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| Create Your Own Website Why would you want to create your own website? To publicize an event or a cause, to drive traffic to your blog(s) or if you have a requirement for a simple website, there are now tools available that anyone can use. Don't be intimidated. You really can do it .. and you won't end up with one of those ugly purple-template things. You know the ones I mean .. they scream do-it-yourself. Once you've chosen your photo and written your content, the process will probably take you about an hour to complete. The first one doesn't have to be perfect, just jump in, this process is so fast and it's easy to make changes. Ready? Design If you are creatively challenged (that would be me), take some time to observe the design of some of your favorite websites. What draws you to them? What colours are they using? How many columns are they using? How big are the graphics? How much white space are they using? We're going to use weebly to create our website. It's free too! Navigate there now and click on Live Demo (that's the tutorial) While you're there, sign up for an account. I'll wait ......... Ready? Sign in and click on the blue button on the top left of your screen to Create a Site. The Title of your site should contain keywords you'd like Google to search on. SEO optimization (how Google search engine finds you) is an incredibly complex subject. For now .. try to use keywords you'd like to be searched on in your Title and content. The site I'm using as an example is to advertise a cellphone callback service. The Title is "Unlimited Cellphone Callback Service". Choose a Weebly Design Click on the Designs tab at the top of the screen and select the fourth design (with the children eating the watermelon). Add Some Pages Next click on Pages and create three more pages titled "About" "Blog" "Plans" .. Click on the New Page button on the top left of the Pages screen. Be sure Show in Navigation is set to "Yes", click on Save and then click on the Pages tab and repeat ... okay that was easy. It looks like this:  Change the Header Photograph You'll need some graphics for your website. Microsoft's free clipart site is a great resource (it's where I find all the graphics for my blog). If you want higher quality photos, you'll pay between $1 and $20 at Istock Photo. You'll need to crop and resize the graphics. The best tool for this is Picnik .. It's free! Adam Urbanski said "It's every web professional's dream graphic program". It takes about 15 minutes to learn how to use it. We need to size our graphic (so it fits in the same spot as the photo that's there). Hover your mouse over the photo until Click to Replace message appears. Left Mouse button click and the Header Options bar appears above the photo. Note the size of the graphic (729 x 121). Upload the photo to PicniK and resize it to 729x121. Resize the photo first, then stretch the selected area and then resize until you find the part of the photo you want displayed. In this case, I resized a square photo to a horizontal rectangle by cropping the image first, then resizing it to 729x121 and respositioning the frame. Save the image to your hard drive. Click Upload on the Header Options bar in Weebly and select the image you just edited. The hard part is over. Click on the Pages tab and click on Save to save the work you just did. Click on Home (just below the photo), drag a Paragraph with Title icon down to the page. You can cut and paste the content you've already written for your Home page. I seem to be missing the "writing Marketing content" gene, so I hired a talented copywriter from ifreelance.com. It costs between $25 and $30 a page and worth every penny. Don't use Word to write your content. It contains hidden characters that will interfere with the formatting on your website. I use Notepad++ (free utility, very bad website design). Keep the design of your home page clear and to the point. You have an average of 18 seconds to grab their attention. Why are they here and why should they continue to stay here?. Don't write War and Peace and don't be afraid to format using bold and colour to get their attention. Your About page isn't your biography. It's why should people care, what sets you apart. This page is another candidate for the copywriter. Don't have your own Blog? Do a google search to find a blog that will interest your readers. There are two reasons to include a blog feed in your web site. There's fresh content on your site, so people may stay to read an article that interests them and Google search loves fresh content. (more really basic SEO optimization). You can add Google Maps, your Flickr photo album, a uTube video and even Google Adsense ads. Once your site is designed, click on the SEO Optimization tab and fill out all the fields. My weebly website was discovered by Google in two days. Try to use niche keywords, don't use obvious words like cellphone. You're never going to be able to compete with the large cellphone sites in Google search. Use keywords like cellphone callback. One last decision. Do you want your own domain name? You can buy a domain name from Weebly for $23 a year. That's a premium of about $13 above the large registrars such as GoDaddy. You have to ask yourself if it's worth $13 to save a couple of hours of time and frustration trying to transfer a domain name? What are you waiting for? Go create a website. If you get stuck, send me an e-mail and I'll try to help. E-mail me your domain name and I'll post the URLs in a future newsletter. NEXT TIME: Why you Need a WordPress Blog. |
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