Beginner’s Guide

: Image via Wikipedia

Starting a website for the first time can be quite daunting - and the reason I started this blog. Breaking the web development process into logical steps allows you to focus on one chunk at a time. Depending on your skills, goals, ability to focus, and site complexity, a new website can take anywhere from a day to six months to, if you’re not careful, being a permanent work in progress!

Here’s a checklist of all the things you need to accomplish before launch – as I expand the content of this site, I will link each step to a relevant post on it:

Overall Site Strategy – What is your site? What will it do? Who is your target? You’d be surprised how many people do not think about this when they start a website. Having a 30,000 foot view of your site is vital: where are you going with this? What will it become?

What Type of Site is Right? Is it a blog, brochure site, content management system, intranet, application, e-commerce?

Site Technology Needs – Based on what type of site you’ve chosen to build, you’ll need to know if it’s just plain HTML or something more complex like PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, etc.

Selecting a Domain Name - A vastly important decision that affects all of your future marketing decisions.

Choosing a Web Host – You’ll need a web host that meets your pre-determined technology needs, as well as your anticipated traffic needs.

Planning Your Site – Let’s diagram how it will all work. This is especially important if you are not yourself taking on the programming of the site

Choose to develop yourself or delegate – There are pros and cons to each. If you’re looking to learn to code yourself, that’s great! But prepared to extend your timeline to accommodate for the learning curve involved.

Designing Your Site – Either choose a graphic designer or learn to do it yourself

Programming Your Design – Choosing a programming solution or doing it yourself

Testing Your Site – Getting good feedback, checking for errors and working with your team

That’s it! You’re ready to go out there into the world and share your website with everyone. In future posts we will examine how to best promote your website, monetize traffic, and all sorts of tips and tricks to keep your website up and running!