How to Build Your Site

Before you can start selling your product on the internet you need to build your website.  Generally speaking your website is a collection of WebPages which are all linked together in a systematic way.  Most good websites have a navigation bar of some type either at the top or on the side of all WebPages so the person browsing the site can navigate it easily (for example, this site has the navigation bar at the top).

The first step in building a website is to determine how your site should logically be laid out. Almost all web sites have a 'home page' which is named index.html (default.htm if you've designed your site with Microsoft Front Page).  When someone enters your domain name or url (the url for this site is www.InternetStore101.com), your home page comes up.  This home page should do two things:

1. Convince the person that they have reached a website of interest to them

2. Direct them to the product that they're interested in buying.

The main programming language is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Fortunately, you don't have to know the nuts and bolts of HTML to build your site - there are a number of options which make the entire process much easier.  The best are:

• Macromedia Dreamweaver  - Click Here to purchase from CampusTech.com (type 'Dreamweaver' into the search box when you get to their site).

• CoffeeCup HTML Editor - Click Here to go to the CofeeCup Website

• Web Hosts which incorporate site-building software.  All the sites listed on our Web Host page have site-building software built in which will allow you to build your web-site without software.  Eventually you'll probably want to use a program like FrontPage because you'll have greater flexibility, but using the site-building software is a great and painless way to start.  Click here to go to our Web Hosts page.

I suggest that you browse other sites which sell products similar to yours to get a good idea about site layouts.  Find a couple which make you want to buy, pick and choose the items which attract your interest and incorporate those things into your website.

Your website will evolve over time.  Don't worry about having it perfect before you put your site live on the internet.  Get it functional, and then upload it to your Web-Host (the host will let you know specifically how to load your page on their server).  Your site will continue to get better and better as time goes on because you'll make constant changes and improvements.

Important Note - you want to build your site to maximize your exposure on the internet, so read our entire marketing page BEFORE you actually build the site.