Setting up a Web Site

Question:

How do I go about setting up a web site, costs, etc.? Can I, a beginner do it or should I have it done by someone?

Answer:

There are many free web hosts that allow you to do it yourself at no cost and supposedly without any knowledge of HTML coding, etc. However, if you plan to do it yourself make sure you know what you are going to end up with. You don't use all caps. You save each picture individually and your pictures must be good, clear and cropped of anything excess. The items should be placed on a solid background so nothing detracts from your hand crafted item itself. Each item must be priced individually. You can make a general statement about your tax, shipping and handling. These can be added on as a separate charge or included in the total price of the item.

You would need to begin by mapping out your entire web site on paper (again the spiral work books work great for me). Your front page, or home page needs to be quick loading, have maybe one or two items on it and links to the rest of your site. If you are using a host that allows you just a single page this will make it a little more difficult since all the items you have for sale must be shown on that one page. My own personal feeling, and understand that I do design web pages so I may be prejudiced, is that you need, if not someone to design your site for you, at least someone who will monitor, mentor and critique until you are able to do it all yourself.

When it comes to the cost there are some designers that are very reasonable. There are others that charge two arms and a leg. My suggestion would be to write out what you want in the way of a web page. If you have a few sites that you like include their URLs and ask for a quote from several different designers. The design of a web site is totally separate from the cost of hosting it and promoting it. One of the drawbacks of having your site hosted on a free web site community or mall is that the search engines and those who exchange reciprocal links generally ignore all but the main pages. As an example all the advertisement and promotion done for Geocities or Angelfire or any of the other big free hosts promotes them not you. Search engines are not willing to have 500 plus Geocities or Angelfire listings.

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