Building a website for the first time can be exciting. I remember my first website, it was simple and a little plain but it worked. Ofcourse, I had no experience and the Internet was at it's beginning stages so finding help was difficult. Lucky for you, that has changed. Their is an amazing amount of information on the net regarding this topic. So let's get started.

1. Choosing a Domain Name.

Some of you may already have a domain name and just want to make a website. If this is the case, great! Simply move on to the next steps. If you haven't registered a domain name yet, this will help.

First you need to find a domain registrar such as www.GoDaddy.com . Here you will be able to search for domain names to find out if they are available. This can sometimes be the hardest part as it may seem that all of the good names are taken. Just be patient and creative and you should be able to find something that works for your business. Once you have found a domain name and have registered it, you can move on to the next step of building your site.

2. Building Your Site.

Ok, your ready to start building your website. You now have three choices. Build it from scratch, use a website creation tool, or buy a pre-made site. Obviously, building it from scratch can be the most difficult but it can be very rewarding as well. For instance, you will generally gain two things from building a website yourself. You will learn HTML and/or PHP and you will also know your website better than anyone, because you made it. This can save you lots of time later on. If you decide to take this route, here is a good resource HTMLGoodies.

Using tools can be much faster but you will have limited choices on design and may not understand "what is going on under the hood" which can make it difficult to troubleshoot or add content later on. On the positive side, this is probably the quickest method to get your website up and running. A good online tool is MoonFruit . Their basic site contains ads but it's completely free. You can upgrade ofcourse and get rid of the ads. Still a good deal as their prices seem fair.

The third option is to use pre-made websites or templates. This is basically one page that comes complete with the layout, text, and images ready to go. They are generally inexpensive unless you want a web site that already contains multiple pages or needs custom content. A good starting point would be cbvz . They have a good selection of templates that are ready to use. All you would need to do is edit the text and maybe replace or add some of the images. When you use website templates, you get the best of both worlds. It is easy, you will probably get the chance to learn some HTML, and it is inexpensive.

3. Finding a Web Hosting Provider.

Once your website is completed, you will need a web hosting provider to host your website. HostQT.com is widely used and is very reliable. So you will certainly want to check with them first. You can also check some of the web hosting forums and directories on the Internet. Everyone has an opinion on who is the best but it will probably come down to a few key points. Are they inexpensive, reliable, and have the features I want? If you are new to web hosting, you will probably want to find a host that uses cPanel as it is much easier to use. After you have found a good web host, you can use ftp to upload your website to the server they have provided for you.

4. Submitting Your Site To Search Engines.

Assuming you are done building your website, you can start thinking about getting your site listed with the search engines. This is not as easy as it sounds. The reason for this is because the Internet has become very commercial and crowded. Some search engines won't even list your website unless you pay a fee. Others may not list you because their are to many similar websites like yours already in their listings. Luckily, their are some ways around these problems.

Their are many free submission websites on the Internet that can get your site listed at multiple engines for nothing. This is a good way to start off as it won't cost you a dime. Some will even get you listed on Google. FreeWebSubmission is a great example. They also have many other tools that you can use later on to see how your website is doing such as a pagerank (PR) checker, Meta tag generator, and web page analyzer.

As I said before, the Internet is also very crowded. In order for your website to stand out in the crowd, it needs to be unique. Custom products, interestingly different articles, or providing a service that few offer will help. This will help your website in two ways. First, it will help get your site listed. Second, more potential customers will find your site because it provides a unique product or service.

Another option to get your website listed is with a paid submission. Yahoo for example, will guarantee your listing in 7 days for $299. That's a lot of money so it's best to try the free options first.

Congratulations, you are now on your way to building an online business. Good luck!