In previous posts I covered registering a domain name & selecting a web hosting plan so now it’s time so start looking into web design. When you’re new to website building, web design can be very intimidating. I’ve come up with a list of 10 tips to take into consideration when you’re ready to build your first website. I’m going to break them into 5 posts so avoid running long and I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information at once.

Tip 1: Choose Your Website Editor

There are a few different editors on the market which make building a website much more simple without having to be extremely knowledgeable in HTML. One term you’ll see is ‘WYSIWYG’ which stands for ‘What You See Is What You Get’. You’ll find that they are referred to as WYSIWYG Editors.

The two most popular website editors are Microsoft FrontPage & Adobe DreamWeaver. Just a note, FrontPage is being phased out but it’s what I will continue to use because it’s so similar to Microsoft Word. The issue is that they won’t be adding any new features but it still works great.

With that said, you may want to consider DreamWeaver because it does the basic functions of designing a page plus, as you grow, it has the capability of performing the advanced items such as CSS, PHP, among other functions. The great thing is that DreamWeaver is so popular that there are sites out there that cater to DreamWeaver templates, which is covered later.

The catch is that DreamWeaver & Frontpage are a bit pricey so if you’re on a budget you should take a look at CoffeeCup or an online website builder such as Website Tonight. They’ll give you the tools to build a basic website and as your skills grow you can always move into an editor such as DreamWeaver in the future. I would check with eBay for some better pricing on FrontPage & DreamWeaver.

CoffeeCup offers 100′s of templates and is priced a bit better than DreamWeaver & FrontPage. You’re going to lose a bit of functionality but again, you can always move to DreamWeaver in the future. You can actually get a FREE download of CoffeCup by clicking here.

Either way, just be sure to research the products and find out what will work best for the type of website that you’re wanting to build.

Tip 2: Search For Website Templates

The easiest way to achieve a professional looking website is by finding a website template. A website template will provide the layout, images, & formatting of a web page and all you will really need to do is fill in the blanks with your content and images.

The great thing is that there is such a huge demand for website templates that you can find a template for about any subject that you’re site may be related to. Please keep in mind that you’re going to need a WYSIWYG editor to make the changes that you need so you’ll need to get into DreamWeaver or even Frontpage.

A couple of great places to view some templates are Dream Templates, Dot Com Builder, & The Template Store. The great thing about Dot Com Builder is that it is a subscription service and you can download unlimited templates from their collection of 100+ templates.

That’s it, I’m running long so I’ll save tips 3 & 4 for my next post. This should give you enough to do until tomorrow when I post the next tips.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

Shopping cart software doesn’t have to be an intimidating factor in getting an online shopping cart online. You basically just need to know what your needs are and then go from there.

Majority of the shopping carts are integrated with PayPal so you can accept online payments easily. Eventually you’ll need a merchant account to accept credit cards but if you’re getting started, a PayPal account will do just fine. I’ll get into merchant accounts in my next post.

Now back to shopping cart software, Quick shopping cart is an easy to use application that allows you to add products to your catalog along with descriptions & images. There is absolutely no programming or HTML knowledge needed so you can realistically have your shopping cart online within an hour depending on the number of products that you offer.

For a basic shopping cart you’ll want certain features such as coupons, in depth reporting, and integration with certain shipping companies. One feature that Quick Shopping Cart offers is eBay integration so that you can list items on eBay without having to list items individually.

Other features that you will eventually want are cross selling which allows you to offer certain products when it relates to an item that a visitor is looking at. It’s a great way of upselling! Once your sales start rolling in you’ll need a way of reporting your sales & expenses so your shopping cart should be integrated with an accounting package such as QuickBooks.

These are the most important aspects of any shopping cart software. With that said, I invite you to learn more about what Quick Shopping Cart has to offer and how user friendly and feature rich the application is.

As I mentioned, in my next post I’ll get into merchant accounts and how to accept credit cards.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

A question that I frequently get asked is how to make a free website. It’s an understandable question but one that’s difficult to answer. I realize that money can be tight but it’s difficult to truly build a free website especially if you want to create a professional website.

What I plan on doing is listing some tools on how to make a free website along with some affordable tools that allow you to present a professional image. Just keep in mind that if you don’t have a professional image it’s likely that you’ll lose out on sales.

Free Domain Names

I don’t know of any site that offers absolutely free domain names unless you purchase a pre-paid year of web hosting or some other sort of annual service.  A domain name is extremely affordable at $10.99 per year through www.SiteToad.com. Again, this is per year not per month so it’s extremely affordable.

Free Website Hosting

This is another service that it’s difficult to find for free and still portray a professional image. You can always use a service like BraveNet.com as they actually provide free domain hosting. The thing is that they amount of resources that they give you is limited to sort of force you to upgrade to one of their paid plans once you’ve outgrown the free space.

An affordable option is web hosting with www.SiteToad.com, we offer a Deluxe hosting plan for $7.95 per month but it gives you ample space to grow your site. Best of all, you an host unlimited domains on one hosting plan. This allows you to host multiple sites such as Domain1.com, Domain2.com etc all for only $7.95 per month. Plus you don’t have the adds that display on your site that you’ll find with many free domain hosting providers.

Free Website Builder

This is going to be very similar to free website hosting as you will have the providers ads displaying on your site and doesn’t look professional at all. www.SiteToad.com offers an ad-free website builder that allows you to update your website on any computer and offers 100′s of free templates to choose from to get that professional look that you should strive for.

How To Make A Free Website

As you can see it’s actually very affordable to build a website with www.SiteToad.com and still achieve that professional look that you’re looking for. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the site, we put together www.WebsiteToad.com which offers all the tips & tools that will help you learn how to make your own website.

I’ve built the site with a search box so that you don’t need to search all over to find what you’re looking for. I recommend that you check out www.WebsiteToad.com before committing to any given domain names or web hosting provider.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com