There are still people discussing whether it’s necessary to build their own independent website. Most of them don’t have a website just because they do not know how to build one or think it’s too difficult. They usually have no idea how a website is set up, how to creat profeesional layouts, how to manage technical stuff. Everything seems difficult at the first. So, when people find easier things like eBay, Squidoo, Blogger, they would think there is no need to build an independent website any more.
If you expect having a real online income and having real freedom, building one or more independent websites is without any doubt. Selling on eBay, writing articles on Blogger, buying ads to promote products, etc., these methods are all great. But these ways to earn money cannot run smoothly once you have not enough time to manage. That means your time and income are limited by these methods. By having your own independent website, everything can be under your control, including content, traffic and income.
Actually, website building is not that difficult. With great website building tools, it’s just like building blocks now. You don’t need to write hard codes any more. All you need is patience and keep moving day by day, month aftet month.
Let’s see how to “build blocks”:
- Market Research: To get you enough idea. Keyword research is important and helpful. Don’t panic. There are a lot of simple ways to do keyword research. Google Keyword Tool is a good one and it’s free.
- Select a Subject: To pick up what the market needs and what you love to dedicate for a long time.
- Domain and Hosting: Select a good hosting company, register a domain for your site. Hosting companies will provide you detailed setup guidance and prompt tech support. The panel is visualized so that you will learn how to use FTP or WebFTP to upload files soon.
- Content Management System (CMS): CMS is a general name for content building tools, such as Wordpress, ZenCart, Site Build It and Joomla. With CMS you are able to publish and maintain your site much more conveniently. Thus why I say it’s like building blocks to build a website. Your most important task is to choose a CMS that is suitable for you.
- Creat Content: You can creat content by yourself or you can get content from others: (1) Buy content with Priavate Label Right (PLR), (2) Have ghost writers write articles for you, (3) Collect contents with collecting softwares such as Wordpress Direct. Remember, search engines love original content but hate duplicating. If you are going to use PLR articles or collected content, be sure to change them manually.
- Deal with Pictures: You need not worry about website templates. CMS usually provides free templates which can be installed with a few clicks. As for the website logo, you can have it design by others or use some online logo designing services.
Maybe I can take CE007.com as an example.
Step 1~2: Market Research and Select a Subject
I love marketing, expeciall internet marketing. I enjoy writing articles on this field. Then, I did a keyword research on internet marketing and online marketing with Google Keyword Tool. We can see the these related keywords are in quite a high demand and there are plenty of longtailed keywords, most of which are all my favorite and familiar issues.
Step 3: Domain and Hosting
After comparing to many hosting services, I purchased DreamHost package, register CE007.com.
Step 4: Content Management System (CMS)
Since I was planning to build a blog, Wordpress was a no-brainer. Fortunately, with DreamHost’s One-Click Installs function, I finished Wordpress installation with just a few clicks. I even didn’t have to upload any file.
Wordpress is great open source CMS. There thousands of free templates (themes) well prepared. What you have to do is just to pick the one you like. Also there are lots of powerful plugins you can easily install to your Wordpress blog. In a word, if you want to build a blog, Wordpress is the best CMS.
Of course, you can use other CMS base on your needs. If you want to sell goods, use ZenCart. If you want to build a gallery site, use Gallery. For building a forum, use phpbb. And much much more.
Step 5: Creat Content and Deal with Pictures
You have already seen what I’d done.
Any part mentioned above can be done by everybody, do you agree? The only obstacle could be PATIENCE. It will take months or even over one year to see a continuous result. The first several months will be tough. Loads of work without significant results. Can you keep moving?
