I'm new to this web stuff. where do I start?

A web site can be a very powerful marketing tool and can be a lot of fun once you get comfortable and familiar with these five simple steps:

Step 0: Learn the basics about your computer.

To do anything new, one must invest sufficent time and energy to learn. The Internet is a large and complex computer network, so you must acquire yourself sufficient computer literacy before attempting to do any web related activities. for instance, you should really know how to use:

• web browser software
• email software
• a good search engine, such as google
• the tools that come with your computer operating system

In addition, it's critical that you have a willingness to read - there's a lot to learn, and much of the neccessary info is available for free, e.g AZC's entire FAQ set.

It's your job to gather such info. if you need hand-holding for your new web endeavor, we recommend you to review carefully the following AZC faq: "I need someone to hand hold me for this web stuff, can i call you up?"

To be proficient on the internet takes a lot of learning, and a lot of time. That said, if you are still eager and serious, read on...

Step 1: Domain name (url) registration

First you must register an available domain name- (.com, .net, .org). This is the address people will use to access your web site (www.yourdomain). You will want to keep in mind what kind of business you're in so that your name reflects your product or service.

Once you have determined that the domain name you wish to use is available, you will need to register it. We can help you to register your own domain name by visiting our Domain Registration utility.

*When registering a domain name, there are a few important things to keep in mind:

• Your contact information must remain current. If your email address is going to change (most often because of changing to a new internet service provider) it is imperative that you update your contact email address before your old address becomes invalid.
• List a position (such as "president") instead of an actual person as a contact. This provides reliability, in case the person ever leaves the company.
• Make sure your company/organization is listed as the "organization name" (The "organization" will be considered the "licensee" or "registrant" of the domain name.)

Additional information regarding domain names can be found a the following link. Domain Name FAQ's

Step 2: Design your web site

This is where you can really get creative and think about the content and look of your web site. Web sites are populated with web pages, which are created using hypertext markup language (html). This can be hand coded, or generated with a program such as Adobe Go Live or Macromedia Dreamweaver, instead. These point and click programs are usualy referred to as wysiwyg ("what you see is what you get") programs.

Before setting out to create your own webpage, you will want to ask yourself the following questions:

• How familiar are you with web publishing/html?
• What type of program will you use to create you web pages?
• How much time do you want to invest in learning web publishing?

Keep in mind:

• You can find many web design tutorials online
• You can download many web publishing programs from the internet
• You can get many web page templates online

Depending on your experience, and level of dedication, you can either create the webpage yourself, or hire outside help. Many businesses actually enlist the aide of local students for the creation of their sites.

Either way, we will suggest you a good product to try out, as well as a pointer to further products that you can download for free and evaluate yourself.

• web tools
• ist page-1st page seems to be very easy to use. it offers several modes for page creation depending on your experience.
• web attack- contains a great list of tools that can aide with the creation of your online content.
• wysiwyg tools -has a good list of easy to use (what you see is what you get) web authoring software that are freely downloadable.

If you decide to have someone else create your web site for you, you will want to:

• Visit their web site. Make sure you like what you see.
• Get the names and phone numbers from at least three of the web designer's clients.
• Draw up a contract that outlines the agreement, what they agree to do and what your responsibilities are. (Get EVERYTHING in writing.)
• Ask questions. Make sure your designer has a plan covering everything from cost, to design and search engine placements.

Step 3: Web Hosting

In order to have your web site on the internet you will require hosting space on a web server, basically renting space for your website on a computer that is always connected to the internet. Once you have your domain name pointing to your web hosting space at your hosting company, you will be ready to publish your web pages. Feel free to take a look at our competative hosting packages. We are sure that you will find one that suits your needs.

Additonal information on virtul hosting can be found in our FAQ section Virtual Hosting FAQ's

How to publish your web pages:

Almost all web authoring software available today feature a built-in publish function based on the open internet standard file transfer protocol (ftp). With that in mind, this part should be fairly easy (We also have an extensive online ftp guide available if you need more details). ftp faq's

FTP allows you to connect to your host and upload/download files remotely, as if you were copying files directly on your computer.

Step 4: Promote you site.

The most important element in gaining visibility on the web is site promotion. Submissions to search engines, banner exchanges, reciprocal links, media advertising, postal advertisements, business cards, and signage are all very effective.

You need to expose your site to and get visitors, let them know you exist.

Please visit our site promotion faq's to find lots of valuable information on this topic.

In addition you can find information and tutorials regarding web promotion through your favorite search engine (ie: yahoo.com). Just search "web site promotion" and you will receive plenty of results.

Two sites that we can recommend are:

• web monkey
• 1st site

Hopefully after going over these steps you will be a little more familiar and comfortable with the mechanics of having a web site.

faq's quick search