Signing up with an Internet Service Provider
Sep 18, 2008 Hosting
Signing up for an Internet service provider (ISP) is the equivalent to renting space in a storage locker. When you register your domain name from a registry service, like GoDaddy, you’ll need to house your website somewhere. That’s where ISP’s come to play.
I particularly like Bluehost as my ISP because they have far more features than most hosting companies. You don’t need to be programmer or very computer savvy to use most of the features they provide. They have features like unlimited storage. That’s a huge deal when you have multiple domains being used under that account. Speaking of multiple domains, they allow you to register an unlimited amount of domains within your shared account. Most other ISP’s will make you sign up for a new account for every domain name you want to host there. With Bluehost, you can host as many as you want for that one price. Therefore, if you selected your top niche and hosted with Bluehost, it wouldn’t cost you any additional hosting fees to create other websites for your added niches. Having multiple websites on the same account may be a fear for many due to extra fees hosting companies charge for the excessive traffic. Well, no charge, unlimited data transfer as well.
There are many more features, but the one I like the best is cPanel which is short for Control Panel. Within cPanel, they have two features called Fantastico and SimpleScripts. They both do the same thing. They allow you to create things like a blog or a forum with the push of a button. You then, simply, provide a user name, password and an email account and you’re done. You don’t need to hire a programmer to install a blog or forum for your website.
I used that same feature for this site and decided to make my main page into a blog. I’ll explain why in a future post.
By default, when you register with GoDaddy, they become your hosting service. In the next post I’ll discuss how to transfer your registered domain name from there to Bluehost or to another hosting company you may choose.
Tags: Hosting, Register Domain
Registering a Domain Name
Sep 14, 2008 Register Domain
Once you’ve decided what niche to build your website on, you’ll need to find a name to use and register. Registering your domain name with one of the registries allows you to have that name for anyone to view on the Internet (once you rent space with a provider and create a website). You should select a name that will have something to do with your niche. If you were a carpenter building and selling dog houses, a name like www.doghouses.com (even though it’s already registered) doesn’t really explain exactly what you do. However, selecting a name like www.webuilddoghouses.com gives a better explanation of what the site does. This also gives the search engines a little more info on what your site is about.
I like using Godaddy because it helps you select a domain name if the one you want is already taken. It gives you many examples of alternate names. There are a few things to consider when registering a domain name. Make sure you get a .com domain. Don’t use the other extensions such as .net or .org. Most people are used to adding the .com extension to the end of the name. If you decide not to get the .com name, most visitors will not find your site because they are so used to adding the popular .com extension. Also,stay away from the .info extension. Godaddy often sells them for $1.99 which makes them very popular with spammers and therefore Google diminishes their ranking. If you’re serious about starting a website, the other thing to make sure you do is to register the domain name for at least five years. Google discounts domain names that are registered for only one year. Again, because of the spammers.
I can show you how to save up to 30% off your Godaddy bill by subscribing to our list on the top/right of this page. After signing up, you’ll receive an email with a link to view a video on how to save that 30%. You’ll need to create an account with Godaddy to be able to register with them.
After creating an account with Godaddy, go through all the steps to the checkout page. I don’t recommend any of their extra features. They may be the biggest, but certainly not the best.
I’ll show you on the next post on how to sign up for an Internet service provider (ISP) which can save you money (lots of money) in the long run.
Tags: Register Domain Name
Selecting your niche
Sep 13, 2008 Selecting a Niche
When I asked Jay Berkowitz if he was interested in doing a podcast on teaching me how to setup a website from start to finish, I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted the website to be about. As it started getting closer to doing the podcast, I decided to make it into a website that teaches how to setup a website from start to finish from the very basics, all the way to marketing it, etc. Therefore, while Jay instructs me, I’ll be posting on how to do each step along with other tips and tricks I learned from other podcasts that I listen to. In a future post, I’ll provide a list of all the podcasts I listen to.
The first thing that needs to be done is decide the topic or “niche” you want your site to be about.
To find that niche, I suggest selecting a topic that you are familiar with. What are you good at? Write it down! Make a list. Select something you enjoy doing. There’s no sense in writing about something if you don’t enjoy the subject. That would grow old very fast. If you’re good at a dozen things, write them down in list order. Carefully go through them and pick 3-4 of your favorites.
Now, go through those few that you selected and pick the one you are most passionate about. By selecting this one topic doesn’t mean you’ll throw away your other niche ideas, you can build those later. This first topic will be your test site. This is where you will learn the basics, make mistakes, learn from them and move on. This will be practice for you. This site is not going to be abandoned at the end, it’s just almost impossible to build something like this and not make some mistakes. It will be changed, adjusted and tweaked as you go along.
Now, if you were going to search for your topic, what keywords would you use to find it? What keywords and phrases do you think users might enter into the search engine? Write them down! Make a list of about 20 keywords and keyphrases then sort them by order of importance. A keyphrase is nothing more than single search with multiple words in it, ie: “leather saddle for horseback riding” instead of just the word “horse.” You can use the free version of this keyword tool to find your keyword and keyphrases.
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/keyword-suggestion-tool.html
Enter your keywords in the entry box and select the “Hit Me” button. You’ll get about 100 keyphrases that are related to your topic. Select about a dozen that are relevant and write them down. Create a list and save those words for the future steps.
Go to the Google link below and type in your keywords. Google is great with all the information they provide. Not only do they give you other keywords to use, but they provide data on how many searches were done and at what time of year.
http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
This will be a good starting point that will allow you to pick your niche. The next post will show how to register a domain name and register the site with an Internet service provider (ISP).
Tags: Build Website, keywords, Niche
Welcome to the premiere site of Marketing Ropes.
Sep 6, 2008 Website Development
I’m a huge fan of podcasts and listen to them all the time. While listening to all these podcasts, I’ve accumulated over 100 pages of notes on tools, tips and websites to help promote and market online. Well, it’s become a huge disorganized mess that I’m slowly getting together. I had a lot of information but didn’t have all the pieces to continue.
I, then, came across The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast by Jay Berkowitz earlier this year. I downloaded and listened to all of Jay’s episodes. He always made a point of asking the listeners to call in which made the podcasts more interesting by having different questions/topics answered and discussed on the show.
In one of Jay’s podcasts, he instructed a listener on how to do a podcast. I thought that was great. I then contacted Jay and asked if he was interested in teaching a listener how to create a website and promote it. That listner would be me.
We finally got to talk together after some scheduling conflicts and had some good conversation. Jay is a natural public speaker. I, on the other hand, found myself mumbling as he interviewed me. I hope I do better as we do the next couple of podcast interviews.
Anyway, I hope you all follow along as Jay takes me down this interesting and wonderful journey of Internet marketing and promotion. I’ll post all the steps needed to allow you to do the same and use this site as a reference.
Please post your comments on things you may want to see or even post some of your own tips and tricks.
Also, make sure you go to The Ten Golden Rules and listen to Jay’s podcasts. You can also get them from iTunes.
Loukas
