Choosing a Money Making Website Theme or Niche The choice of your website topic or theme is crucial. There are three aspects to consider when choosing a money making website theme or niche: Are People Spending Money in this Market People spend money on many things. On some things they are willing to spend more than others. There are many people who would never dream of spending $200 on an educational course but wouldn't think twice about spending the same amount for a golfing day, football match, or a rare tropical fish. Some market areas are easier to make money from than others (fashion, makeup, perfume, jewellery, most hobbies. Some areas are almost impossible to make money from (poetry, free software, classical music). If you are unsure then ask your friends if they buy products in this area. Go to you local shopping centre and see if there are any shops selling similar products or services and are they doing well. In most cases it is usually fairly obvious if you are unsure then err on the side of caution and assume no. Can You Reach the Target Market Easily and Cheaply. There is no point targeting a market that you cannot reach easily and cheaply. In our case because we are going to target the online market that means can we reached them easily and cheaply by using online methods. The main online methods in order of cost and preference (mine) are: Regardless of which method you choose and most people will combine all three. The target market must be Internet users and they must be searching for your chosen product/service on the Internet. Again this is usually fairly obvious - you just ask yourself how you would go about finding your chosen product or service. It is also very easy to find out using the site build it brainstorming tools and other web tools, and is covered in later in niche market research. How Much Competition Exists in the Market and How Strong is it? Once you are satisfied that your chosen theme has customers willing to spend money and also are reachable using online methods its time to move on to website theme research. Website theme research is where you determine, in more detail,the level of likely demand and the strength of the existing competition. All of these aspects including building the website are covered at Niche Websites- A complete guide to building a niche website
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Choosing a Money Making Website Theme or Niche
Choosing A Website Domain Name Part 1 Top Level Domain Name
Choosing A Website Domain Name: Part 1 The first stage of choosing a domain name is deciding on the Top Level Domain Name or as you commonly see it written - TLD. This involves deciding on whether you will use a generic or non geographic TLD like .com, .net ...or a geographic TLD like .uk, .de. When choosing a TLD you will be choosing from existing standard names. You cannot make up your own TLDs -see Top Level domain names for more details. There are 2 to 3 stages involved in choosing a domain name: Choosing the Top Level Domain (TLD) Extensions For businesses the most obvious choice and the preferred one is a .com domain name. For example, assume you wanted to use JUICE as part of your domain name then you would try to register juice.com but it was already taken then juice.biz would be a logical alternative. However ,before using an alternative to .com most businesses look for alternative names like fruit-juice.com and only use the .biz,.net or .org alternative TLDs when there are no other logical alternatives. If you do not need to attract customers from outside your own country or you are offering something country specific then a geographic domain name is the best choice. For example a Website specialising in Fruit Juice for the UK market would use an .uk TLD. If however, your Website were to offer Fruit Juice in many countries then you would choose a non-geographic like .com. Country/Geographic Domain Names (.uk, .de etc) If you are specifically focused on a particular country then always use a country TLD. Almost all search engines currently give a weighting to local content and are expected to attach more weight in the future as local search becomes more popular. This means that a search engine would give .uk websites preference for a search on 'website services' from a browser (user) in the UK. Therefore if you are servicing/selling predominately to the uk market then your TLD should indicate that. Second Level Names For Geographic TLDs However, if you use a geographic TLD like .uk then the second level represents an area. The most common second level UK name is .co.uk (UK equivalent to .com) . Other choices are available like: See http://www.nic.uk/ for more details Your Website Domain Name Taking into consideration the extra level for geographic domain names then the general domain name format becomes: www.mywebsite.com or www.mywebsite.co.uk Where I've highlighted the effective Top Level domain name - TLD. Here we are going to choose the second level of the domain name- in our illustration the mywebsite name. For this part of the name you have full control, as you make it up yourself. Your only restriction being that it has not already been taken. We will consider the options in Choosing a Domain Name- Part 2. Related Articles and Resources:
Top Level Domain Name
Domain Names A Guide to Choosing a Domain Name
Domain Names Every website has a domain name. Choosing a domain name is one of the first steps in establishing a website. However deciding on the domain name requires that you understand the basics. Some websites have unique domain names while others share them with other websites. The domain name identifies your website on the Internet and looks something like this www.mywebsite.com. Domain Names and Websites A domain name usually corresponds to a website, but doesn't have to. When you buy a domain name you don't buy a website, you only buy a website name. To use an analogy: Imagine a room full of boxes and a bunch of sticky labels. You buy your label (domain name) and then you buy a box (website or website host) and then you attach your label to your box, effectively linking the domain name to the website or website host. It's possible to place multiple labels on a box, in the same way a website can have multiple domain names. Therefore www.mywebsite.co.uk and www.mywebsite.com can both point to the same physical website. Sharing a Domain Name In addition to seeing websites with addresses like www.mywebsite.com you may have also seen websites with addresses like : There are many different variations on the format for name sharing but the ones given above are the most common. In both cases the domain name yahoo.com is being shared . Using this kind of domain name is common for personal or hobby sites (but see below) and is usually included in most ISP connection packages along with web hosting space - see making a free website. Your Own Domain Name One of the most common questions I get asked is do I really need my own domain name? If you have a business or club website then you need to have you own domain name. Even if you have a personal or hobby website then your own domain name add more credibility. The main reason people give for not having a domain name is cost! However domain names are relatively cheap to buy (<$16) and there are many domain name providers to choose from. What is the Best Domain Name There are several choices you will have to make when deciding on your domain name . In order to understand these choices you need to understand the basic structure of a domain name. The domain name is really : mywebsite.com and not www.mywebsite.com ( Therefore deciding on a domain name is a matter of: Related Articles and Resources:
A Guide to Choosing a Domain Name
www.yahoo.com/~mysite or mysite.yahoo.com .
Firstly a domain name consists of three elements separated by dots. The elements (using www.mywebsite.com) are:
For more detail the technical structure is explored in understanding domain names).
Editing Meta Tags
Editing Meta Tags Meta tags are hidden tags that are located in the head section of an HTML page. <html> Almost all WYSIWYG web page editors insert meta tags into a new document. If you open a new web page with Microsoft FrontPage then this is what you see if you examine the HTML (meta tags are highlighted). <html> The only familiar tag is probably the title tag. You should notice that the meta description and keyword tags as discussed in meta tags explained are completely missing. If you save the web page Frontage will prompt for a title but nothing else. It is possible to edit the meta tags by right clicking the page and selecting page properties. This is not however obvious and you must supply the meta tag names yourself. This behaviour is not peculiar to FrontPage. None of the Web Page editors that I have tried handle meta tags well. Therefore, I always hand edit the HTML to change the Meta Tags. Web Page Templates and Meta Tags All web designers use a website template and all web pages are built using this template. Therefore the first thing I do is to edit the template to contain the Meta tags I want. Important Note: Because the template will be used to create other web pages it is important that it is valid HTML or XHTML. Therefore I would recommend that you get it validated.-validator.w3.org Here is the template for this site showing the Meta Tags. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> You should notice that the title, description and Keyword tags are present. Other tags are also present shown highlighted in green. The meta tags highlighted in green will be the same for each page and require no further editing. The Meta tags shown highlighted in yellow must be changed for each web page. The most common mistake people make with Meta Tags is making them the same on each page. Every web page should have it's own title, description and keywords. Therefore when making new web pages I open the template enter the content as normal and save it using a new file name. Once finished my last job is to view the HTML source and edit the meta Title, description and keyword tags. Note: Most web page editors don't do spell checking when in HTML or view source mode so you need to be careful with your spelling.
<head>
..............Meta tags go here
</head>
<body>
........Visible Page Content goes here
</body>
</html>
<head>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>New Page 2</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Making a Website</TITLE>
<META Name="Description" Content="Making a Website ">
<META Name="Keywords" Content="Making a Website ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<style>
@import url(makingwebsite.css);
</style>
</HEAD>
How to Make a Website Using Templates Video Tutorial Series
How to Make a Website Using Templates Video Tutorial Series Overview The screenshot below shows the template files for a free template I downloaded from http://www.openwebdesign.org/ You should notice that there is only a single HTML file (index.html) and a few images in the image directory along with the style sheet. The first thing to note is that in the example I'm using here we only have one page the Index.html. This page will after the necessary modifications be used as the template to create all other site pages. You should also note that most of the text on the page is for illustration purposes so you can see how a list, form etc will look. There are 4 main areas that will need changing. To understand the video you should have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Please remember to make copies of the template in case you make a mess of the original. The editor I will be using in the videos is the Trellian web page editor. Overview Video - Modifying the Header Modifying the SideBar Changing the Main Content and Footer Editing the Style Sheet Using Website Template Now that you have modified the template the next step is to use it to create each page in our website. You simply open the template and then save it using a different file name. It is always a good idea to create a few backup copies of the template in case you overwrite the original. In order to do this we require a WYSIWYG editor. Related Articles:
Finding a Domain Name Registrar
Finding a Domain Name Registrar Having chosen a domain name and verified that it is still available you may think that you are ready to register it. Well you could do a Internet search and find the cheapest registrar and register the domain name. I wouldn't however advise it - not that I have any objections to finding a cheap domain name. The problem with choosing a domain name registrar based solely on cost is that the domain name is only one part of the website. The other part of the package is the website hosting. If you remember back to a much earlier article and the analogy to a room full of boxes (website hosts) and a collection of sticky labels (domain names). You can get the boxes from anyone and the labels from anyone and all you need to do is to stick your label on your box and -hey presto a website. This is true in theory but a little more complex in practise. Therefore I always recommend buying your box and label from the same company. In other words your domain name provider should also be your website hosting provider. So you really need to find out about website hosting and choose your hosting provider before proceeding. However for those who have already done that, or want to proceed anyway, maybe to reserve the domain name. Then here, for illustrative purposes only, is the procedure I went through in registering a domain name. Own your own Domain Make sure that the Web host will not hold you hostage to their service by exercising administrative control over your domain name. Your domain name should always be registered in your name and your Domain Name provider should only be listed as a technical contact. Also remember that the domain is only leased and that you will have to renew the lease (usually yearly). This is normally done automatically by your name registrar but make sure you check as you don't want to loose the name because you forgot to renew it. Domain Name Registrars and Domain Name Extension Your choice of domain name registrar will be affected by your choice of TLD extension. Almost all domain name registrars can register .com extensions but not all can register .name or .uk extensions. I use www.1and1.co.uk for this site 1and 1 are also active in USA and Canada 1&1.com. Related Articles and Resources:
Free Website Hosting
Free Website Hosting There a many free web hosting providers available on the Internet. The two main sources of free Website hosting are: ISP Web space An ISP (Internet Service Provider ) is the company that you use to access the Internet in the UK BT, Onetel, Tiscalli and FreeServe are some of the well know ones. Almost all ISPs offer free Web space (10-50MB) with your monthly subscription the domain name is a sub domain of the ISP and looks either like yourname.ISPdomain.com or www.ISPdomain.com/yourname. They don't usually have banner ads like the free Web hosting providers and so are more suitable for clubs and private use. They offer limited service depth and tend to be limited to standard Web pages and perhaps a few standard scripts, however this doesn't need to be a problem as there are many websites that offer these. The none personalised domain name is usually the main limitation but it can be overcome using the technique of Website forwarding. Free Website host Website hosting can be obtained free of cost from a variety of sources such as Yahoo!. The user does not pay for service because it is usually subsidised by banner advertising. Because such sites do not charge, they offer limited service depth and quality of service. For example, many free services do not provide personalised domain names i.e. www.yourdomain.com. This limitation can however be overcome using the technique of Web forwarding. Finding Free Hosting To find a free website hosting provider just go to your favourite search engine and search for "free website hosting". Here are some excellent resources to help: Free Online File Storage Directory Free Web Hosting - The complete guide to free web hosting providers with reviews of offered services, including free PHP hosting, free ASP hosting, free Domain hosting, No Ads free hosting providers and more. You may also find the articles on the pros and cons of free web hosting at this thefreecountry.com site useful. If not there are many companies offering free hosting services. For a CNET review of the four most popular see here. The four free hosting sites are: http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ You may also find the articles on the pros and cons of free web hosting at this site useful. Beware! Some free hosting providers require that you transfer your domain name (if you have one ) to them. You should be very wary of this as it could potentially prove expensive. Should you Choose a Free Website Host If you think you may one day try to monetize your website then no. If you are running a serious personal, club, hobby site then again no. In hich case you should take a look at Website Hosts and Website Hosting Packages. However if you are looking for a site to learn on or are just making you site for you own enjoyment the a free site is an ideal choice. See making a free website for other resources you will need.
of more than 30 virtual disk space / file storage and sharing providers with detailed descriptions.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/doc/zones/build.html
http://www.expage.com/
General Guide To Choosing a Domain Name
General Guide To Choosing a Domain Name Your Internet domain name will personify your organization's presence on the Internet so you need to choose it with care. A domain name is as important to your company's business strategy on the Internet as your company's name; motto and logo are to traditional marketing, therefore: Related Articles and Resources:
How Not to Start a Website
How Not to Start a Website Are you planning on making your first website? Then please don't do it this way ! Instead why not start your site this way you'll find it much easier and far less frustrating.
"belly button jewellery", "Gold platted belly button jewellery" etc.
How to Build a Small Business Website That Works
How to Build a Small Business Website That Works Are you a small business owner looking to build a website to establish a web presence ? Perhaps you can you answer yes to any of the following: Currently very few small businesses have a website, and you may be unsure as to whether or not you need one. If so take a look at Does your business need a website. Of those businesses that do many have: Ok.. Let's go on. There are 5 steps involved. Website Business Owners Guide Are you a business owner that wants a site but doesn't necessarily want to build it yourself? Having a site built by someone else may seem like the best way to go as you can forget about the web stuff but can you? It is however still a good idea to acquaint yourself with the basics, and these are covered in Websites for business owners. Web Site Costs You can make a website using basic software that you should already have on your home PC or that is available for free on the Internet. Related Articles and Resources Online Business websites What if you don't already have an existing business but are looking to start a website to build a business online. Although this site covers the technical aspects of the process you should see my other site for details on how to research and build an online business with a niche website.
If you make the Website
yourself then it should cost
less than £100 ($200).
How to Make a Website
How to Make a Website Making a website isn't difficult - once you know how! But where do you start? Do you want to build a Website, personal or business, and are looking for clear and comprehensive "how to" guidance? Here you will discover easy to understand, step by step website making courses, articles 6 Steps to Build a Web Site Regardless of whether you are making a business or personal web site there are 6 main steps involved. Starting with the basics you will How to: Website Business Owners Guide But what if you don't want to build your own website but would rather have someone make it for you? What do you need to know? As with any project the more you understand what is involved the easy it is to make it a success. Therefore I would recommend that you become aware of the basics, and these are covered in Websites for business owners. Free Website Making Course for Beginners A Website consists of web pages, and so the first step to building a website is to be able to make web pages. This is covered in a free online basic How to make a website course which is intended for complete beginners to master the basic skills needed to build a web site. "Imagine A Newsletter Dedicated to Popular Articles : Other articles are available here .
and tutorials designed especially for beginners, that show you how to make your own website.
learn:
Help You Make Your Own Website"- And Completely Free !- Click to Subscribe.
How to Password Protect Web Pages/Website
How to Password Protect Web Pages/Website Some parts of your web site may be private. So how do you restrict access to those web pages? The answer is to password protect those pages. Anyone who wants access is then required to enter a valid username and password in order to view them. However you don't need to be providing a membership website in order to require access restrictions on some web pages. You may have a family website for family members only, or a download area that you want to restrict access to. Password Protection Methods There are two main ways password protect is achieved Using JavaScript Scripting This type of password protection doesn't require anything special on the server but does require that the the browser support and enable JavaScript. Generally the way these pages work is to send the user to a opening page that requires the username/password to be entered. If they enter it correctly they are then re-directed to the correct page. They can be very simple scripts with the username and password embedded in the page but only viewable in source mode to more complex ones where the password/username is encrypted and hence more secure. You can also get scripts that support multiple users. Here is an example of a script in action. The username is steve and the password in password. Click to reset the example is Here is the script that checks for the username and password I've highlighted the username and password in yellow: <script language="javascript"> For increased security you should implement it as an external script. Here is the script and form page (opens in new window). Just view the source and copy the contents, and edit as needed. There are many other scripts available here. Although they are very simple to implement they are not really that secure as once the visitor has visited the real page he can book mark it and return without going through the login page. There are commercial scripts available like htmlock which are designed for protecting multiple files and overcome the above problems by encrypting the web pages. These also introduce their own difficulties, as the files are encrypted and can only be edited by decrypting them. PHP and ASP Scripts These are similar to the JavaScript examples but instead the scripts are run on the server and hence require that the server supports that script. Each page that requires protection needs to be edited to include the script. Here is a free php script if you want to investigate further. Server based Password Protection This is by far the best and most secure option. However it does require that your host supports it. Your Hosting provider will provide control through a control panel where you can configure the protected directories and username/passwords. The problem with this approach is that it requires manual setup and is only really used in a semi-static environment. Meaning there aren't many users and they don't change often. It is often used to provide access for newsletter readers (and similar) to private parts of a site. The trick to keeping it secure being to change the password regularly and notify the members by email of the password change. For a more complex membership type system, were the visitor can create and edit his own username and password, you need a fully fledged membership site system. These are normally written in php, perl or asp and usually require database (MYSQL, SQL or access) support. You should ensure that your host supports the necessary components before you purchase a membership system.
Membership websites either paid of free (requiring registration) typically require a password to be entered in order to view certain web pages.
<!--
/*Change the usename,password and the page to redirect the user to to suit your own site*/
function login(form)
{
if (form.user.value=="steve" && form.password.value=="password")
{
location="encrypt1.htm"
}
else {
alert("Invalid username or Password")
}
}
//-->
</script>
How to Plan your Website
How to Plan your Website Do you know why you want a website and what that website is going to do for you/your business? The first stage in building your site is deciding What do you want the Website to Do? This may seem a pretty obvious question but it is often a question that most website owners never seem to ask themselves. It is also probably the main reason why many website owners are unhappy with their website performance. So before you begin make sure you ask yourself these questions. Website Research For business Websites it is important to target the right keywords. You need to to be aware of what search terms searchers will use to find the service/product that your site offers. Building it Yourself or Outsourcing Once you have a general idea of what you want from your website you can then move on to the second stage of deciding who will be doing what. As with any project you can either: Do it Yourself or Have someone do it for you or a mixture of the two. Generally speaking outsourcing will mainly be considered by business website owners but is an option regardless of website type- business or personal. Outsourcing doesn't necessary just mean getting someone to do some work for you. It can, and often does, mean buying a package/service that does the work. This is very common and even very experienced webmasters do this. As an example if you want a to establish a newsletter and your host doesn't provide one or the one it provides is inadequate you can either write one your self or use an existing autoresponder service. Your level of expertise and how much time you are willing to commit will determine to a great extent how much you will outsource. Generally the more technically capable you are and the more time you can devote then the more you can do yourself. Website Types In general there are three site types:
How to Register a Domain Name
How to Register a Domain Name The domain registrar I used was www.1and1.co.uk who also host this website. The procedure shown consists of approximately 9 basic steps all carried out using the Web browser: The following show the process of registering a domain name The screens that you will see when doing this may not be the same but the process will be very similar. In this example only the name was registered. If you are an existing customer there is no need to register and you use your user name and password to logon and order the new domain name. Otherwise you must register by providing your name, address and credit card details. You may be asked to choose a user name and password at any stage between or you may be provided with one by the registrar. You are usually notified by email of the name and password. You will use this to logon and manage your domain name later on. Make sure you keep a copy of any emails. Managing Your Domain Name If you now connect to your Website you will probably see something similar to that displayed in figure 1 below. This is what is known as domain parking. Because you haven't told your registrar what to do with you domain name he has given you a temporary Website with a default Under Construction notice. Most Domain Name registrars provide this facility as part of the registration fee. If they didn't then when you attempted to connect to the Website you would get a browser error message saying domain not found which tends to imply that it doesn't exist when you know that it does. You are now in position to manage the domain .Most Domain Name registrars will provide a facility that allows you to do this via the Web called a control panel. Related Articles and Resources: