I have thought of a name for my business, but when it comes to a website, I have no idea where to start. From what I know so far, hiring someone to develop your website is kinda costly. The only alternative would be to do it myself. How did you all create your sites and where are the best places to go to create your website yourself?

Thanks,
Kayla

http://www.darkbluesun.com/WP/free-web-presence/ This is a post (I still update quite often) about all the different sites that you can try for free. Most of the free sites do not have the best SEO, but when you get established you can have them forward to your new URL. I am looking into the free site: webs.com too because it looks like their sub-sites have a little better SEO grades. More free website tools like free logo makers etc are under my web site tools category at: http://www.darkbluesun.com/WP/category/web-site-tools/ I hope this helps you. Good Luck!

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Amber Whitener
Virtual IT Assistants

Hi Kayla

I'd start with a webhosting company that has Wordpress built in with Fantastico or Simple Scripts. With Wordpress you can have a pretty website without too much trouble And there are some VAs that will help you customize it at a much lower rate than they do for other clients.

Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and search through the themes. You can pick one that has the functionality that you want in a site and it's already built. Pick something with the same colors and you'll have to do less customizing.

If you need anything else, just ask!

Deirdre Shockley

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Deirdre's Virtual Office

Hi Kayla,
I did mine through Homestead, now a division of Intuit. For $19.95 or thereabouts per month, I have the capability of building and hosting 3 sites. I have already sold another site to a client for $20 per month.... that's building the site (because I am not a professional website designer and they are long time clients) and hosting for the year...which pays for mine.
The Sitebuilder that you download is fairly easy to figure out and you don't have to use a template, although they have many. One word of caution: since I've built the site with them, I can't move it to another hosting company. For the "static" site that it is, I'm okay with that. The next site I build for myself will be in Wordpress. So check them both out.

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Jen Scoggins
www.virtual-jen.com

Originally Posted by BrooksVA

I have thought of a name for my business, but when it comes to a website, I have no idea where to start. From what I know so far, hiring someone to develop your website is kinda costly. The only alternative would be to do it myself. How did you all create your sites and where are the best places to go to create your website yourself? Thanks, Kayla

First you pick a hosting company. Here's a link to some of the top ten: http://b2evolution.net/web-hosting/t...webhosting.php I personally use BlueHost and love them (it was very simple to upload WordPress to my site using SimpleScripts [they also have Fantastico]).

Once you have a hosting company, you register your domain name with your hosting company - www.yourdomainname.com where "yourdomainname" is replaced with your business name. I am pretty sure BlueHost still offers a free domain name when you sign up with them, but not sure. And at the above link, BlueHost has a coupon for $3.95 a month (regularly $6.95). You do have to pay for a full year, not monthly, but get the monthly price.

Then you either figure out how to design your site yourself using Dreamweaver (or other site design software), or if Wordpress, upload it and a theme that you like, and customize it yourself. Or hire a designer to do it for you; as was mentioned, there are a lot of us here that do web design that would be less expensive than hiring someone you don't know. Or another option is if you know a designer in your local area.

Things to look for in a designer are:

• Are their sites (X)HTML valid
• Are their sites based on CSS (not tables) because CSS is more SEO friendly
• Are the sites they design cross-browser compatible so your site renders in an acceptable manner in the major browsers
• Will they provide basic SEO for your pages
• Will they submit your finished site to the major search engines
• Price is a consideration, but shouldn't be your first one

The above is not an all-inclusive list, but that should get you started.

Any questions, fire away!

HTH a bit,

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites

Hi Kayla,

Congrats on the beginning! As for your website, there are many options and tons of information on lots of threads here including the responses from everyone above.

WordPress seems to be the easiest option for maintenance since it is fairly straight forward to use and update. I would suggest that you put an RFP out there for pricing (we have some great VA's here!) to get the customized look you should have for your site and some insight on what is included in the package.

You should start by coming up with a mock site (what you want to include, content, etc.), review the information on web design and hosting and go from there. It can be overwhelming but this is your calling card to the world so make it professional and informative. And don't forget to nab the URL or domain based on your business name.

I did my site using Expressions Web and have it hosted by Arvixe which I have had forever. I also have Wordpress integrated for my blog. So the possibilities are many. But keep in mind that I have HTML experience and have been working on sites and designs for years now.

Good luck and post back if you have other questions after gathering the information.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Thanks a bunch for all of the information!! I will definitely start looking into these sites and gathering information. I will post any additional questions as they come up.

Thanks again for all the help!

Hi Kayla!

Like you, I had no idea where to start. But, an IT web builder from my husband's company suggested I use Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer (www.coffeecup.com) and I was hooked! I did the trial period just to see if I liked it and within 8 hours I had my entire site built and two days later, launched!

Bear in mind that I already had all the content--all I needed was the means to build the site and have it hosted.

If you don't know how to write HTML code, then this is the software for you. I am pretty well-versed on this program, so if you decide to try it and you like it, pm me with questions. Best wishes and hang in there!

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Kathya Kalinine
http://www.emeraldvirtual.com