management & Tools

  • Secure Hosting with Generous Disk Space/Bandwidth
  • Spam & Virus-Protected Email Account
  • 256-Bit Encryption provides privacy and protection for your personal information through Web-Based Email
  • “Phishing” fraud protection with technologies like Sender ID
  • Email Forwards
  • Faster Backup and Restore
  • Rebuild
  • Fonts
  • Google® AdWords® Credit
  • Microsoft® adCenter Credit

Online Photo Filer – If you have friends or family in a distant location, this application can allow you to share you photos in simple and fun way. Store your photos online, share them with friends (with no login!), and have them printed and delivered to your door. Convenient, easy, and fun – those are good combinations. Check out our Online Photo Filer Tour. Features include:

  • Login-free photo sharing.
  • Purchase options for high-quality prints and T-Shirts, delivered directly to your door!
  • Simple, effective photo editing features, including the ability to return images to their original state
  • Password Protection for galleries.
  • Custom photo slideshows.
  • RSS Feeds
  • Permalinks to Galleries and Photos
  • More than 100 photo gallery themes
  • NEW! Display your photos on other Web sites! Create a custom photo badge with your choice of layout, color and more and use the HTML code we provide you to show your photos on other Web sites.
  • NEW! Mobile-friendly galleries

If you are planning on doing an online store, that is a whole other ballgame.  We will talk about that another time.  Happy site building!