5 EASY STEPS TO A WEB SITE OF YOUR OWN
June 18, 2008 by Lovely
When I first set out to create my own web site for www.alovelything.com, it was immensely frustrating. I was a total beginner when it came to building a website and didn’t have a clue where to start.
Oh sure, like most people, I had visited 100’s of sites and blogs. But it was impossible to find information that a beginner like me could understand.
So, allow me to share with you what I have learned so far about establishing a stand alone web site of your very, very own 
Choose a domain name.
In fact, brainstorm several domains and put the names in order as to which you’d prefer. If you’re lucky, as I was, you will get your first choice. If not, you’ll have a plan B, C or D if necessary. Oh, and just because a domain doesn’t show up when you put it in your browser, does not mean that it’s available. Get your list together before proceeding to the next step.
Choose a web site hosting service
The hosting service has huge computers that will store your site and make it available on the world wide web for visitors to surf. Both www.alovelything.com and www.Indiepreneur.org are hosted on Lunar Pages — see the button on the lower right of the page here. When you sign up for the first time with Lunar Pages, you will get your domain registered for free. Lunar Pages has a service called Fantastico that can instantly load software for a shop or a blog or an auction site or a gallery site or any number of functions. It’s really user friendly.
Determine what you want to accomplish
Do you want a blog? A shop? Figure it out before moving forward. I didn’t do that with www.alovelything.com . It was a blog at first and morphed into a shop … and all those great articles I wrote are lost forever :). Zencart is a free shopping cart and shop software — FREE! It loads with a click in Fantastico on Lunar Pages. For blogs, you can’t go wrong with WordPress — which powers blogs for sites like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and, your favorite site right here … Indiepreuneur. And WordPress is FREE also!
Choose a free template
There are dozens of free templates available for both Zencart AND WordPress. You’ll find very generous coders in cyberspace that create templates that will get you started. As you gain confidence and experience, you can tweak and personalize your site as you wish to over time. Both programs have forums and nice people who can help you with any questions and problems.
Populate your site with information
Add your content to your site. You’ll find that this step takes the longest of all the steps. Of course, writing your thoughts or product descriptions, and taking pictures is the fun part, too! So, enjoy!
There you have it. Five steps – ALL are very easy to accomplish. Trust me — if I, a sorry excuse for a web geek, can do it, absolutely ANYONE can!
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