Here’s the scenario; You’re starting a new business on the net and you haven’t got a lot of cash to invest. That’s not a problem if you have the extra time to work online. Now you can probably also tell by my name (McFree), I love to not spend money unless I have to. So lets see if this bit of Free Advice will help you in some way:
- Purchase some web space and a domain name.
- There are great services for web space out there that will include your domain name with your purchase of web space. Look for them. Let me warn you ahead of time, those people offering free web space are just asking you to get into a cyber mess. I had an account or two with FreeServers for almost twenty years and just one day, out of the blue, they sold out and every website I had with them disappeared without even a “sorry about that fella”. Don’t fool with them. They will waste your time and effort.
- So spend five or ten bucks a month with a reputable web space provider like HostGator or Buy Cheaper Web Hosting dot com. They’ll give you all the tools I’m about to mention and then some.
- Pick a domain name you can live with that will set well in the search engines. If you have a website your wanting to build for selling fresh eggs to the public, try getting buyfresheggs.com. Wouldn’t you know it, someone already has that url. Seriously, a proper domain name will place you well in the searches. If that domain is taken, try .net, .us, .me, .org, etc., until you find one that’s not taken.
Use the WordPress platform.
- It splices, it dices, it makes Julian fries! Oh, and it’s free. No doubt, your host probably has a CPanel available to you. This is the neatest thing since peanut butter for sure. Look inside your cpanel programs, you’ll probably find something called QuickInstall. Open that program and look at all the possibilities available to you. But for your main domain, when someone opens buyfresheggs.com, or whatever you’ve named it, install your WordPress program so it’ll appear in the home directory.
- Once WordPress is installed on your new domain, actually the sky is the limit to what you can do to make it your own. There are zillions of themes and devices called plugins, and widgets. You want your site to do a specific thing, there’s probably a plugin or widget to make that happen. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you mess it up, just re-install it using QuickInstall. But make sure it’s what you’re wanting in a website before you start publishing it on the search engines and directories.
- Make pages for your static content. This is your store front. Then write articles (posts) every week or two about the benefits of buying fresh eggs. Maybe even place a recipe or two to spice things up. Always write something to keep the search engine spiders and robots interested in what you’re gonna post next. Make those articles original. You don’t want duplicate content on your site.
- Manually submit your site to the major search engines.
- Do so every month without fail. This is insurance to the search engines that you haven’t skipped town and abandoned your site.
- Submit your site to every directory you can find.
- Directories really aren’t search engines. They’re just gigantic link sites. These directories will insure that you have back links to your site. The more links in directories, the better. Getting links back to your site will increase your Popularity Rating in the search engines.
- Post comments on other peoples blogs whenever possible.
- Look for blogs and sites that are somewhat similar to your site like one geared to bacon. Bacon goes with eggs on the breakfast plate for sure. When you post your comment, don’t plug your site directly, but make a meaningful comment that’s relative to what you’ve read on their blog. Then, most blogs, especially WordPress, have a place to put your name, email address that won’t be shared, and your URL. After your comment is approved, your link to your site is clickable in your name. And then there’s when folks finally come to your site to read whatever recipe or notion you’ve posted and comment, if the comment is a good one, approve it. Turnabout is fair play.
Your servant with a pen, Monty McFree
I love to find bargains, explain the complicated, and share my internet knowledge.
The true genius shudders at incompleteness and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be. Edgar Allan Poe
The true genius shudders at incompleteness and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be. Edgar Allan Poe