Beginners, Here Are More Tips to Make Your Own Website For Under $400

In this article I will assume that you are going to do it yourself and that you have little to no experience in website building. With that in mind you have several choices of way to go. You can buy an HTML WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) software editor program to use such as Microsoft's Frontpage, Adobe 's GoLive, etc. , etc., OR, you can get a web host that actually offers an online web page builder through your web hosting account. Cost - $100+ for separate HTML software, depending on the package you buy.

As far as learning how to use the web page building software the best suggestion I can offer is to just play with it. Read the manual if you have one, read tutorials online and just practice, practice, practice. You won't learn it if you don't do it yourself. If you make a mistake, no problem, just start over or redo what you just did again. It doesn't matter at this point since your web page is only in the building stage and no one can see it but you at this point. Also important: test, test, test.

It's fine to make mistakes at this point. They are valuable too and you will learn from them. Over time, however, you will learn the skills needed to build your individual website pages and eventually your entire website if you keep practicing with your new website building software. I won't go into detail on how to actually build the website but once you get it done you'll be ready to upload it to your web host.

In fact, here's a great tip for beginners (and everyone for that matter that is interested in building web pages): I will suggest that you go and get several different web browsers that you don't already have (such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) to add to your computer so that you can look at your website in several of these before you upload it. It's amazing to see how different your website will look from web browser to web browser and testing like this while you build is a great way to correct errors before uploading to your host. Cost - $0.

Now, you'll need an additional FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software program. The job of this software is for you to upload your website from your computer TO your web hosts computer. Think of it this way, when you go to the bank and use those tubes at the outside tellers to send your deposit to the teller, you are "manually uploading" your deposit to the bank. This is kind of what you need to do to get your website online. You need to upload your websites files to your hosts computer. Again, read the manuals, help files and tutorials to learn how to use this software correctly. Very important! Depending on whether you are using a Mac or a PC there are free and paid versions available. Cost - $50+ for paid versions.

So, now you have bought your website domain name and have gotten a web host and have created your website. You've uploaded your website to the web and you're "live". Congratulations! Whew, what a lot of work. That's true (but you're not done yet). So let's total your websites yearly costs to this point (I'll use the middle - higher end as listed at that time that way you'll always know you can go lower): web hosting: $18/month ($216 per year), domain name: $20/year, HTML Program: $200+ (depending on which program you get), FTP Program: $50+ (depending on which program you get) for a total of: $486.

Keep in mind you go lower (or higher) depending on your choices but this does give you a good ball park figure to keep in mind. This $$ figure doesn't take into account your time and effort, however.

So, you could go out and purchase all these things separately, or you might find some bundled together, or, you could use my favorite option which is to get everything you'll need to build a great website all in one place. One such option is a place called SiteBuildIt (SBI)! SBI offers an all-in-one package that is fantastic for the website designer - whether you are beginner or not.

You get everything here - a webhosting account, a domain name, unlimited great customer support, forums filled with other helpful SBIers, more tools than you could ever use, colorful website templates, the ability to create newsletters, your own blog, brainstorming and research tools, autoresponders, your own webmail account, point and click site-building, a form builder, a money back guarantee, and my favorite part of all, all sorts of marketing tools and automatic search engine submittals! And that's only scratching the surface. Cost - $299 per year (saving you almost $100 over all the separate costs above, and a LOT of time too - and that's not even mentioning all the tools and services you get as a freebie for being an SBI member!).

So the choice is up to you: do it yourself at several different locations and with separate pieces of software, or do it all in one location with everything you'll ever need all inclusive. I have several traditional websites as well as several SBI websites and I'll have to tell you if I were to compare the two, the SBI sites I have always come out on top (and with much less effort on my part due to all SBI does for it's users in the background).

If you plan on building a website, I highly suggest you at least check out SBI in your research for webhosts and other website materials. Do yourself a favor and research all options before you make a decision. Check it out for yourself and see if you agree.