If you have decided or are thinking about taking the jump into creating your own website then you have come to the right place. Creating a website is not actually that hard if you are given the right information and shown how to do it, which is what I am here for. This guide will focus on what is actually involved in creating your very own website. Generating money and building traffic comes later.

What's Involved

What's involved will vary a little bit depending on what you plan to do with your website. In general though you are going to need your own Domain name and Hosting account (more about that in a bit). Once you have a domain name and hosting account you will need to decide on a method of creating your website (more about that further down on this page also) and no you don't need to know HTML or any other coding, that is only one way to make a website. Then once you have a website you will need to populate it with content, whether it's a Blog or website. There are forums, chat rooms, etc you could also make but that is really not recommend for your first website, their something you can add onto your website once your getting visitors. That's the main stuff involved in actually building your website, see there's not too much.

Domain Name

The first thing you are going to need is a Domain name, a Domain name is something like www.yoursite.com. This is the address that points to your website (which is stored on a hosting account), you will want to put a bit of thought into what Domain name you choose. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc do look at your Domain name to help them figure out what your website is about. So you want to have keywords related to the niche/topic of your website within your domain name. To find out more about Domain names and how to get your own go to Getting a Website Host. It is a lot easier to sign up for your hosting account at the same time you get your domain name as the hosting company will link your Domain name to your hosting account for you. It's all explained (with a tutorial video) at Getting a Website Host.

Web Hosting Account

The next thing you will need is a web hosting account to store your website on. There are so many different hosting companies you can join that it can get very confusing, so I recommend only one which is Hostgator (Again to find out more about Hostgator and how to join go to Getting a Website Host). Since your website is stored on this hosting account you need it to be very reliable and secure (which Hostgator is), your hosting account also has to have enough Bandwidth (the amount of data you can transfer in a month) and Disk Space (the amount of storage allowed for you website) for your website. I am not trying to shove Hostgator at you but they also have Unlimited bandwidth and disk space so you don't need to worry about that, which most hosting companies don't. To learn more about a website hosting account watch the video on Getting a Website Host.

Site Build It

A lot of you may have heard about Site Build It (SBI for short), if you haven't SBI is web hosting company that is designed for those who want to make money with their website. It does cost a lot more but it also includes your domain name and a year of hosting (refreshable each year) so you won't need to sign up with a hosting company like Hostgator. SBI has many tools to help you build your website (a very easy to use Website Builder included) and write content all with making money in mind. For beginners that want to generate an income online and have an increased chance of success then I do recommend SBI, you can check out the SBI site here. I will have a full section dedicated to SBI , how to use it and show off some results in the near future (I am still working on that section). But let me tell you that SBI is NOT a scam and it is NOT a get rich quick program, it is designed to help you build your online business and guide you to success with making money online. It can't hurt to have a look, Site Build It. Here is a quick video on SBI from Ken Evoy, the founder of SBI.

Total Cost of a Website

You will be happy to know that there isn't really that much cost in creating your own website. Initially the only cost you will have is the domain name (no more then $15 for a year) and also your web hosting account (which is under $10 a month, cheaper if you pre buy a few months). So that comes to under $135 a year to have your own website and if you are creating a website to generate an income you can easily make more then that back. There are only other costs involved with your website when you want to either outsource some work to be done, higher a coder or buy some type of application/theme/etc. for your website. So the cost of a website should not be stopping you.

Choosing your Niche/Topic

If you have already chosen a domain name then you should have a niche for your website, a niche is simply the topic of your website. So if you still don't know what niche to choose for your website then you should definitely check out Choosing a Niche (Topic) it really helps you to choose the right niche for you.

Website or Blog

Now before you actually start creating your website you will need to know whether you want to make a website (content site) or a Blog. I created a page to help you with just this topic, check it out Website or Blog. After you have finished reading that page you should know whether you want to make a Blog or website.

Method of Creating

Now that you have your domain name, hosting account and know whether you are making a website or a Blog you are ready to start creating your website (when I say website I mean a site in general regardless of it's style; Blog, content website, etc.). The most commonly known method for creating a website is by using HTML and CSS (or any style of web coding), however this is only one method and is being used less and less every day. With the introduction of Content Management Systems (CMS for short), website builders, forum and Blog applications you don't need to know much (if any) coding at all.

1) HTML/CSS

Being the most well known method of building a website I thought I would start with it. Actually coding a website yourself does give you a lot more control over what you can do with your website. The trade off is that for new comers that either don't know any and or little HTML/CSS there is a much bigger learning curve and your website will likely look very poor. Like I mentioned above though you don't need to know HTML to make a website, you can make a very professional website easily that still give you heaps of control and best part is that you don't need to know any coding. The following methods don't require you to know any coding;

2) Content Management System (CMS)

A CMS is a web application which you install on your website and it is used to manage all your content. How does it do this, the CMS has a site structure (which uses a theme) and it structures every page for you, all you do is add the content to the page. You can customize the theme, structure, font, everything. To find out more about a CMS check out CMS - Joomla, Joomla is the CMS I recommend and have tutorials on. Hostgator has a very quick and easy way of installing Joomla (or other CMS's for that matter) and you can see how to do that in the CMS Joomla Tutorials. Also Joomla is Open Source, meaning that it is 100% free forever.

3) Website Builder

Another way to build a website without much coding is by using a website builder, some website builders give you a little more flexibility then a CMS but can be a little harder to use. A website builder is structured like a drag and drop style of building a website but they also let you view the source code for your site at any time and play with the code. A great website builder is XSitePro, you can check out more about it and see some tutorials on how to use it at XSitePro2. XSitePro is a very good website builder and I do recommend it if you are going to use a website build however it does cost a little bit of money.

4) Blog

Similar to a CMS a Blog manages everything for you and lets you customize it in the same way you would a CMS. If you are going to make a Blog then you are definitely going to use a Blogging application and there is no better then WordPress, if you read the beginning of this article then you should know what a Blog is. To read more about creating a Blog and how to install/use WordPress check out Blog – WordPress

What to do after you have Built your Website.

Once you have finished your website you need to move onto building traffic (increasing visitors) and then implement money making methods into your website. Why do I say build traffic first, well there is no point in adding ways to make money if you are getting no visitors to start with. A website without any ads is more appealing to visitors and can help you build traffic a little faster in the beginning. So to learn more about building traffic check out How to Build Website Traffic and then you should have a look at How to Monetize your Website.