Build a Website - Things You Need To Build Your Own
Website If You Are Not a Techie

In order to Build a Website yourself, all you need is take a few simple steps and you’ll be up and running in no time.

• A Domain name
• A Web Hosting account
• A Website Header
• A Website builder software
• A Internet Marketing Plan
• * A Shopping Cart (If you plan on selling items)

First Step - Get a Domain Name
To build a website, you’ll need a domain name; preferably a good domain name that either clearly represents what you are marketing; or a domain name that is Brandable. One of the best domain name registrars by far is Godaddy.com. No sales pitch here; just suffice it to say that you will save money and avoid a lot of headaches by choosing them. Here are a few rules of thumb to use when looking for a domain name registrar…

Rule #1: Never Pay More Than $10.00 to Register a Domain Name
That’s going to eliminate about thirty percent of the registrars. If they charge more than $10.00, they are simply over priced! Amazingly, some companies still send me letters via snail mail about transferring my domain names over to them. They are asking me to pay them $27.50 per domain, when I’m currently only paying $9.95 per name. Come on guys; get a grip! However, in actuality, millions of people believe their sales hype and are paying upwards of $35.00 and up to register domain names. As someone once aptly put it, “A sucker is born every second!”

Rule #2: Check out the Reviews of the Registrar
That’s going to eliminate about a forty percent of the registrars. CAUTION: make sure you do this prior to registering a domain name(s). Certain companies have archaic control panels, Mafia style billing systems and invisible customer service and tech support. If you register a domain through one of these shoddy operations, they’ll eventually force you to be one of unhappy customers writing bad reviews about their service. By reading the online reviews you can make a rather quick decision of whether to deal with a registrar or not.

Rule #3: Buy Smart When Buying a Domain Name Privately
If you buy a domain name from a private owner, do your homework first. To learn about domain name pricing, properly transferring ownership, what constitutes a good domain name, trademark infringement and appraisals you’ll need to register with domain name informational websites such as: Namepros.com Dailydomainer.com and the Dnforum.com. This part is critical because the last thing you want to do is get burned over a domain name purchase.

Second Step – Get A Web Hosting account
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies and new ones popping up everyday. They could be rated from terrible service to great service. A terrible service web hosting company is one that has a user UNfriendly control panel, hard to reach customer service and even harder to reach tech support. A great web hosting company is the total opposite; it has a user-friendly and intuitive control panel and it’s easy to reach tech support and customer service. These MUST HAVE requirements become glaringly obvious when you need to add a domain, add a sub domain, add a blog, add MySQL, add an email account, add a shopping cart, add scripts or add a content management system.

I could have easily written reviews of a number of web hosting companies. The problem is; I currently only use Hostgator and one other company I’m not going to mention right now because I’m still evaluating their services. Web hosting companies that I’ve dropped; Powweb, Network Solutions, 1and1 and a few others. Hostgator is one of the few web hosting companies designed with non techies in mind. You can read more about their services in my Hostgator review.

Get A Website Header
You simply won’t find very many websites or blogs without a website header or a header logo. The logic is simple; when visitors arrive to your website, the first thing they see is your header or lack their of. If your header looks unprofessional, cheap or if it was made novice graphic designer, your visitors won’t stay around to see the rest of your website. An unprofessional website header is one of the prime reasons some website have a poor CTR Click Through Rate. Make sure that your header is clean, crisp and professional. Get a Website Header.

Get Website Builder Software
The last piece of the puzzle is having a powerful web design software that allows you to build professional looking websites without being programmer or coder. There are a lot of DIY Web Design software programs on the market, but if you want to build a traffic getting website, the only choice is the XSitePro 2 Web Design Software. This website was built and customized with XSitePro 2. Don’t do like I did when I first started to fulfill my online dreams. Not knowing any better, I bought a number of different website builders that promised the world. They claimed I’d have a website up and running in 10 minutes but it never happened. By the time I found XSitePro, I had spent a lot of hard earned cash,(I'm talking a little over a thousand dollars) and wasted a lot of valuable time on non-user friendly applications.

Get a Shopping Cart; If Necessary
Of course, if you’re going to immediately start selling your own products, you’re going to need a shopping cart. For beginners, PayPal is hands down the shopping cart of choice.