Quick Ways to Setup a Website
July 27th, 2010 Filed Under Computer Tips
People create websites for many different purposes. Many casual internet users may start a website or blog as a form of a journal, or way to express themselves.
Other people may create a website with the intent of starting an online business; and existing businesses may even create a website in order to reach more customers, sell products, and advertise. Thousands of new websites are created each and every day, all for different purposes.
If you are considering starting a website, it’s best to have some kind of plan or idea, because there are several different types of websites, and the process of creating a website can vary significantly, depending on the features and functionality that you need.
Create a Website Using a CMS Platform
Many people choose to build basic websites with popular, open source content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla. Using a CMS platform to create basic websites and blogs is often the easiest and most efficient way to get a website up and running, because a CMS is tailor made to be easy to use.
Notably, installation to a web server is easy, and much of the website’s functionality comes from the CMS. Thus, you simply need to design your site, which often involves website themes and templates.
Using a CMS can save you a lot of back end coding. Widely used content management systems also have the benefit of community support, plenty of tutorials, and regular updates.
Alternatively, websites that require more functionality may be more difficult to create. For example, social networking websites, video sharing websites, and large e-commerce websites must often times be coded from scratch.
These types of websites also require more maintenance and security measures, because they use databases to store website member information. There are some existing services that are designed to make creating more complex websites easy for just about anyone. Some examples are: Ning for social networks and Zen Cart for e-commerce.
Creating Websites with Online Platforms
For creating the most basic of websites, there are several existing websites on the net that are specifically designed to help you build your own website. Some of the more popular online website builders are Google’s Blogger, WordPress.com, and Weebly.
Although Blogger and WordPress are strongly marketed as blogging platforms, they can be used to create a simple website as well. These types of online website builders use a WYSIWYG interface (what you see is what you get), so that people can create websites quickly and easily, without needing to know how to code.
WYSIWYG basically means, what you create in the design interface is what your visitors will see. Notably, WordPress.com and Blogger are also free.
Create a Website from Scratch
If you want more features and functionality, you may want to consider creating a website from scratch. Creating a website from scratch typically involves creating pages in HTML and uploading them to a web host.
HTML pages can be created using a simple text editing program such as Windows Notepad or Mac Text Edit. However, many web developers prefer specialized web design software. Two of the most popular web design programs are Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web.
Uploading your web pages to the internet requires that you have a hosting account with a web host. Two of the highest ranked and most popular web hosts are GoDaddy and Hostgator. You will also need to get a domain name, which is basically the web address that your website will be hosted at.
Creating a website from scratch will involve using HTML and CSS for simple websites, and possibly more advanced programming languages such as PHP and AJAX for more complex websites. Often times, creating websites also involves using SQL databases, usually through MySQL. The popular website W3 Schools provides several free tutorials on HTML, CSS, and more.
Overall, creating a website is not extremely difficult to do, but again, that mainly depends on what type of website you are creating, and which method you use to create the website. For beginners, online website builders such as Blogger, WordPress.com and Weebly are the easiest.
Using content management systems (CMS) requires a bit more work, but does offer you more freedom than creating your website with an online site builder. Finally, creating a website from scratch is the most difficult, and it does have a learning curve to it. However, there are many great tutorials out there that can help guide you through creating your website, no matter which way you choose to go about it.