As a beginner website creator, I know how much I DON’T know about setting up a website. I knew I could not do my blogging without some direction. I am certain there are other grandparents, retirees, and nearly-retirees that feel the same way. You may not know where to start or where to turn. Well, don’t worry. I am going to tell you in this article, what you need to create a website.
Domain Name
Wikipedia defines a domain name is a label that identifies a network domain: a distinct group of computers under a central administration or authority. In the website world, a domain name identifies everything associated with your website.
You have likely seen domain names on the internet. The most common ones end in .com, .net, and .org.
- com stands for “commercial” and is the most widely used extension.
- .net stands for “network,” and at one time this suffix was used mostly by Internet service providers. Today, there are no restrictions on who can use a .net suffix.
- .org stands for “organization” and is primarily used by nonprofit groups or trade associations. Here, too, the suffix is actually open for anyone to use.
When you start your website, you will need a domain name. Domain names can be purchased or provided for free by your hosting provider. Here are a couple places you can purchase domain names:
- Domain.com sells .com names for $9.99 per year.
- Bluehost.com has .com names for $11.99 per year
- Hostgator.com does .com domains for $12.95 per year
- Namecheap.com has .com domains for $8.88 with a renewal per year at $12.98
- Hover.com sells .com names for $12.99, with a renewal rate at $14.99 rate.
Be sure to research if the price of your domain name includes spam protection, data security, and ownership protection.
Hosting
A web hosting service allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. This is according to Wikipedia.
Here are a few hosting sites that you should check into for your website:
- InMotion Web Hosting, $7.26 per month, includes WordPress, Free SSL, plus malware and hack protection.
- Bluehost Web Hosting, $2.95 per month, includes WordPress, Free SSL, free domain name for 1 year, and 24/7 support.
- HostGator Web Hosting, $2.75 per month, includes 1 domain name, unmetered bandwidth, and free SSL.GoDaddy Web Hosting, $1.00 per month, includes free domain with annual plan, 1 website hosting, unmetered band width, 100 GB storage, free MS Office 365 Business, and 1st year of email.
- Wix Web Hosting, $11.00 per month, includes free domain for 1 year, 2 GB bandwidth, 3 GB storage, remove Wix ads, 30 minutes video, and connect your domain.
- Weebly Web Hosting, $35.00 per month, Genesis Framework, 35+ StudioPress Themes, 24/7 chat support, Dev, Stage, Prod Environments, Transferable Sites, PHP 7.2 ready, LargeFS, Global CDN, Page Performance and Automated SSL certificates
Niche or Topic
A niche is basically your subject. It can be a mission statement or a goal. Mostly it’s what you want to blog about. There are literally millions of niches out there that you can choose to talk about. You don’t have to worry about whether it’s popular or not. With 3.2 billion people on the internet, there’s got to be a couple thousand interested in the same things you find appealing.
There are a lot of people who decided to do a website, but don’t know what subject matter they should cover. Here are a couple of ways to figure out what type of niche you want to use:
- Identify your interests and passions. What is the thing you really like to do? What takes up a great part of your day? What issues do you like to talk about? Any of these can be your niche.
- Identify problems you can solve. What issue have you resolved lately? What kitchen gadget have you found invaluable? What do you do when your hot water heater goes out? How do you keep a green lawn? How do you recycle? There are all good niches.
- Research your competition. Google your favorite subjects and see what others are saying about what you are interested in. Perhaps there’s one aspect of your interests that you don’t see anyone covering. That could be your niche.
- Offer a Unique Product or Service. Do you have a product or a program that no one else has? This would be an excellent niche to pursue.
- Offer a Marketable Product or Service. See what everyone else is offering, then find an aspect of the product or service that they don’t seem to be covering. Also a great niche idea.
- Just because someone else is already covering a niche doesn’t mean you have to pick something else. Everyone has a unique perspective on a given subject. People might find your approach different or better than what’s already out there.
SEO Tools
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and you need this for your website. SEO is what directs traffic to your website. It helps Google and other search engines determine if you are an expert in your niche, and helps them decide where to place you on their search pages. Without SEO, you might as well not have a website.
Here are some free SEO tools that can help you optimize your website for good internet traffic:
- Google Keyword Planner, Analytics, Search Console, etc.
- Answer the Public
- Beam Us Up
- Yoast SEO for Everyone
- Jaaxy
The Easiest Place to Get All Of These
Why go all over to get these things to start your website? Perhaps the best hosting platform for starting an online business, that helps with all the tools you need, is the Wealthy Affiliate program.
With Premium Membership, at $49 per month, you get the following:
Domains: Purchase domain names through Wealthy Affiliate, and you personally own them, not Wealthy Affiliate! Domain names are $13.99 per year, and they belong to you. You get privacy, domain security, email, backup, support, hosting, and an SSL certificate.
Hosting:
- A social media style networking platform
- A SiteContent page where you have templates and goal setting tools for writing your articles.
- A SiteFeedback platform in which you ask for website critique, and also give feedback to your peers.
- A SiteComments configuration, where you can give and receive comments on your website.
- A custom control panel where you can access your profile, training, websites, live chat, help center, and others
- Free Jaaxy keyword search tool.
- Live weekly training events.
- Thousands of hours of training videos, articles, and modules.
- One on One coaching
- A dashboard to help you manage the health of all of your websites: speed, plugins, engagement, content publishing consistency, and more.
- Live weekly training on Internet Marketing
- 1000’s of hours of recorded training
- 1-on-1 coaching
- worry free hosting, including 25 of your own domains, 25 Site-Rubix domains, Instant DNS, hosting speed at Amazon c3 large, website space of 30GB, bandwidth of 500K visitors per month, enterprise security, daily backups, and unlimited email accounts.
- Access to thousands of free images to use on your websites
- 3000+ website templates
- 99.99% average uptime
This is all from the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
Niche or Topic
Wealthy Affiliate has over 200K active users in their community who are ready to help you narrow down a niche topic. You can seek one on one coaching from one of 25 Wealthy Affiliate ambassadors, or any of the designated 200 helpers. They are all there to help you find that perfect niche.
SEO Tools
Wealthy Affiliate has a built in keyword search tool, plus your own linked membership to Jaaxy
So Why Go Through All That Research?
For the money, Wealthy Affiliate provides so much more than the other web hosting platforms. You get the basics, and so much more when you purchase a Wealthy Affiliate membership. You get all the tools you need in one, easy to navigate package, plus all the training you would ever need, and a community of like-minded people that are there for you 24/7/365. Why would you go anywhere else for your web hosting, and suffer the brain damage of researching site after site to get just the basic tools you need? Just one membership gets you all you need, at Wealthy Affiliate.
=====>Join Wealthy Affiliate today by clicking here!<===
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, and thank you for reading!
This is an excellent post to help not only the grandparents but anybody looking to earn money through affiliate marketing. Your content is very detailed and gives the reader a step by step instruction guide into how to start affiliate marketing. I think anybody should be able to follow your guidelines to success. Thank You
Hi Mark, thank you so much for your compliments. It was this same step by step process that I learned at Wealthy Affiliate. I tried doing my own website several years ago, but had no idea what I was doing. I knew what I needed to do, but there was no bridge to get me to the other side of getting recognized on Google. Wealthy Affiliate had the key! So grateful to them! Anyway, thank you again for reading and commenting! Rhonda
Starting a website is definitely easier than ever before. Back in the old days you’ll need lots of coding skills and education on how to build these websites, nowadays you can just click a button and it’s all done for you.
It seems like Wealthy Affiliate is the provider of all these wonderful things. They give you everything you need in a package, best of all they even teach you how to make money with that website you created. It’s absolutely awesome and I’m glad I found them. Thanks for the article.
Hello Son, thanks for the comment. I agree with you on the easy click, poof!, you have a website! I learned about affiliate marking in an e-commerce class in college going on 20 years ago, and I had to learn all that HTML stuff. So glad we don’t have to do that anymore. Glad you’re with Wealthy Affiliate. After writing this article, it has reinforced my opinion of WA. I would not be here if not for them. Thanks again for reading and commenting! Rhonda
I am also a beginner website creator. First of all, thank you for your analysis of the domain name suffix. I just heard that I better to choose the .com website, but I don’t know why. Now I see your article and I seem to know. Your guide is quite comprehensive and I believe it will be of great help to those who want to know this industry. It’s my personal preference to choose WA to start my website, for the reason that it’s friendly to a newbie.
Hello and thanks for commenting. I didn’t really know about what the suffixes meant until I wrote this article. I guess I learn something every time I write for this website!
So glad you are with Wealthy Affiliate. As I said in the article, it’s the best place to get all of your website tools in one handy package, plus so much more! Thanks again for reading and writing in! Rhonda
I have benefited greatly by reading your article.You discuss in your article about how to Create a Website. You also said many steps to creat website.After reading your article i have learned in this topics clearly. I think your article is an informative article. So, Thank you very much for sharing your guideline article.
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I learned a lot by writing this article, about hosting sites and domain name sites. I am so glad you got some good information from it. Thank you again for your comments! Rhonda
Nice walkthrough of what you need to create a website, Rhonda, you have covered everything you need to get started and up and running.
A great guide!
Cheers 🙂
Hi John, thank you for your comment. It truly is that easy to get started, and Wealthy Affiliate helps you with all of those concepts. Thanks again for reading and commenting! Rhonda
Hello and thanks so much for the breakdown that will help those who are thinking about getting into this business. Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to have all of this done and the great part is the membership fee is so great that anyone can afford it.
Hi Norman, thank you for reading and commenting on my post. I am liking Wealthy Affiliate more and more every day. You are correct, the membership fee is pretty low for what you get. Worth every penny. Best of luck to you in your journey, and thanks again for your comment! Rhonda