Create Your Own Business Web Page
If you have a business, you need a web page. Whether your business employs hundreds of people or is just a hobby that you do in your spare time, you will need a web page to add legitimacy to what you do and to bring in extra customers. Creating your own business web page will take some time, a little bit of thought and some learning, but it will pay off in the long run. Don't be discouraged; it will become easier to keep up once you get the basics down.
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Instructions
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Get a domain name. While there are places that offer free hosting under their domain, it is essential to have your own domain name. This way people can easily find you with a simple domain that says who you are, and you look professional. There are many different domain registrars, such as Network Solutions, to register your domain name. Registrars very in cost, but offer you essentially the same service, some just have extras for extra costs. When starting out, just choose a reputable company that is not too expensive. Try to pick a name that is short and is close to your business name or reflects your business clearly. Also, be sure to choose a .com extension to show that you are a business.
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Get a website host. You will need a company to host your web page. You may wish to register your domain name with the company that you use to host your web page. This will make it simpler, and most hosting companies let you register your domain name as you sign up for hosting services. You need to pick a company that is reliable so that your website will not be down too often. One reliable company is Hostway, but there are many other good ones. Just read all of the details for the hosting contract and search for reviews on the company.
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Pick a software program to help you create your page. Creating a web page can be done by learning HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language, but it is increasingly more difficult to create an up-to-date-looking page just by using HTML. A program such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage will make it much simpler. It will still help to learn the basics of HTML to fix problems that arise in your web page though. W3schools has a good tutorial to learn basic HTML.
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Determine what you want to convey and who your audience is and is not. This is more of a conceptual step, but it is just as important, if not more so than any of the technical steps. If you are just starting a web page and doing it yourself, you will not likely have a lot of money to spend. Because of this, you need to focus on getting your message across simply. Even if you have a lot of money, it is still a good idea to try to convey your message simply. List the things you want to convey, such as listing your services, standard costs and your contact information. Ask yourself, if you were visiting this web page, what would you want to find? Is the web page meant to serve others in your industry or retail customers?
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Design a layout. This may sound complicated, but it can be done simply. Just imagine how you want your page to look, and determine where to place your pictures and links to other web pages. It's important to make your site easy to navigate and easy to follow. Once you have a basic design plan, you can start playing around with different looks, but try to stick with your basic design, or you can get caught up spending too much time on a myriad of possible designs.
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Get a digital logo. This will really help identify you to your customers and partners. If you have a printed logo, you can either scan it onto your computer or take it to a graphic design company to digitize it. If you don't have a logo, you should pay a professional to design a logo. This expense is not one you should cut out, as it will really help your site look nice, and you can use it in other aspects of promoting your business.
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Write your copy separately. Copy is a term for the wording you want to use in your site. This should be done in something like Microsoft Word, so that you can spell check and edit your words until you get it just right. When you're ready, just copy and paste your text onto your web page.
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Map out which pages you want. You will probably want more than one web page, so write down which pages you want and what will be on them. For example, you may want one page with your contact information, one page listing your services and, of course, your homepage telling all of your visitors very concisely who you are and what you do. Your homepage should be called index.htm or index.html. This is how websites are organized, so that just typing in your domain name will take users to your index page.
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Upload your pages. Once you have created web pages, you will need to get your FTP and upload settings, such as user name and password, to upload your pages to your host. Most web page creation software comes with a feature to put in your upload information, so you can upload your files directly to your host.
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Test your site. Be sure to visit your web page, and test all of the links to see if everything looks how you intended it. Many times, there are unforeseen problems or mistakes that are not caught until after you upload and view your site live in a web browser.
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Tips & Warnings
Use easy-to-read font with soft colors set against a background that makes your text stand out.
Don't clutter your web page.
