Since the dawn of time, setting up a viable business has never been easier. Through the Internet, you can now tap the world’s marketplace from your living room. But here’s the problem: you don’t know how to make a Web site!

The world is changing in other ways too. No longer do we expect to get a 9-5 job that lasts many years. In fact, short-term contract jobs without benefits are becoming more and more common. This uncertainty might cause you to consider starting a small business in your spare time. If you get the knack, you may even be able to make enough money to make it your sole income.

There’s a hurdle first: you don’t know how to make a Web site. You may think a Web site costs a lot. So you haven’t done anything.

There are plenty of tools out there on the Internet that will help you. They are template Web sites that do nearly all the work for you. But there is one problem with them: you don’t learn the skills you need to know to manage the site! As a Webmaster you will need to some HTML, the formatting language for Web sites. You’ll need to add affiliate links, shopping carts, and clickable ads — three of the big tools you’ll need for earning money on your site.

Learning HTML–it sounds a lot harder than it is. Actually you only need to know a bit of HTML, not the whole subject. You can look for a tutorial on it, or a book. If you sign up for a class at the local junior college, you’re probably learning more HTML than you need.

To make your Web site, you will need special software that creates the Web site and the HTML code. Here are your alternatives: Macromedia Dreamweaver, the top of the line at several hundred dollars; Microsoft Front Page, at around $100; and Nvu. Nvu is open-source software, in other words free. Open-source software is maintained by programmers or companies who donate their time, and it’s available to anyone at no cost. Why would programmers work for free? Many of them want to provide us with an alternative to Microsoft.

Another expense for you is Web hosting. When you buy Web hosting, you are actually renting space on a server. There are plenty of hosting companies out there, many offering fancy solutions that you as a novice don’t need. There are hosting companies offering inexpensive solutions, too. For example, you can find a Web hosting company that will give you both hosting and domain registration for about $25 per year. Domain registration is something else you need–reserving your domain name, such as www.mywebsite.com. Usually it costs under $10 by itself. Try this: put “cheap domain hosting” into a search engine and look for user-friendly and simple solutions.

One of the products that the Internet has generated in the past couple of years is an e-book. That’s information that you pay for and download immediately. It’s in the form of a document that you can read from your computer or print out on your printer. In our instant-gratification culture, it’s catching on. If you’re budget-conscious, plan to use Nvu, and look in the search engines for an e-book on how to use it!

Tags: computer software, computers and internet, do-it-yourself web design, ecommerce, internet business, make a web site, make a website, marketing, nvu, small business, software instructions, using nvu, Web Design, website;design

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