It is still thought to be a black art, build your own website. However it is really easy. I’ve got a friend in in your city he is a video production editor and is always looking for extra work. When he films his own stuff for production he always goes under the name of Day of the Dog Productions. I suggested to him that he should have his own website to promote his interests and business. A great tool for networking. He just looked at me and asked how much it would cost. “Around a fiver”, I told him. Like the true Aberdonain that he is this sounded about the correct amount to invest on a website.
1) Buy a domain name
Goto 123reg and search for the domain name you’d like. Most .co.uk domains are about £5 for two years.
Once you’ve chosen the domain add it to your shopping cart, make sure to remove any unwanted domains that they have suggested. Then click buy and create an account.
2) Use Bebo/Myspace/Facebook/Blogger/Youtube to create your homepage.
My friend was promoting video production so it made sense to use his profile homepage on Youtube as his Website front page. It is not finished yet but there are lots of options on all the Web 2.0 services (youtube/bebo etc) to customise your homepage to a certain look and feel. All that is left then is to add content to the page on the item/product/service your promoting.
3) Redirect your new domain name to your page.
Log into the control panel on the 123reg website with your new username/password. Scroll down to “manage domains”.
Choose your new domain and click modify domain. Then click web forwarding. You want to choose framed web forwarding (2nd option). Scroll down to the bottom of the page and edit the following fields.
Meta tag Author: put your name or company name here.
Meta tag Keywords (separate with commas): put keywords that people would type into google to find you. For example in your city Computer Repair, Computer Man in in your city this is what I use for this website amongst others.
Meta tag description: put in a relevant description for your site here.
Then click the update web forwarding button.
That’s it!!!
The possibilities are endless. I am planning on doing something similar with photography using facebook. What is great about this type of website is if you have satisfied customers they can add you as friends on their bebo/facebook pages which will give you a positive feedback loop.
Of course this is not going to look 100% professional but how many websites do look professional? Quite a lot but they’ve spent £100′s if not £1000′s and if they’ve spent £10,000′s you’ll probably not be hanging around thier too long as it is so corporate. Start small with something I’ve suggested above then get a professional website created by a professional.
Over and out for now folks.