They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also

Today we want to talk about how you build your website and upload it to your host. (I’m sure you realize we can’t cover every detail of the process in these articles. My goal is just to get you started. To make it all work, you will need to get help from your local FE college or your techie as we have discussed in earlier articles. This is just an outline.)

Building your website

To build a website you need some software called either a ‘webpage builder’ or an ‘HTML editor’ (these both mean the same thing). There are three types:

• The simplest and hardest to use requires you to write everything directly in HTML. I would forget about this one for now (if you’re interested, you can actually build your entire webpage using just Windows Notepad. You’re not really interested, are you?).

• The one in the middle allows you to enter text and format it – more or less the way you do when working in Microsoft Word. You can also add images, format background colours and borders. These are sometimes referred to as ‘WYSIWYG’ – pronounced ‘wizzywig’ -editors (what you see is what you get: a really, really old – 1992 or so – computing term).

• The easiest to use and least flexible is something we might call a ‘template’ or series of templates. These are often included as part of a complete package you might buy to get you started in the business. With templates, you ‘fill in the blanks’ then make selections for font, background colour and the like. Software packages that include a number of templates are available at reasonable cost.

I suggest you think about a WYSIWYG editor. They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also e

ou need some software called either a ‘webpage builder’ or an ‘HTML editor’ (these both mean the same thing). There are three types:

• The simplest and hardest to use requires you to write everything directly in HTML. I would forget about this one for now (if you’re interested, you can actually build your entire webpage using just Windows Notepad. You’re not really interested, are you?).

• The one in the middle allows you to enter text and format it – more or less the way you do when working in Microsoft Word. You can also add images, format background colours and borders. These are sometimes referred to as ‘WYSIWYG’ – pronounced ‘wizzywig’ -editors (what you see is what you get: a really, really old – 1992 or so – computing term).

• The easiest to use and least flexible is something we might call a ‘template’ or series of templates. These are often included as part of a complete package you might buy to get you started in the business. With templates, you ‘fill in the blanks’ then make selections for font, background colour and the like. Software packages that include a number of templates are available at reasonable cost.

I suggest you think about a WYSIWYG editor. They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also

the middle allows you to enter text and format it – more or less the way you do when working in Microsoft Word. You can also add images, format background colours and borders. These are sometimes referred to as ‘WYSIWYG’ – pronounced ‘wizzywig’ -editors (what you see is what you get: a really, really old – 1992 or so – computing term).

• The easiest to use and least flexible is something we might call a ‘template’ or series of templates. These are often included as part of a complete package you might buy to get you started in the business. With templates, you ‘fill in the blanks’ then make selections for font, background colour and the like. Software packages that include a number of templates are available at reasonable cost.

I suggest you think about a WYSIWYG editor. They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also

ast flexible is something we might call a ‘template’ or series of templates. These are often included as part of a complete package you might buy to get you started in the business. With templates, you ‘fill in the blanks’ then make selections for font, background colour and the like. Software packages that include a number of templates are available at reasonable cost.

I suggest you think about a WYSIWYG editor. They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also

They range in price from about ?750 for a top-shelf package to about ?20 for something really basic. As a general rule, the more you pay, the more flexibility you have. The downside of this is that sometimes the more powerful, more flexible software is somewhat more difficult to use.

For a simple webpage, the ?20 package will probably do the job. Although you have less flexibility with the lower cost package, it is also easier to learn to use. You can always buy a more powerful package later. To make the best choice for your needs, ask your techie. If you have Microsoft FrontPage on your PC this will do fine to start.

Next you need to choose a domain name.

In a perfect world, since you are in the business of direct marketing, you would choose a domain name like www.marketing.com or www.directmarketer.co.uk because these are the search terms people looking for you and your products might enter in search engines. Unfortunately, all these short, tidy domain names were claimed long ago.

Plan B: Go to the website www.whois.co.uk. There you will be able to enter your choice and see if it is available. You want to try to choose a domain name that reflects what you are selling or your speciality. Look for something like www.direct-marketing.co.uk or if, say, your expertise is in copywriting, go for something like www.greatcopywriting.com or www.thesalesletterpro.co.uk.

Stay away from cutesy names like www.here-be-copy.com or www.the-best-there-is.co.uk because nobody is searching for these, and they tell searchers absolutely nothing about your business. Search engines ignore hyphens, so a search for 'direct marketing' will return both www.directmarketing.com and www.direct-marketing.com. Sometimes simply adding a hyphen will allow you register the domain name of your choice.

Spend some time looking at the gurus’ domain names to get some ideas, then brainstorm your own. Registration of domain names costs very little – from about ?5 to ?15 per year – so you can register several without too much damage to your budget.

Next you need to find