Hey there, welcome to Website Mechanics. Chances are that you’re here because you want to learn how to build a website. Maybe you need to expand your current brick and mortar business to the internet so you can increase your exposure, and of course, your revenue. Or maybe you heard that you can make money on the internet, and you’re interested in giving it a shot.
Either way, you’re in the right place.
The rest of this page will cover the steps you need to take if you want to start a website or blog. But if you already have the site mapped out in your head, or you just can’t wait to get started, check out the Build Your Website page. That’ll take you through a series of short tutorials that’ll end with you having a live website in a half hour or so.
Follow These Steps to Start Your Website or Blog
The following are the steps I take whenever I start a new website or blog.
Step 1. Come Up With an Idea
The first step is to come up with an idea for your website. Some people call this a niche. This is the general topic that you’ll be developing your website around.
If you have a small business already, the “idea” for your website is simple. You can move on to the planning or technical steps.
If you don’t, however, you can build a website around virtually any topic. Opinions are split on what approach to take. You can focus on something you’re passionate about or a hobby, or you can build a site that has a lot of money flowing through it, such as credit cards, relationships or weight loss.
I can’t make the decision for you, but my suggestion is to stick to something you enjoy talking about if it’s your first website. You’ll be more likely to see the project through if it’s about something you enjoy.
Step 2. Make Sure Your Website Idea is Profitable
Of course, that’s only if you want to make money online. Most people will, so you’ll want to make sure that your idea can be monetized. And it’s better to figure that out now, as opposed to later on after you’ve spent weeks or months building your website.
This is pretty easy to do. Just check around to see how much money is being spent on your idea. Are there a lot of magazines, TV shows or websites dedicated to it? Take motorcycles for example. You can pick anything within this niche, such as apparel, maintenance/repair or racing and find tons of interest. Lots of money is being spent, too. Guys spend thousands of dollars on aftermarket parts. So you could make money building a website in this niche. Golf is the same way. These guys spend all kinds of money on new drivers, balls, bags, lessons, etc.
On the other hand, building a site around cat collars might be harder to make money from. Sure, there is demand, but not enough to offset the time spent and the low commissions you’ll make.
As long as your idea solves a problem (that people are spending money on) or revolves around a hobby, you should be ok.
Step 3. Plan Your Website
This is the step that a lot of people skip, yet it’s one of the most important. When I built my first website I didn’t plan anything. It didn’t take long before I was stuck and didn’t know what to do next. Then I was back to the drawing board, planning the redo of my website. So avoid this and take the time to plan your site.
- Your topics. What are you going to write your articles about? Take the general topic of your website and break it down. Coming up with topics should be easy, especially if it’s a hobby of yours. Say your hobby is keeping salt water fish. What type of equipment do you need? What types of fish are good for beginners? How much does this stuff cost? How do you setup your tank? These are things other people looking to get into the hobby would want to know, so give them that information.
- Monetization. There are so many ways to monetize a website, from selling advertising, affiliate marketing and creating your own products, just to name a few. You don’t have to use them all, or use them right away. But you should know how you intend on making money from your site.
- SEO. Planning your search engine optimization strategy beforehand is important. You want to know what keywords you’re targeting, how you’re going to structure your site, how you’re going to build traffic to your site and your link building strategy.
- Long term. What are your goals long term – 6, 12, 18+ months from now? Do you want to sell the site, or build it into a huge authoritive resource? Would you be open to hiring employees to keep the site up if it gets too big? These are things that you might want to consider.
None of these plans have to be concrete. But it’s better to have some kind of road map to follow then trying to build a website blindly. At least you’ll have something to refer to when you wonder what to do next.
Step 4. Build Your Website
The next step is to build your website. This includes a number of tasks.
- Buy a domain name. You’ll need to think of a domain name, make sure it’s available and buy it. Choose a .com, .net or a .org. The minimum you can buy a domain for is a year for between $7 and $15.
- Buy and setup hosting. Hosting is like renting space online for your website to live. There are several options for hosting, so during your planning phase you’ll want to figure out which kind you’ll need. Most people new to building websites can get away with a shared hosting account, which is roughly $4 to $5 a month. One you buy your hosting you’ll want to make sure your domain is setup on it.
- Install your platform. There are so many platforms and content management systems (CMS) to use. I recommend using WordPress unless you have a reason not to. It’s straightforward to install, and it’s even easier to use. If you know how to use Word you’ll be right at home. You don’t even have to know any code to use it (although it’ll be helpful to know some basic code later on).
If everything goes well, and if you follow my tutorials it should, then you’ll have a website to work on in a matter of 30-60 minutes.
Step 5. Start Following Your Plan in Step 3
Once you have a website live, it’s time to start working on it. This is where all of your work from Step 3 comes into play. Start adding content and images, and be sure to optimize them for your keywords.
Then start telling your friends and family about your site. Create a Facebook page. Find ways to let people know about your site. The traffic will start to flow to your site, and hopefully, the money won’t be too far behind.
Before you know it you’ll have a website to share with the world. All of this above is a condensed version of the work that goes into building a website or blog. There is more to it and can become more complex. But for your first site I recommend keeping it as simple as possible and starting with a smaller website compared to a big one. Maybe plan for a large site (in the future), but starting off with 40 or 50 pages. Just to make sure you enjoy the process of building a website.