LESSON 4: CREATING A WEBSITE
Having a website or blog for your business is the most important aspect of your business. Because if you are starting a business you will need an office or shop to attend to your clients and sell your stuff. A website is a virtual shop or office which can serve as a means of doing online transactions with customers on the internet.
All the activities in your online business should take place on your website. Having a website gives you a lot of advantages for a successful online business.
WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A WEBSITE
- Having a website serves as your virtual office to receive and attend to visitors, clients or customers.
- Having a website makes you and your product more accessible and available.
- Having a website gives you the ability to reach more people online than being offline.
- Having a website gives you more credibility and professionalism.
- Having a website is an online asset.
- Having a website gives you the opportunity to monetize your contents or services.
You can do anything on your website. You can monetize all the aspect of your website.
You are the owner of your little world you create anything so you have no limits.
You can reach and connect with the whole world from the comfort of your living room.
And so on.
Having a website opens doors to so many opportunities, so you can understand how owning your own website is as important. If you don’t own or have a high quality premium website like a WordPress website then you should have at least have a blogger blog.
But if you know you want to start business, then you need to do it the way it is rightly done.
To create a website you need some very key tools
A website hosting from a hosting company this is where all your website data and files will be stored.
Options
- Godaddy
- Hostgator
- Ipage
- Bluehost
A domain name from a domain plan: this is the name of your website with a .com or .net or .co.uk or .us and so on. E.g. abeginnerx.com or yourwebsitename.com
Options
- Godaddy
- 1&1.com
- Ipage
- Namecheap
- Hostgator
You need a website builder
- WordPress
- Wix
To create a website you need some very key tools
A website hosting from a hosting company this is where all your website data and files will be stored.
Options
- Godaddy
- Hostgator
- Ipage
- Bluehost
Any of these options are well recommended.
You can usually get all you need for all the above companies.
You can get a 1 year hosting plan and a domain name to start with. This comes with a great offer and nice discounts.
Lastly you need a website theme (word press theme): this is where you shape your website into what you want it to be. How it should appear on the internet and to your audience.
Plus this will help look more unique and professional.
So you should start by giving your website or blog a domain name.
You can get a 1 year hosting plan and a domain name to start with.
This comes with a great offers and nice discounts.
Lastly you need a website theme (word press theme): this is where you shape your website into what you want it to be. How it should appear on the internet and to your audience.
Plus this will help look more unique and professional.
All these aspect to the buildup are very important.
There are 2 types of themes;
- Free themes
- Premium themes
The free theme can be used for very simple websites so if you don’t have much to do on your website then you use free themes. But I highly recommend you get a premium theme because the free themes doesn’t have so many features and in fact the free themes are very limited to work with and less efficient unless you are a graphic designer or website developer.
This is what happens to most bloggers using blogspot.com blogs.
This blogs have free Google themes and are very simple and less attractive.
You also have to code to add some design to it.
A premium theme has all the things a free theme doesn’t. It has so many features you can add to a website, it is usually more attractive because it was created by professionals; it’s a user friendly customization system which means easy to install and customize. It is usually readymade and matches your niche. And it’s a onetime payment so you own it for life.
I do not advise you to use a premium theme if you are working with a low budget on creating a standard blog or website. There are wordpress themes that are quality and can be used from the mean time.
But if you really want your website to have some very unique and specific functions then you need to get a premium theme that will be like ready made for the website to perform excellently.
WHY YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS A PREMIUM THEME
- It makes your website more professional looking.
- Makes your work neat and your website organized
- Makes your work easier if you want to avoid a lot of coding and developing
- Gives your website more features.
- Gives you full ownership
- No limits with what you can do with a premium theme.
Options
- Envator
- Themeforest
- Colorib
- WP themes
A BREAK DOWN ON HOW MUCH CAN GET YOU A WORDPRESS BLOG.
- Hosting costs about $3 per month therefore a 1 year hosting plan is $36
- Domain name usually costs $12 for 1 year.
- A theme ranges from $6 to $100 depending on what type of theme with what type features.
Total estimate costs between $55 to $155 this prices varies depending on your hosting plan, and theme and other features of the website.
So it’s a good thing that the prices are flexible.
WordPress is free for installation. Some website cost way more than that.
For those of you starting out with your blogs, I am offering building and designing a fully functional website with a domain name and hosting for 1 year starting at N35,000 only.
With all of the above features.
You blog will be ready in a two to three weeks.
Thanks for reading all through if you have any question please drop your comments in the comment section below. see you in the next lesson.