I’ve spent the last 5 posts explaining how to make a website, basically from scratch. Well I wanted to spend 1 post on how to build a website using an online website builder.

For those are unfamilar with an online website builder, it’s an online application that will allow you to build a website without needing to purchase software that needs to be loaded on your computer. You simply visit the login page and everything is there ready for you to make updates from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.

This is ideal for those who just want to put up an informational site with some text, photos & images related to their business without having to learn all of the HTML involved with building a website we offer Website Tonight.

Online Website Builder Demo:

URL: login.websitespot.com
Username: wssdemo
Password: Wsspassword1

Popular Online Website Builder Features:

1. Step by step setup
2. No HTML needed
3. 100+ Templates
4. Video & Audio Uploads
5. Easily publish changes
6. Click Here For A Complete List Of Features

This will allow you to login and see exactly how easy it is to change templates add images & text as well as publish your website. Once you’ve made some changes & published them you can view your changes at www.WebsiteSpotDemo.com.

The great thing is that you can update the template that you choose at any time and we offer upwards of 100+ templates to choose from. It’s definitely an option for building a website without the struggles of developing a website from scratch.

Another great thing is the built in HTML modules that will allow you to customize your site with HTML if you happen to need to insert HTML code or you’d like to have more control over the look of your site. You won’t find this flexibility with a lot of online website builders so please be sure to take a look at this when you’re testing out our demo.

Please contact me with any questions because I think that once you’ve had a chance to try the demo that you’ll love the online website builder.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

So far I’ve covered some of the basic steps on how to make a website but I haven’t covered images & nor creating a blog. The images are a very important part of your website in regards to keeping visitors interested & for search engine optimization. A blog is going to keep content your website fresh and if you can write content that’s valuable, it’s going to keep people coming back to your website.

Tip 7: Images & Photos

How often to you revisit websites that don’t spice up their site with images or illustrations? For me, it’s rarely. I like to look at images & photos because it can answer questions without having to read through tons of content.

It’s important to place images on your website but don’t over do it. Many people still use dial-up for their internet connection so it’s important to use images that aren’t to large or exceed 72 pixels/inch. Most monitors don’t resolve more than 72 pixels/inch so you’re just making the images larger for no reason at all.

Another important part of images is the ‘alt’ tag, obviously search engines can’t figure out what an image relates to so it’s important to give your file a descriptive name and use the ‘alt’ tag. A good example of this would be something on the order of <img src=“chrome-wheels.jpg” alt=“Chrome Wheels” />.

To break this down you’re telling the search engine that your image is named ‘chrome-wheels.jpg and the alt tag is another way of describing to the search engines what the image is related to. It’s important to use the alt tag as often as possible because it’s a way of optimizing your web page for search engines.

There is a huge selection of image editing software on the market from free options like Gimp to higher priced editors such Adobe PhotoShop & Adobe FireWorks. I personally use both, I use PhotoShop for editing photos and I use FireWorks for creating and editing images such as banners & buttons. The later two offer advanced features so be sure to research them before making a decision.

Tip 8: Blogs

I’m running long so I’m going to make this short. Blog is short for Web log that consist of regularly updated entries displayed in reverse chronological order. Essentially an online diary or journal. The great thing about blogs is that search engines love blogs because of they are generally updated with new content and generally updated with unique content. You’ll find that almost every single web host offers a blog application with their hosting services.

There are a lot of different options in regards to blogs from hosted versions such as BlogSpot.com to versions that you host under your own domain such as WordPress. I personally use WordPress because I can host it on my own server and there are so many features that you can add to it. By the way, no matter which you choose, blog software generally is free.

You’ll find that we offer WordPress with all of our web hosting accounts as well. One final thing, I’ve covered just a very small area of blogs. In my opinion the best website regarding blogs and how to make money with blogs is at ProBlogger.net. I personally check with ProBlogger.net about 2 – 3 times per week so it’s a great idea to check them out.

In my next post I’m going to cover a couple of SEO, search engine optimization techniques.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

I just wanted to leave one more quick post regarding web hosting. These are definitely a few things that you’ll want to look at when searching for a web hosting company.

1. Phone Support – Any major web hosting company is going to offer phone support and I wouldn’t host without it. Imagine your website goes down on a day when you have a press release coming out or some other major event where you expect a surge in website traffic. Now imagine that your website goes down and all you can do is send and email to support. It wouldn’t be a pleasant experience and phone support is a necessity. Don’t even consider a web host unless they have a posted phone number on their website.

2. Uptime Guarantee – Most hosting companies will offer something like “99.9% Uptime Guarantee”. This is something to look for as well, 99.9% is very good and really no one can guarantee 100% uptime. I’m sure some companies will claim 100% uptime but just be sure that they offer something very close to 99% uptime.

3. Monthly Commitments – I don’t really recommend paying for a year or so upfront. If you sign-up with a hosting company and find out that it doesn’t meet your needs you’re really not out anything. Granted, most offer a 30 day money back guarantee but why have to mess with billing or customer support when you can simply pay month to month. Once you’ve had a chance to host your website for a couple months you may consider committing for a year so that you don’t have the month to month billing plus you’ll find that you generally will save money by prepaying for a year but I don’t suggest signing up for a full year right off the bat.

4. Setup Fees – Unless your getting into a dedicated machine or something that requires custom configuration I would never recommend signing up with a web hosting that requires a setup fee. There are too many reputable web hosting companies that don’t charge a setup fee.

5. 30 Day Money Back Guarantee – What is it going to hurt to be able to try out a web host and know that you can get your money back if you’re not satisfied with their service or support. Again, there are too many reputable companies out there that offer 30 day money back guarantees out there to not choose one.

That’s it for this post, I’m going to leave one more post regarding web hosting and we’ll get into design & the rest of the basics.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

Probably the most common question that I get from family and friends is how to start a website. They are generally intimidated by the thought of learning how to program or the cost of hiring a web designer. I like to quickly point out that it’s not that tough. Now don’t get me wrong, when you get into databases, shopping carts, etc it can get difficult.

I tell them that it’s really about what type of website you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a simple informational site or a family website then it couldn’t be easier or more affordable. I lead them to Website Tonight which was developed for those that don’t know how to build a website.

As most people out there are familiar with applications such as Microsoft Word then Website Tonight will be a breeze. I just let them know that they browse through the 800+ professional web templates that we offer and then start filling in the blanks with text & photos. The formatting is exactly like that of any word processor.

You know, it’s just one of those things that you need to just dive into. With the cost for a smaller plan you’re looking at about $0.20 per day so there’s nothing left to loose.

Now this is for those who just want an informational site or a family website. In my next post I’ll get into shopping cart software for those who want to sell items online and what goes along with running a shopping cart.

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