Building Your First Website

The Real Basics

Over the next few posts I’ll attempt to document my journey through the sometimes confusing basics of setting up my first websites. Putting together a website for the first time can be VERY daunting. Whether you are a stay at home mom, retiree, student, potential internet entrepreneur, or anyone who just wants to learn a new skill, it is difficult to know where to start.

Now I don’t profess to be an expert – but starting from scratch is still fresh in my mind – 25websites in 18 months later! So I might just be able to cover more of the real basics that the more experienced guys just skip over – and give it to you in plain English.

I am also going to try to give you as many links as I can to the sites that you will need, and an approximate of how much each step will cost you. Some you will need to lay out straight away (your software, purchase of your domain name and your web hosting service), some are free (your PayPal account) and others can wait until you decide if you need them or not. This will depend on the purpose of the site.

If its just for information, you probably won’t need any more. If you are planning to sell a downloadable product or get into affiliate marketing (all will be revealed!) then you will certainly need some more tools.

So here we go:

Step 1: If you don’t have one, set up a PayPal Account.

You will need this for transactions over the internet including for the next two steps. If you have had experience with eBay you may already have set up a PayPal Account – great! That’s Step 1 taken care of. By using this payment method, you are not divulging your credit card details to each merchant with whom you trade (not advisable, and most merchants prefer to transact via PayPal). AND having all transactions recorded at a central point, makes for much easier account management.

Learn more or sign up for a personal PayPal account (non-merchant)

If you are planning to sell products online, then I recommend you set up a PayPal Merchant’s Account – there a lot more benefits.

Step 2: Register Your Domain Name (approx. $US9/year)

Having set up your PayPal account your next step is to register a Domain Name, i.e. your own dot com. It can cost as little as $US9 to register a domain name – I was amazed at this low cost (but then I really had NO IDEA)!

But before you get too carried away with clever names, register your own name as a dot com first. This is so when you become rich and famous (if you’re not already), you won’t find someone else cashing in on your celebrity by registering a dot com in your name – Yes, they can! as many high-profile people have discovered.
I wanted to register KerryFinch.com, but found there was a journalist/politician in Tasmania, Australia, with that name who had already registered the domain name. So I am KerryAnneFinch.com. I have registered this, and several other domain names with one company, GoDaddy, and a few others with NameCheap as I wanted to compare their support and service.

More coming…………

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Valued Clients

"Kerry Finch has been helping me with content and articles for a long time. I can highly recommend her services, and if you’re looking to learn how to become an article writer just like Kerry, then I recommend her information products. She has great information, she knows exactly what she’s doing, she’s researched it – she does this for a living, and she’s damn good at it. So make sure you take Kerry up on her writing and coaching offers - she’s really good, and I highly recommend her services."
James Schramko / www.internetmarketingspeed.com

"My partner and I own and operate a small gym in the centre of Sydney - a very competitive market to say the least! We had spoken to so-called SEO and Google experts for months and they told it would take months to get the first page of Google for our keywords. Well now they have not met Kerry Finch. Using Kerry's article writing and distribution service we hit page one within 3 weeks and we had not use any other SEO strategy at all. To top that, she is a wonderful lady and so, so, so helpful. My advice stick to what you know or what you do best, and let others do what they do best. I very highly recommend Kerry to anyone looking to kick butt in any market on the net. "
Adam Moffat / www.realdealfitness.com.au

"I’m thrilled to tell you that your advice has made a huge increase in my income! You know that I had already fumbled around and found some useful information on my own, and had some money dribbling in. But with just a few nuggets of your wisdom and advice, I’ve landed two long-term writing projects just this week! (I equate everything to bills- so these two projects will pay our mortgage payment) My next goal is to re-read Overnight Writing Income and find more golden nuggets to put to use padding my bank account!""
Denise Gabbard / Careers and Jobs Examiner / bit.ly/QCkTj Twitter: Denise Gabbard

"I am new to internet marketing and needed some good articles and blog posts to get me started. Kerry was incredibly helpful, and her service was exceptional. Her articles and posts were not only well written but covered different aspects of the topic incredibly well. Publishing the articles according to Kerry’s suggestions has resulted in driving extra traffic to my site, resulting in increased sales of my eBooks. I couldn’t have asked for more! If you are looking for high quality articles, great service and speedy response, then Kerry is your gal!"
Maggie Schulz / www.babychemicalfree.com

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