I had been doing some research into how to make money on the internet and the one thing kept showing up is that, to make any decent money on the internet, you need a website. When I started this site I really didn’t know much of anything in the way of making websites but I have learned a lot since then. Basically these are the steps to set up a website:

1. Get a domain name

First of all you need to think of a domain name (the name of your site that is followed by .com, .net, .org etc.). It helps if your domain is something catchy or clever. If you can use your name that is kind of cool depending on what your website is about. If your site is a personal blog this works great but not so great if your site is about new medical discoveries. With some hosting packages you get a free domain name as a part of the package so take that into consideration when buying hosting.

2. Get Hosting

Secondly you need hosting for that domain. When I was looking for hosting for this site I was basically going for as cheap as possible (you can get free hosting but you will have to show ads that go towards paying for your hosting). If you know that your site will be big right off the bat or you just want to spend a lot, you may want to go straight for a dedicated or virtual dedicated server. I don’t think that I will need a dedicated server for a while now so I went with a shared server from Web Hosting Pad. They offer 1700Mb of disk space and 17, 000 Mb of bandwidth so you really can’t run out of either. They also offer unlimited add on domains, email addresses, and mySQL databases (still not entirely sure what a mySQL database is) and for $4.95/month, (if you sign up for 2 years) which includes 1 domain registration,you really can’t go wrong. There are many other great hosting companies out there but from my experience there isn’t anything cheaper for what you get than Web Hosting Pad. I have not had any trouble with them and any questions have been answered quickly and fully.

3. Write the content

Third you must create your actual site. If you are creating a blog this step is really easy. All you have to do is install one of many blogging software programs out there. I only have experience with WordPress but I am sure that the others are comparable with respect to quality and features. If you follow the instructions to install the program it is a fairly easy thing to do and with Web Hosting Pad there was a program called fantastico that did most of the installation for me. WordPress also allows you to import another blog to a WordPress blog. WordPress has thousands of free templates for blogs of all genres or you can pay to have one made or even make one yourself (but you wouldn’t be reading this if you could do that now would you?)

If you are not looking to write a blog I would also recommend getting a template for free off the internet or having one custom made for you simply because there are not that many people who know how to make a professional looking website (you don’t want it to look like it was made in a grade 9 computer course).

4. Go to #1 and actually do it

It IS NOT HARD to start a website. I literally had no experience when I started and have had no problems that a completely inexperienced person couldn’t handle. If you have any problems starting a website all you have to do is a search on Google and most problems have easy solutions. I have only had a few minor problems with getting things to show up how I wanted them to but a quick search on Google got me my answers. It was mind boggling really, how easy it was to start this site. I expected to take a couple months to work out everything on the site when in reality it only took me a couple of days.