Easy Website Setup

Did you know that there are millions of people surfing the internet everyday, just looking for answers to the meaning of life, wondering if God exists, and wanting to feel something new or different?  They are also looking to buy products online, because it is so convenient.  Your Christian business or ministry could be seen by potentially millions of visitors every year- or even every day!  It all begins with a website.  Here is a free guide to getting this done in one afternoon! You could even have your professional-looking website up in one hour! (though it can take 24 hours or more for your domain name to propagate across the internet for everyone to see).

You do not have to be a "techie" to start your own website.  There are many resources available that are what is called "WYSIWYG" or "What you see is what you get" editors, which make it as easy to create a website as it is to type a document in MS Word.  This article will give you the basics of what will be needed to get you started.

First, you need a domain name.  This is yourwebsitename.com (or yourwebsitename.org, or yourwebsitename.info, etc. - you get the idea- yahoo has an easy guide that helps you choose which one is best for you).  There are a variety of ways to get a domain name:  some start as little as $1.99 per year, but on average, $9.95 per year.  Choose where you buy your domain name carefully, because if a small business sold you your domain name and folds, it is a long process to get back control over your domain name. 

My recommendation is to purchase it from someone solid like godaddy or yahoo.  Yahoo domain names are generally $9.95 (as of time of printing of this article), but if you sign on for a free email account first, you are sometimes emailed a special for $2.99 per year, and periodically yahoo advertises this rate to everyone.  I recommend you buy 5 years at once ($15), since search engines tend to give higher ranking to websites which intend to be around a while, and they sometimes use length of purchase as a factor.

Next, you need webhosting.  It is extremely important that you choose a host that is reliable and is not blacklisted for spam.  Most "free" hosting has a catch (free isn't always free, is it?).  They either place their own money-making ads on your website, have lots of down time, no customer service, or will get your site blacklisted from search engines for being in a bad neighborhood (hosted with other disreputable sites such as spammers or offensive sites).  Just because a host says they are Christian does not mean to trust them.  Anyone can claim to act like Jesus.  Do your research.  Check their information in the whois database. 

My recommendation for webhosting is hostgator.com.  Hostgator has plans that are as low as $6.95 per month (at time of printing of this article) and has excellent customer service, in my experience (and that of numerous other internet techies in forum postings on the internet- do your research and see).  Be sure whoever you use has a phone number for live 24 hour contact, has quick email support, and has direct "cpanel" access with customer help to get started.  For example, if you are using hostgator, there are video tutorials that take you step by step through it, and help you set up your email accounts and learn how to publish your website.  After establishing your webhost, you will need to change your domain name server from where you bought your domain name to point to your webhost.  This sounds complex, but it is actually very simple.  Your webhost will give you the information (ie. ns1.hostgator.com, etc...) and for example (with yahoo) you click the "unlock domain" button, change the dns by typing in the information, then relock the domain.  You're done!

Lastly, you need a way to create your website.  One simple way to do this is to use a free program called Wordpress.  Wordpress.org has a free download of this program, but your hosting company probably already has a wordpress program installed in your cpanel (the place you will manage your website from).  This will allow you to create a blog fairly quickly, and blogs "ping" multiple sources everytime you post to let others know you exist.

If you are not interested in a blog, or you are "lost" about how to customize the blog, even with the wordpress help, you might be interested in a wonderful program that is relatively inexpensive compared to other publishing software.  Xsitepro is extremely easy to use, and with this software, you can create a website in just a few minutes (any color you want, with fancy links, etc.).  Xsitepro usually runs for just under $200, but I have found it to be worth every penny.  There is also an active support forum to get help 24 hours a day.  Websites using this software tend to do well with MSN and yahoo fairly quickly, and are search engine optimized (even if you do not know what that means).

The only part I left out, the most important part, is to have something to say!  You must provide the content, so spend time with God and consider your purpose in life, your influence, and what you can do or say to help others.  You can also easily add a shopping cart or other business parts to buy and sell your products online.  Setting up a paypal account is simple to do, and paypal will allow you to receive payments from anyone easliy and instantly.

That's it- you're set, and you can reach millions!  Well, getting traffic to your website is the next challenge, and a topic of a future article.  God bless and good luck!

Click here to add this page to your favorites