Should I really build a website myself?

Many small business owners think that they will need to hire a web designer to develop a professional looking website for their business. While web designers are really great, hiring one can easily cost you a couple thousand dollars for something that you could really do yourself. This money could be better spent on growing your small business in other ways. If money is tight and you have a low budget, then building a website yourself is a smart choice.

How do I get started?

The first thing to do is buy a web hosting account. Every website needs a web host to store your website files on. We recommend purchasing a web hosting plan from www.inmotionhosting.com. InMotion is an affordable web host and provides tons of great features for building your own website. InMotion offers a variety of web hosting plans, but their most basic package (Launch Plan) is well suited for the job. Also if you dont have a domain name, you will need to get one!

After you purchase your web hosting and domain name, you will need to login to your web hosting account. The login information to your account will be given to you shortly after your purchase. Once logged in, visit your control panel. Your control panel should contain a bunch of settings and features for you to utilize. This may seem a bit daunting at first, but don’t worry. Many of these features are not needed for building your website and you will never need to touch them.

Building your own website

The best platform to use for building your own website is WordPress. WordPress is a free and easy to use website builder that really allows you to create professional, good looking websites. In your web hosting control panel, simply click on the WordPress button and install WordPress.  You now have a website!

Editing your website

Now that you have a website, you will need to login and edit it. To do this, visit “www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin”. Log in using the username and password you created when installing WordPress. Once logged in, you can manage your entire website, change its design, add new content, etc. Learning more on how to do this is outside the scope of this article. The best way is to learn is by doing. Play around with your WordPress settings. Also, a Google search for WordPress tutorials might help!