If you have limited finances, and want to build a professional and profitable online business, have a look at my....
6-Step Guide to creating a lucrative website for under $150 (£100)!
If you design and build your own website, you can set it up professionally — with your own domain name and web hosting — without having to spend much at all.
On this page, I’ll guide you through the steps you can follow to design a successful website — using only inexpensive and free software and services.
Designing your own website isn’t a short-term, get-rich-quick project. You’ll need to have the self-motivation to keep on building and improving your site over the long term. But once you have absorbed the information on this page, you will be well on your way to making a good profit from your online business.
Let’s get you started....
Step 1: The Basics
Before you start with the actual design of your website, you need to focus in on the topic that your site is going to cover. You need to find a niche that has a high demand, but that has very few good websites covering it.
The way to find a good niche is with a detailed keyword analysis. This is where you figure out what search terms are commonly being entered in search engines, and how much competition there is for those phrases in the search results.
So your first small expense will be a one-day subscription to Wordtracker 
. This is an excellent tool to help you build a list of keywords — you’ll need to find at least 500 effective search terms that are closely related to the niche you want to cover. In Wordtracker, an effective search term is one that has a Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) of 10 or more.
There are a number of other keyword research tools that you can use as well, which I cover in my Low-Cost Web Resources ebook. I’ll tell you how you can download it a little later on.
Once you’ve distilled yourself a list of keywords, you will need to register a domain name that includes the best ones. A “dot-com” is still the best — the ideal is to get both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions, then put your site on the hyphenated domain, and forward the other one to your site.
Two web hosts that I recommend:
Some web hosts include a free domain name with their hosting, or you can use www.GoDaddy.com to register your own.
Then you need to sign up for a high-quality web host....
....and you’re ready for Step 2 of the low-cost web design process:
Step 2: Start Writing
Before you spend much time with the actual design of your site, I suggest that you start off with your text. If your writing is engaging and rich in information, that will be far more important than having a site that has stunning graphics.
The more text you write, the better — as long as it stays interesting to your target audience. You will ultimately need to build your site up to a couple of hundred web-pages before you really own your niche.
If you get stuck for topics, just refer back to your keyword list. That is what people are looking for information on, so you can be the one to give it to them. On the Internet, it is information that will attract visitors to your site.
I highly recommend getting a copy of Make Your Words Sell , because it’s packed with excellent advice about writing for the net. Of all of the Internet marketing resources I’ve bought, this one is definitely the best value for your money.
Steps 3 and 4 of your free web design can be started in parallel with the copy writing:
Step 3: Graphics & Layout
Essentially, when you’re designing the look of your website, you only need to design one page, and the rest of your pages will just be copies of the same design, with different text.
Website templates
You can either design your page layout yourself, or buy a professional website template — which you can also customize so that it is unique to your site.
Also, if you don’t have a lot of your own pictures, you’ll probably want to add some stock photos to your site. This can be a great way to liven things up, with very little effort. I’ll give you some great sources of stock photos in my Low-Cost Web Resources ebook below.
Next comes the part where you put all the pieces together:
Step 4: Programming
Not everybody has a mind for programming, and if you don’t, there are ways around having to do any. But let me give you an overview of how the guts of a website works, so you can decide for yourself whether you want to tackle it in more detail.
Besides HTML and CSS, there are many other programming languages that can be used to add features and functionality to a website. If you’re doing everything yourself, I would suggest that you keep it simple and stay away from these until you really need them.
HTML Editors
- WebDwarf (free)
- CoffeeCup
(shareware)
- Dreamweaver
(best)
Here are a few free online tutorials for learning HTML and CSS:
In Low-Cost Web Resources – which I’ll tell you how to download a little farther down – I’ll also give you some tools you can use to design your site without having to know HTML and CSS.
Once you’ve put your site together, you’ll need to upload it to your web host. If your HTML editor doesn’t have one built in, you can use a free FTP program such as AceFTP .
The next step is to promote your site to attract visitors:
Step 5: Site Promotion
There are lots of ways to promote your site on the Internet, and many of them are inexpensive or free.
A good first step is to submit your site to as many search engines and directories as possible. Here’s a free submission service that helps you automate the process.
Then you need to get as many other websites to link to yours as you can. One way to do this is to contact the webmasters of sites that are related to yours, and offer to exchange links with them — it’s something that can be mutually beneficial, so you should be able to talk them into it.
There are plenty of other ways to bring in more visitors, and I cover them in more detail in Low-Cost Web Resources. Download instructions coming up.
The last step (whew!) in web development is the one that never ends:
Step 6: Monitor & Improve
A good web host – including any of the ones I recommend – will give you detailed statistics on how many visitors your site is getting, where they came from and where they go in your site. So there’s no need to add a page counter that’s visible to the whole world.
After your site is actually online, you will want to fine-tune your text to improve your search engine results. I suggest downloading the free trial of some optimizing software like IBP or WebPosition . These packages will analyze your text and help get your site into the top rankings.
Over time, you can see how your website is performing, and what areas need improvement. And you can test different ideas and see how they affect the site’s performance — sometimes just changing a headline can make a big difference to your sales.
It’s also a good idea to monitor your site’s rankings in the search engines for the keyphrases that you’re targeting. Your rankings will naturally move up and down, but the more optimization and promotion you do – and the more unique content your site has – the higher you can get in the results.
Here’s a free beginner’s guide to search engine optimization .
So those are the 6 steps to low-cost website success — now here’s the ebook I keep talking about:
Low-Cost Web Resources
Before I tell you how to download this ebook, I just want to tell you that it not only represents thousands of hours of finding and documenting the very best free products and services available on the net....
....but it will also save you hundreds of hours of trying to find the resources you need, and figuring everything out from scratch for yourself.
Nobody wants to spend more than you need to for Internet services. Yet many people are spending several times what they would be on their websites.... if they just had the information I’m giving you in this ebook.
I guarantee it will save you its download price – several times over – as soon as you start to use some of the high-quality services that I’ve collected together for you.
Click here to get “Low Cost Web Resources”.
I’ve spent years digging for the best quality of web hosting, domain registration, stock photo sources, and other online services for my own use. And do you know what I’ve discovered?
The very best online products and services often cost 50% to 70% less than their lower-quality competitors!
I think there are two reasons for this. One is that these companies are simply very well-run and highly efficient, so they can afford to provide their services at very competitive rates.
And the other reason is that truly successful people on the net genuinely want to help newcomers get started. They know that once you are successful, if you are happy with the services they’ve provided, you will upgrade to some of their more upscale offerings in the future.
This ebook will immediately save you its download price by giving you the best, highest-value Internet services that I personally use to produce high-quality websites for next-to-nothing.
Click here to get “Low Cost Web Resources” now!
And besides the cost savings it will give you, this ebook is going to save you hours and hours of time, spent searching for and trying out different services on the net. I’ve already found the very best resources available, so you don’t have to.
The ebook also contains a free bonus section on monetizing your website. It tells you all of my secrets for turning your website visitors into cash in your bank account. This bonus section alone has a $75 value, and I’m including it for free.
