Here are just some basic things that you need to consider before starting your own website. This will make it easier not only for me to design your perfect website, but also help you to get your site live and making money in the fastest time possible.

1. What type of website are you looking to start? Service, product sales, news source etc.

2. Domain name: you will obviously need to buy a domain name for your website. I personally use godaddy.com which typically cost 9.99/yr for a .com name. When you are looking for your name I suggest you look for one that has your keywords in it to help with your search engine results.

Ex. If you’re starting a shoe store online you would want to look for something like syracuseshoes.com versus Katesshoes.com. “KatesShoes” may give it that personal touch, but people won’t be searching for “Kate” when they need to buy shoes, hey typically search by location and product name ex. “shoes in Syracuse”

3. Hosting: No website can go live without having a hosting account. Hosting is where you put your domain name and website and controls your website publishing. Some good options would be
   1. hostgator.com: great customer service. They actually have online support 24/7 and I have never had any problems using them. Great for those starting out since their customer support will help with any issues that may arrive with your hosting while you’re still learning your way around the cpanel. Price range 4.95-12.95/month
   2. godaddy.com: another good option. Customer support is lacking in my opinion. They are not always as helpful for any issues and can charge per issue at times. Price range 4.29- 12.74/month
   3. AVOID one on one hosting!!! These people make great claims but they are a nightmare. I wouldn’t say this about most people/companies but webmasters have nothing but nightmare stories of heir domain names being held hostage by this company and hosting constantly down. There price may be extremely cheap but believe me, you get even less then what you pay for.

4. Web Design: Ok, now that you have those setup its time to design your website. Here is what will make your process easier; think about your own time surfing around the net, what websites did you like the look of? Even if they have absolutely nothing to do with your specific website niche, this will help me to understand better what exactly you are looking for in your website. Think about colors, pages you will need (typically all websites have homepage, contact page, privacy policy, sitemap) in addition to these pages, and overall look and feel of the site.

Here are some of the websites I personally designed but obviously you aren’t limited to the types of looks, this just gives you a glimpse of a few different types of websites:

www.creditrepairpan.com  (service site)

www.ineedacreditcard.com (product sales)

www.findcny.com  (news portal)

www.k2ddesigns.com (my design portfolio site, still a work in progress)

5. Your website is live! Um where are all the people?

I wish it was that easy, don’t ever thinking that having a website alone will make people come. After you get your website live you want to start what is known as SEO (search engine optimization). This is  a bunch of techniques that webmasters use to help improve their rankings in search engines so when someone types into Google Syracuse shoes, your website comes up on the front page Here are some ideas to consider when trying to get more traffic to your website. I suggest you test out methods and see which specific techniques work for your specific website because everyone’s sites works differently

1. Blogging
Blogging has become a phenomenon and highly attractive. People become loyal to good bloggers that write interesting, humorous and insightful posts. Blogs give you a chance to prove to others you’re an expert in your field.

Ok, lets say your not into the whole blogging idea, it is time consuming, here is another approach. Find Blogs out there written about your topic and post on them. A lot of blogs allow you to post on their site and there you will be able to basically put in your two cents and give them the following, HIGHLY IMPORTANT LINE ending your post which should always be in anything you write…

Do you know what it is?

“For more information go to mysite.com”

It may seem like a simple line but if you forget to put it in, you missed your chance to get targeted traffic to your site for free! When people are interested in what you have to say they will look at your site for more information so it is crucial that you have one HIGHLY IMPORTANT LINE in there.

2. Article writing
One of my favorite ways to get traffic and links all in once! Write articles about your expertise, service or products, go and submit them to just 10 different article/content exchange websites with your link/website info on the link in the article and watch the traffic come in, and the links pointing to your site go up. No joke, this method really works. The downfall would be you obviously can’t control where your articles appear and what type of websites.

3. Press Releases
Press releases have always gotten me great highly targeted traffic. Announce your presence to the world with a press release. Just because your new business is on a website doesn’t mean you can’t have a grand opening and let people know where to find you!  There are many PR services out there to consider, paid and free. I personally prefer the paid method (you get what you pay for) PRweb.com. They get your press release (after editors approve it there, so don’t make it a sales letter, make it and informative piece) into some great news resources to give you high traffic and highly targeted visitors.

4. Viral Marketing
Some of you may not think you know what viral marketing is, but you’ve seen it I guarantee! Think about those jokes you get in your email that you keep passing on to your friends or those funny You-Tube videos that you share with everyone. A lot of these are attempts to start viral marketing. Viral marketing is creating something that will be passed around by others causing the marketing piece (no matter how subtle) to take on a life of its own almost. You create something so funny or entertaining that people just start spreading it for you, and all the time there is a link to your website in there somewhere for people to learn more or see more at.

5. Integration Marketing
This technique is pretty much a traffic exchange that can be useful is you set yourself with a targeted site that is comparable or related to what your product or service is. Integration marketing is a hot topic and many claim it is a necessity to a successful website. I highly recommend you look at as many experts in this field as you can. The more you know, the more you can offer on your site and become more successful.

Ex. You have a newsletter on your website that people can sign up for. After signing up for your newsletter there are given the opportunity to sign up for other people’s newsletters or product information.

When you line yourself up with a website with similar client base this type of traffic exchange can be beneficial for your both. Or have other get their members to sign up for your list/newsletter or forum etc.

6. PPC advertising
Be very careful before you ever start a PPC campaign! You can literally lose all your money with these things if you aren’t highly informed on how to do this effectively. Keep you bids low to test waters and only increase them slowly to see if the results are worth the bid increase. PPC can bring you traffic, but not always that targeted traffic so you have to test this method to see if it is beneficial to your specific website.

7. Paid ads (very different then PPC)
Paid advertising allows you to determine which websites specifically will have your ads. You can make sure o approach highly relevant websites and strike a deal with them to place you advertising on their website, possibly even swap advertising, they place yours if you place theirs on your site.

8. SEO techniques
I never overlook ways to get free traffic. SEO techniques to help your site with its natural search engine rankings will always help you increase your traffic. To go into all the SEO techniques you can use here would make this the worlds longest blog post, there are lots of great resources out there to refer to to help your Serp’s.

9. Link Bait

A term you will hear of often if you start hanging around webmasters. Link bait is pretty simple technique actually, you provide people with some text or content so interesting or useful that others start linking to it. That’s known as link bait.

Ex. You write an article about the newest sneaker coming out by Nike in the near future. People then love your perspective about it and starting adding links on their own websites that say “Check out what Nike is up to now…”

The basics of getting your site found but more people; ultimately increasing your traffic is links. You want as many links out there pointing to your website, then Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines will begin seeing your site as an authority website and give you better rankings. Also keep increasing and updating content on your website. When the SE’s see that your site is changing they will know it’s a truly owned and updated site, this will help your SERP’s also.

After much delay I am slowly adding examples of past works I have done for clients. Please take a look around on the header, logo pages (website picture coming soon). I think you will see I have a versatile style and have design many different types of business graphics. I look forward to hearing all your comments and talking with you soon about your next design project!

Finally I am here and ready to help you with all your website needs, design, SEO, everything you need to run a successful website. I have been trying to get this site up for quite awhile but a backlog of client work has prevented it. You will soon have access to past examples of my work along with pricing and services that I can offer you.

Why choose me? Simple, I am self-made and know how to get your site looking the best while also ranking well in search engine results…Naturally! I have been a webmaster for over 4 years now and have taught myself every aspect of this business. I feel this is the best way to be successful on the web. I have had to learn step by step how to rank well in search engines, how to design websites that are good for both clients and search engines and a whole lot of tricks along the way to make you successful with your websites.

Check out my blog for some great tips it can be found at CNY Webmasters. I love to share my knowledge and skills as much as I can so that you don’t make the mistakes and pitfalls I, along with most webmasters starting out, have made along the way. If you have any questions before I get everything set up in here feel free to contact me through the contact page (that part works already)

Happy holidays to you all and I look forward to helping you soon!