Now is the best time in history for small businesses, because of the Internet. You can reach customers anywhere in the world from your living room. All you need is an idea and a Web site. But you don’t know how to make a Web site–yet!
There are other big changes happening as well. For example, job security isn’t what it once was. Fewer companies are offering benefits, and the ones that do are charging for them. With all this considered, perhaps you’d like to start a Web site to earn some money. Perhaps you’d even like it to become your mainstay.
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.
Novices can get plenty of help creating a Web site. Many people are in business to help novices set up a Web site using a template. There’s a problem with the result, though–you don’t know enough HTML to add affiliate links, shopping carts, or clickable ads, the items that will earn your Web site money. What you really need to learn is a bit of HTML, just enough to get the job done.
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.
E-books are becoming more and more common. When you buy an ebook, you are paying for the information in it, pure and simple. In fact, that’s all it is, information. You have to provide the printer if you want a hard copy. E-books are popular because they provide information instantly–something that folks in our culture are happy to pay for. In fact, you may be able to find an e-book on how to use Nvu.
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