Website Tips Presented by Brian Fifield

(828-280-2222 Available for Computer Service Work)

What can you use a website for?

Websites can be used for personal use, family events and information or easy picture sharing.
Local Groups with special interest like gardening, model building, trains, Hummel collections, quilting and the list goes on.
Do you have a special craft or business idea? Want to reach millions of people for pennies a day to promote or sell your new brilliant idea or product?

What you need to know!

The Internet is one big TEXT file! Yup, just like one big Word document that is indexed, searched, categorized by web spiders, robots and search tools. Guess what they all eat … TEXT! That’s right, letters and numbers! So what drives the Internet, you got it, words!

How can I start?

The first part is one of the most important, choosing a Domain name. There are over 50 MILLION, that’s right … MILLION registered websites that thought of if before you did. They registered their ideas and purchased a Domain for 1, 2, 3 or more years. Some of them are being used and others were bought and parked with the intent to “resell” the name for profit. When the .dot coms first started many companies paid exorbitant fees to buy their names. Now they call their lawyers first. So choosing a name is one of the most important things you will do to make your site distinct from the others, darn now it’s 51 MILLION sites.
When you think of a name remember that picking a good domain name for optimum search engine placement helps make your name stand out. And will drive traffic to your webpage.

Definition of Domain Name = A series of alphanumeric strings separated by periods, such as www.hmco.com, that is an address of a computer network connection and that identifies the owner of the address.

Quick Tips To Choose a Good Domain Name

To help your website or business flourish, pick a domain name that:

* is easy for Web users to remember and find

* suggests the nature of your product or service

* serves as a strong trademark so competitors won't be able to use a business name or domain name similar to it, and is free of legal conflicts with trademarks belonging to other businesses.

Here is a list websites of some good tips for choosing a domain name.

Website 101 http://tinyurl.com/26gexz

Wall Street Journal http://tinyurl.com/28ygys

Choosing FREE or PAY web hosting

There are pluses and minuses to both. Free hosting doesn’t require any money or long term commitment, however some are not bound to keep your website data. Also most Free hosts do not provide any support and their space allocated to you is usually limited. For most personal sites this should not be a problem. But always back up your data, and make sure you back up any new information uploaded to the internet host.

Recommended PAY Hosting sites

Homestead http://www.homestead.com/ 1and1 Hosting http://www.1and1.com

FREE Web Hosting Site List http://www.free-webhosts.com/best-free-webhosts.php

Look up registered Websites http://www.whois.net/

Website authoring software for do it yourself Recommend List

Easy, drag and drop with great results $49 http://webpage-maker.com/

One of the best with easy wizards Xara Webstyle4 $79 http://www.xara.com

Xara Demo Tutorials (See what you can do easily with Webstyle4) http://tinyurl.com/25jvud

Easy with lots of Templates VCOM’s WebEasyProfessional6 $49 http://www.v-com.com/