How to Build a Website - What Do I Really Need?

First off, there are as many ways to make a website free online as there are hairs on the end of my dog's tail. So how does someone figure out where to start when wanting to make a website? Let me show you three areas to look at.

1. Web Editor - In order to be on the internet you need a way to build a website and a web editor is a tool you will use to do just that. They will range in costs from as low as free and on up to $400.00 or more. But what I recommend is that you use a free web editor to get going on your first site design. It is a great way to get started and some are very user friendly as well. They are very much like typing in a word document type of format and the best part is that the software is free to download. You do not even need to learn HTML codes to use some of these tools. It does not matter if you are building a one page site or a multiple page site everyone has to use a web editor of some kind or another. Even the big internet marketing gurus have to use a web editor of some kind.

2. Domain Name and Hosting - The next thing on the list is to come up with a name for your site. This is one of those fun areas I think because you get to label your website with your own personal touch. Now to own this unique name you will have to put out some money here but it usually is around $10.00 a year but that is not bad. Then you need to get yourself a host account someplace. These are the people that will help you to get your webpage up for the world to see. Now there are some companies that will help you to host your website with the purchase of your domain name. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. It really all depends on what you are using your website for.

But a word of warning here, be sure to do your due diligence in this area. There are those out there that will offer you free domain names and hosting, this is true, however they may be very restrictive in how your website can be structured and they may want you to promote ads that you may not want on your website.

3. FTP or (file transfer protocol) software - Now that you have created your first website and got your domain name you will want to load it to your host account. You will need some soft ware here to do this too. Again there are free ones out there and there are some that come with a fee. I recommend that you use some free ftp downloads to get started just to help keep your costs down. The free stuff is usually user friendly too and will load your website very quickly and it is a free download too. And that is it. Now I know you are thinking is that it? Yep, that is all you will need to get started.