Whether you are a computer novice or have been programming for years, there are many tools, resources and templates available for those who would like to create a quality website in a short period of time at relatively low cost. Here are some tips.

Website Creation Tools

If you have never created a website, you should know a few things. First off, there certain things that you need in order to build your website and have it accessed by others on the Internet. In order to build a website, you obviously need a computer, Internet access and an HTML tool. HTML is the most popular language that websites are created in. Believe it or not, you can actually create a fully functioning website by only using MS Notepad. While this is the most basic HTML tool, for many beginners, you may want to use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool. This means that you can create a website and see how it looks as it is being created. Otherwise, you will only see code. Two popular HTML WYSIWYG tools are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Both are very easy to use, are extremely powerful and are loaded with lots of additional features.

Besides HTML Tools, there are other tools available for creating websites, they consist of web templates. Web templates are perhaps the easiest ways to create websites, because they are pre-made templates that just need to be filled in with your website information. While they are the cookie-cutter approach to website building, for those who are looking for the simplest and quickest way to create a website, these web templates are very helpful. Some of the more popular website building templates includes Yahoo website builder and templates available by the many web hosting companies including GoDaddy.com and Bluehost.com.

Now that we know the tools that are necessary in order to build a website, you might want to start thinking about the type of website that you would like to create. On the Internet that are many different types of websites that are created. Some of the most popular websites are e-commerce sites, information sites, forum boards, video-hosting sites and blogs.

E-commerce Sites – This type of site is perhaps the most popular on the web. E-commerce sites are built for commercial purposes. Whether you would like to sell a product or service online, e-commerce sites provide an easy way to build a storefront and can have you open for business sometimes in just a few hours.

Information sites – These are sites that are not built for commercial purposes and whose goal is to share information with the visitor. Many information sites on the web are created by enthusiasts who enjoy specific fields of study. For instance, there are plenty of informational sites on dogs, planes, movies, space and the like.

Forums Boards – These types of websites are built specifically to be a conversation hub for a specific group of people. Forums are where people of a common interest come together and share information. If you are into sci-fi, you can build a forum website and hopefully other visitors who share your passion for sci-fi will come to your forum, join in the conversation and share information of upcoming events. Today, there are forum websites on hundreds of topics and millions of people visit these types of websites each month.

Video Sites - Video websites such as Youtube.com have become popular over the last couple of years, now that the technology has been perfected. They allow users to share large video files across the Internet. Most web visitors who have a broadband Internet connection should be able to not just download and watch video clips, but upload their own as well. The clips can be their own creations or those obtained from other sources on the Internet.

Blogs – Blogs (originally called web logs) aren’t quite websites, but very similar to websites. In fact, many people who created websites in the past choose now to create a blog in which they can share their feelings and thoughts on a specific topic. Some blogs are updated several times a day, some a couple of times each month.

Putting Together a Website

Before you start creating a website, you will want to know what kind of website you want to create. Whether it is an e-commerce site, forum site or video clip website, the site you choose to create will determine your next step. Since most people choose an e-commerce site, here are some tips on putting an e-commerce site together from scratch.

An e-commerce site should accomplish a few things. It should showcase your products or services, offer additional information regarding products you sell, include a shopping cart for consumers to gather products and have a payment service for consumers to purchase your products online.

Showcase Your Products

In order to showcase your products effectively, you will need a decent e-commerce template. If you are new to website development, your best bet is to use a preformatted template that can be easily filled in. However, if you are a larger company and can afford to hire a web designer, then go ahead and work with a web designer to design an original and customized web template for your e-commerce business. Many e-commerce templates that are off-the-shelf offer web developers the ability to create a clean, professional looking website that will highlight their products properly.

Offer Additional Information about the Products You Sell

Templates usually include areas for your company’s name and information, categories of products that you sell, an area to show off specific items, and an area where a consumer can contact you directly for more information.

Shopping Cart

A shopping cart is a backend tool that enables customers to browse your website and choose individual items that are placed into an e-commerce shopping cart. When the customer has completed his or her shopping, they can ‘continue to checkout’. All items that they have chosen are now in the shopping cart where they are all made available for purchase.

Payment Services

In addition to a shopping cart program, you will also need either a merchant account or have access to an online payment service. A merchant account is usually a bank service that allows merchants such as your e-commerce site to accept credit cards. Merchant accounts usually accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Rates and fees vary, but expect to spend a monthly fee for the service, a per item fee of about $0.30 and a percentage fee of 3% for the total transaction. Online payment services are similar to merchant accounts but do not require a service contract or monthly fee. One of the most popular payment services is called Paypal.com.

Backend Database

For those who open up an e-commerce site, you should definitely look into the many database tools that can help you keep track of inventory and other backend functions. These functions can help you keep track of matters such as sales, inventory, shipping addresses, payments that have not cleared, refunds and chargebacks.

While setting up an e-commerce site can sound complex and sometimes confusing, for most website developers it usually only takes a few days to complete – especially if you are using a template. It should be noted that templates require very little technical knowledge, so you don’t need to know about HTML and other programming languages.

Hosting Your Website

In order for others to see your website on the Internet, you must have a computer server hooked into the Internet to host it. Your website is made up of files. Although they are created on your computer, once complete, they are transferred to a computer server on the Internet to send information to others who visit it. In order to have your website viewed by others, you will need to register a domain name and have your website hosted by a web hosting company.

Domain Registration

Before you can have others view your website, you must first register a domain name. A domain name is your online address, for instance: http://www.yourdomain.com. While many domains have already been registered, you can visit a domain registrar and find ones that fit your e-commerce website. There are many different types of domain names, but for most e-commerce sites a domain with the extension .com works the best. Domains usually cost about $10 per year to register.

Web Hosting

Most websites on the web are hosted via web hosting companies. You pay a few dollars per month and they allow you to use their computer servers, which already host other sites on the Internet. Once you have registered your domain name, you can easily sign up for web hosting and point your new domain to the new web-hoster’s name server. Setting up a domain to a web hosting account usually takes about one day.

Open for Business

The great thing about making a website is that it is incredibly easy and very affordable to make one; however, no matter how much time and effort you put into your website, if people don’t know about it, they won’t visit it. In order to ensure that people know about your website you will have to advertise and optimize it. Advertising can consist of buying banner ads or buying text ads on services such as Google Adwords to advertise your products.

Optimizing your website is another strategy that is used for attracting visitors to your site; this strategy focuses on ranking high in the search engine indexes. You might first want to submit your website to the major search engines so that they know you are open for business. In addition, you might want to hire an SEO (search engine optimizer) to help you optimize your website in order to draw more traffic to it.