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There are many people out there who want to start a work at home business, but they need to build a website and they either don't know where to start, or they think they can't afford it. It's a myth that you need a lot of money to start a home business website. Sure, you can pay to have one built for you, but you will find that you will want to make changes to it and you need to have the flexibility to do this yourself, otherwise you will also have to pay for modifications.

The first thing you have to do is choose a domain name. When it comes to domain names; size does matter. I made the mistake of picking a long name with a lot of dashes in it. This is not recommended. Try to pick something short and memorable. It's also a good idea to have the name of the product you are selling or promoting in your name. Spend some time brainstorming before you decide. You'll be glad that you did.

You'll also need a web hosting service provider. This is the company that stores the files of your website on a computer that allows Internet users to view it. You can usually acquire web hosting services for less than $10 per month. It is better to find a service with a fixed rate, because websites usually grow and require more storage space. For example, I use IPower, because they charge me the same rate no matter how much storage space I need.

It really isn't that hard to learn to how to build a website. You would be amazed at how easy it is once you get started. There are really two approaches to building a website:

Starting From Scratch
Starting With a Template

When I started my Work At Home Directory website, I built my own site using a simple template. There are many companies on the Internet with free or inexpensive templates. I've seen them as low as $25 - $65. I decided to use Microsoft Frontpage as my HTML editor, because I was already familiar with some of their other software products and I thought it would make the transition easier. Many of the HTML editors out there allow you to either use their editor, or to make changes to the code directly. After I got started, I found that I did a little of both.

There are two things I would recommend when starting to build your site. Get yourself a book on the subject, such as HTML for Dummies, and find someone that knows HTML, who can help you when you get stuck. When I started my website, my 15 year old daughter was a big help to me. She taught herself HTML when she built a Neopets website at the age of 13. I figured if she could do it at 13, I could do it.

There are a lot of teenagers and college kids with basic computer experience who can help you. If you don't know anyone, put up an ad at your local college saying that you will pay $10 per hour for someone with HTML experience who can help you set up your website. Paying someone $100 or $200 to help you, is a lot cheaper than paying $1000s for someone else to build a website, that you don't know how to make changes too.

After you learn HTML, you can be proud of yourself, because you will have learned a skill that can help you advertise your home business and earn money at home.

There's no denying that Google's Adsense program is one of the hottest ways to make money on the internet today. You don't have to look very far to find internet marketers hawking the latest and greatest way to make a fortune online. Some of the hottest new products are website generating software programs that are designed to build adsense websites fast. Some software programs claim to build a website in less than 5 minutes. But how do you separate fact from fiction and choose the best website generating software for your needs?

You might think that your first requirement would be, "How fast can this software build my adsense website?" Not so! The first requirement for choosing website generating software should be the ease of use in relation to your computer skills and knowledge. The most fabulous website generating software in the world is completely useless if the person attempting to run the program lacks the computer skills to execute it successfully. Be honest with yourself when evaluating your own computer skills and choose a software program that matches your current skills. Remember, you can always upgrade as you learn and earn.

The second thing you should do is evaluate the claims made on the sales pages. If a website is offering a program that promises to build an adsense website fast, you must ask yourself the following 5 questions:

1. How believable is the claim?
If the program can generate the site in under 5 minutes, rest assured there will be a significant amount of prep work to do beforehand if the program is worth purchasing. Prep work isn't a bad thing, but it does add significantly to the amount of time that it takes to complete a website.

2. What is the percentage, if any, of scraped content?
Scraped content can give you a good starting point for your chosen keywords, but don't rely on it for good long term search engine rankings or adsense earnings. They say that content is king, but unique content is what will bring you the motherload of cash.

3. How much room is there for alteration in the look and feel of the website that is generated?
Search engines like unique sites with unique content. Be certain the website generating software program you buy either has options to give each site its own look and feel, or that you have enough programming experience and literary skills to sufficiently alter the code and content.

4. Will you have to make additional purchases in order to keep using your software?
Some website generating software programs are set up so that in order to continue making full use of the program you must make additional purchases. That could mean that your software will only generate an adsense website if you use a template purchased from the same company. You may also have to purchase upgrades to the software itself or purchase the instructional manual or videos.

5. Is the software program affordable given my current financial situation?
You can find every kind price range for website generating software on the internet from completely free to outrageously expensive. The key is not to go overboard in the beginning. It takes time to build your Adsense earnings up to a decent level, so pace yourself and your expenses until you begin earning a steady income.

Every internet marketer wants to build adsense websites fast and website generating software programs are a great way to give yourself a head start. After all, the more sites you have, the greater your earning potential. However, don't allow your enthusiasm and excitement to override your common sense. Start slowly and treat your online business with the same care and attention you would a brick and mortar business. You'll be glad you did.

By now you should have the hang of adding pictures and editing text in the existing text boxes. You should also know how to add new pages to the site by adding them to the menu (see previous tutorial). Now let’s look at adding extra elements to a page and adding pages without them appearing in the menu – it’s the next step to help you create your own website using Webeden. Lets do it – here’s 10 steps to adding extra elements to your pages

Step 1

Click on Files to open the File Manager and then select the Library tab and click on Animations / Handwritten. Click on “Circle it” and select Use this. The animation will be added to the page. By default, the line drawn is white. Select the animation object and in the Editor dialog click on the Style tab and change the colour to black. You can also resize and rotate the animation on the Info tab (see previous page). Position the circle over the top of an area of the page that you want to draw attention to, like a picture.

Step 2

Now add the arrow from the Handwritten section in the same way. Use the Rotate feature on the Info tab to enable freehand rotation using the object’s handles. When you add a page to your site, you can choose from a list of different page types. There are different templates readily available so you don’t have to design a complicated page from the ground up, which makes for a handy shortcut when you’re website building. For example, the blog/news page will create a ready made weblog for you, together with an integrated editor to allow you to add items.

Step 3

You can also add links only, so a button appears in the menu, but no page is created (the opposite of adding a page, but not having it visible). There’s even an image gallery – one tip with images you upload is to ensure the dimensions aren’t larger than you need to keep download times down, somthing you should take not of when you create your own website.

Step 4

Now click on Insert and select Button Link. This will add a bevelled image to the page. Move it to within the left column. Click on the Link tab in the Editor dialog and enter the URL you want to link to, like http://www.webeden.co.uk/. Click on Apply and you’ll see that the text on the button changes also. Click on the Style tab and you can now change the text on the button. Do it in this order, as changing the link will overwrite the text.

Step 5

The next step on your website building fast track is to click on the More arrow in the Editor dialog (top right) and select Body Text Box (you can hover over each icon to get a tooltip). Drag the text box to the left column, underneath the button we just inserted. Use the handles at the corners and bottom of the text frame to resize it to fit within the column. Now select the Style tab and click on the Background button to enable a background for the text frame, and select a colour from the drop down menu to the right, and do the same for the border.

Step 6

An alterative when you make your own website to using the text frame’s background and border is to add a background frame, such as a shape with bevelled edges from the Library, and then add a text box on top, which will show the frame beneath it through it.

Step 7

Now go to Insert / New page and click on the Add new page button; just make it a blank page. Label the page “Chat” and then disable the radio button in the Page visible column. This will add the page to the site without it being added into your automatically generated menu. We will add a link to this new page within the master page, but to do this, you must create the page first as you cannot add a link to a non-existent page, even if you know what you are going to call it. You can still access the page to edit it from the Pages menu – a perfect website building tip.

Step 8

On the new page, double click in the title text box to edit the text and change it to “Chat to other user online” and then single click on the main text box and click on the Delete icon.

Step 9

Now click on the Files button to bring up the File Manager and from the library, select Functional and add the Chat object to the page. Close the File Manager and then resize the chat object to fill the content element of the page underneath the headline. Click on Design / Page master and remember to save the page when it asks you. Always remember this if you want to quickly build your own website!

Step 10

Add a new button link and drag it to the top right of the page, above the date. With the button selected, choose the Link tab in the Editor and select the Pages icon (it looks like horizontal lines). This allows you to link to a page on your site. Select Chat from the drop down menu and click Apply. As before the button’s text will change.

Step 11

In the Style tab change the button text to “Chat to other users”. Click on Save and Exit.

Step 12

Change to the View my site, so you can see the site as a user, rather than editing it, and you will see that we have added a fully featured chat feature to our site, all within the space of a few clicks. What an amazing what to create a website that looks professional and advanced.

Expert tip

When you add a page to WebEden, you can choose from a list of different page types. There are different templates readily available so you don’t have to design a complicated page from the ground up. For example, the blog/news page will create a ready made weblog for you, together with an integrated editor to allow you to add items. You can also add links only, so a button appears in the menu, but no page is created (the opposite of adding a pgae, but not having it visible, as we did in Step 3). There’s even an image gallery – one tip with images you upload is to ensure the dimensions aren’t larger than you need to keep download times down.

That’s all for now

Check in for part 4 to find out how to add some really cool stuff to make sure that you can build a website, and it’s the best one possible!

It is easy to build a website for your small business .

Most consumers look on the internet before going to a store. Sometimes it is their only stop: they research, compare and buy online. It goes without saying then that for a small business to reach its potential market, it should have an internet presence.

Small business operators do not often have a dedicated IT person on staff - in the past this is the person who would be given the job of building a website. It's great news then that there are now beginner-friendly website building packages on the market which are perfect for the small businessperson's use.

If you can use a word processor you will be able to use most modern web site builders. You simply type on the page as you normally would when writing an email.

The tutorials provided with almost all software suppliers take the novice through the process of building a website in a non-technical, easy to understand way. Having completed the tutorial, one is equipped with more than enough knowledge to launch straight into a website build.

Not all website software programs are easy to use. Small business operators do not need fully blown web design industry solutions due to the steep learning curve. One feature to look for is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. This simply means you type on the page as you see it.

There are expenses involved in publishing your own website - you get nothing for nothing. Apart from the cost of the software (there are free web builders however they are more difficult to use or too basic in features), a small business (or an individual or a large company) will need to register a domain name (less than $10) and find a web hosting service (around $8 per month).

Setting up a merchant account with someone like Paypal (free)is something businesses should consider. Having a third party handle financial transactions is always reassuring for consumers and takes away an administration burden. As soon as an order is placed you will receive an alert from the merchant. You can then arrange shipping - or in the case of digital products - automate the delivery.

In any small business time is money, and the time spent learning a new skill like website building with easy to use software must be seen as a good investment. It is possible to build multiple websites so that you can have a website network feeding a central business. This is ideal for multi-brand retailers and multi-branch operators. Having the ability to be flexible with your online presence will be an advantage to the savvy business owner.

Because you have built and are managing your website yourself, you are able to instantly react to changing trends and new opportunities. Avoid delays by not having to wait for your webmaster to make changes. Fresh content on your website is highly desirable.

Some website programs are specifically designed to assist the business person become an internet business marketer, and as your knowledge of web design grows, the more you will value search engine optimization and site map generation tools. Having a correctly designed site map helps search engines easily match your site to search requests.

If you decide to look at other ways to earn money through your website without doing a thing, you will no doubt look at including on your site some affiliate marketing and advertisements from non compete companies.

Features to look for:

An active help desk to support you is important. Also you will need instructional videos to shorten the learning curve. Look for testimonials from other business owners to see how they have applied the software.

Getting started is the next step once you arrive at the conclusion that a website is no longer a luxury - it is essential!

Building a website is an often overlooked topic in the deluge of ebooks out there on how to start a business. 

But maybe you just want to build a simple website where you can put up a few photos and share them with your family and friends. 

Recently, a friend of mine needed a website to display his resume online. 

Or, maybe you just want to build a website to sell online and make enough residual income for a car payment.

With the right tools, building a website can be a step by step process and is much more simple than many people might think.  It’s definitely not something to fear any longer.  If you can get online and read this article, you can certainly build a website.  You just need a little instruction.

Here are a few tips for getting started.

* Have an idea on what you need the website to do.  Will it be for family photos, a resume, your journal entries, or do you want to put up products for sale, or work with affiliates and sell their products?  Keeping this in mind gives you an idea on how complex building the site will be. 

* Find an easy web building tool.  This step is key.  I’ve built numerous websites and have tried many of the tools out there.  Some cost big bucks, some charge monthly fees before you even begin building, but I’ve found that the best, and easiest tool, is actually free.  Tripod, owned by Lycos, lets you build your entire site before they charge you a penny.  If you don’t like where you end up, you can start over and try again, all for no cost.  If you like what you’ve built then the only cost is for a domain name (includes hosting fees) and removes any advertisements from your site.  Simple as that.

* Find people like you who can help get you started and that you can talk to along the way.  I didn’t have this chance when I got started, but it would have helped me drastically.  With the advent of social networking sites, you can easily find a community where there are others like you who are in the same position, or willing to coach.

 

Thanks for coming,

Audry Grant