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Starting a Business Website in 3 Easy Steps

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Starting a business website is the easiest thing under the sun - if you know someone who can guide you. Of course you can outsource but why would you outsource if it is easy and the best man or woman for the job is none other than yours truly. You may be scared of all the computer, internet and website information that you probably know nothing of. And it is OK to be scared.

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Starting a business website is the easiest thing under the sun - if you know someone who can guide you. Of course you can outsource but why would you outsource if it is easy and the best man or woman for the job is none other than yours truly. You may be scared of all the computer, internet and website information that you probably know nothing of. And it is OK to be scared.

Every business should have the following:

1. Domain Name

2. Website Hosting

3. Website

4. Mailing Lists

5. Marketing Plan

Getting your business online can be done in under 30 minutes. Before I tell what 3 steps you need to take in order to get your business website online, I want us to look at the 5 must haves I listed above.

Registering A Domain Name:

Registering your domain name for your website means you hire the name for a term of a minimum of one year. Your domain name is yours as long as you keep on paying for it and as long as it does not include a registered trade name.

If you sell security systems you may want to use a related search term in your domain name. If ABCSDF Security is the name of your business, you do not have to register abcsdf.com. You want people looking for security systems to find your website. Therefore you want your site listed for a search engine result for the keyword "security systems". Looking at the competition that already exist for that keyword, you may want to go for a search term less people are using online. A search term like "security systems for homes" would be much easier to rank for. A Domain without dashes is preferred and a.com is also the most sought after domain name.

This name will also determine your business email address. You can create countless email addresses at your registered domain. If you registered a domain like securitysystemsforhomes.com, then you can have an email address such as john @ securitysystemsforhomes.com. It not only looks professional but it also promotes your online business website.

Getting Website Hosting:

Website hosting is the place where you upload the files for your website. The hosting companies have computers that are nearly 100% of all time online. Those computers are mostly super fast state of the art and configured so that you can login and either set up or update your website. Business websites can make use of shared hosting which is the cheapest form of hosting package available.

Website Design:

One way to set your hosting space is to divide your installations into folders. This will help you if you want to change things in future. Every website have to have a design. Your website does not have to be fancy at first. I suggest using a platform that is free, easy to learn to operate and has plenty of templates readily available for you to download for free or at a fee. I am talking about the most popular website platform called WordPress. WordPress is a blogging platform that is ideal for someone that just want to write and have the website display what he/she wrote. You can enhance the look of your WordPress blog so that it looks totally different. You only need to choose another template for it to use when displaying the content you wrote. Since your website can be operational with a minimalistic template that you can edit and update later, do not think of buying a template or having one designed for you at this stage.

I suggest installing WordPress into a folder and not into the root (also called public_html) of your hosting space. This way you can set up a temporary index file to redirect all traffic landing on the root to go to the WordPress installation instead. Later on you can always set up an introduction page or picture on the root of your domain. You will then also be able to easily reroute website traffic to a second platform you may later decide to install.

Most hosting companies provide Cpanel as the software that you use to manage your hosting. Cpanel usually comes with Fantastico which include some of the latest well tested website scripts. With Cpanel you should be able to install a WordPress blog within seconds. The installation may be a bit tricky and you may want to ask someone who have already installed WordPress before, to either look over your shoulder while you do it or to do it while you look over his or her shoulder. That way you can see how it is done. If you have Skype installed on your computer, you only need someone who also have Skype but with a screen sharing add-on to show you what to do.

Mailing Lists Are Essential But Can Be Illegal:

Mailing lists are the most essential databases of contacts any business can have. You can have a mailing list of all the customers that bought a product from you in the past, so that you can inform them of future developments like upgrades or even related products that they might be interested in as well. A restaurant owner can use a mailing list to collect casual customers to promote his fancy dinners on Saturday nights or special events like a romantic Valentine supper. The fact is that mailing lists are essential to any business, whether online or off.

I suggest you stay clear of cheap software and to only make use of a double opt-in white listed automatic responder service. It is a nerve wrecking experience to lose your database of mailing lists or to have your website domain blacklisted. This can happen to you if the autoresponder service cannot handle a spam complaint on your behalf or because the mailing list software you used, sent out more emails than your webhost allows.

A Website Without A Marketing Plan Does Not Exist:

If you do not get traffic that walks into your front door, your off-line business cannot succeed. This is the same for your online business website. Once your website is online you need to establish a marketing plan that will bring in traffic and brand your website. It is not difficult at all and many free marketing resources can guide you doing it yourself. Outsourcing should be carefully considered. Do not fall for any website promotion company or individual that promise a first page ranking in the search engines. Search engine ranking is based on a secret formula that each search engine company keeps locked up very tight. First page listings for more popular search terms is more often achieved by spending huge amounts on online marketing, than not. Anyone that promises you a decent ranking in the search engines, is either going to have your website blacklisted for doing unnatural and/or illegal black-hat marketing or he/she lies to your face.

3 Easy Steps To Starting A Business Website:

Now that you have a decent idea about the needs of your business website, here are the three easy to follow steps as promised.

1. Register a domain name and get a hosting account (costs total about $5 - $10 per month)


2. Setup a blog & get a decent autoresponder account (costs total about $10 - $20 per month)


3. Outsource Article Marketing & Video Marketing (costs total about $67 - $97 per month)

Article Source: Websites Melbourne

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