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Composition n. (com·po·si·tion): The combining of distinct parts or elements
to form a whole.
Most everyone will agree, if you are going to do business online, you need your own web site.
It can be a mini-site or a full blown multi-page mega-monster.
Have you ever wondered what's involved in building and maintaining a web site? Does the
idea of being your own webmaster intimidate you? Guess what? It's not really that
difficult to do. Here are the tools and resources I use to create and maintain this site:
If you're like me and have no graphic skills, you'll want to start with a ready made website
template. I purchased this one from
Ricky's Website template. Here are a few more sources I can put my seal of approval
on for nice templates at reasonable prices (some free):
I personally use a plain old text editor called TextPad to edit
my pages but you can use any text editor or "What You See is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) software to create
your own pages. Either way you go, you will need a basic understanding of HTML to write the
code. The best way to learn HTML is looking at the source of other pages and learn the available
commands. Here are some available resources for beginners:
If you're really serious about your business and want to establish your Internet presence and
I'm always going to recommend Host4Profit for your host. They provide you with exactly what you need to develop a
profitable Internet business at a very reasonable price.
Once you've decided on a host and created your web page(s), you'll need to upload them to your
server. Every host provides you with a control panel (menu) with an option to upload files
directly from your hard drive. The only thing I don't like about the file managers within
control panels is that they are usually limited to uploading 5-10 files at a time.
I recommend using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software that lets you upload all your files
at one time. WS-FTP is a good program for this
purpose and you can download this
"How to FTP" manual (PDF format) to learn how to use the WS-FTP to upload your files.
For editing graphics many people use Adobe's Photoshop Deluxe
but that software prooved too expensive and to difficult for me! I personally use
Corel's PaintShop PRO
for graphic editing needs and that usually involves touching up or adding letters. I have
graphic skills of my own!
Ok, with all the resources above, you can create your basic web site. Now comes the fun
part - adding additional scripts for automation, traffic building, etc.
If you've browsed any of the other pages on this site, you probably noticed a "subscribe box"
where I offer visitors the opportunity to join my newsletter. On my main page, I also
offer some email courses visitors can register for. I use
Autoresponder PLUS to handle the subscriptions and to send out the newsletter and email
courses.
There are benefits to owning and maintaining your own list management software (like not having
to pay monthly fees) and risks (like accusations of spamming which could result in shutting
down your site) that you have to weigh before setting up an automatic email handling systems on your server.
If you prefer not installing your own script, there are plenty of free and paid list management
companies that can provide this service for you. I only going to recommend one, because I
also use them to maintain a newsletter on another website.
GetResponse.com allows you to maintain multiple mailing lists and the ability to broadcast
messages to your members. They do offer a limited free services, but every message you
send out will contain a 3rd-party advertisement in it.
Although most web hosts also provide you with statistics on your visitors, their logs can be
somewhat complicated or confusing. For monitoring visitor traffic, I use
StatCounter. This is a free service. Once you create an account, you are provide
with a piece of code to paste into every page on your web site you want to monitor. With
the statistics provided, you can learn what your most popular pages are, top entry page, top
exit page, where your visitors came from, search engine keywords visitors used to find you and
more.
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