The complete guide to website design on a dime
A recent study has shown that approximately 95% of all web visitors determine in a second or less whether a given website is worthy of their business. What is the difference between a website that a user will browse from and a website that a user will stay on and maybe buy? In most cases, it is a matter of aesthetics. A professionally designed site will often build trust with the visiting user. It shows that the website owners have invested time and money to produce a site that is highly professional and attractive to their users. Take a moment to think about some of the sites you’ve bookmarked in your browser. Chances are the vast majority of sites share a professional design where the content is well defined, the navigation is easy to use, and the page layout is visually appealing. In an increasingly competitive marketplace where there are literally billions of websites, websites without high-quality, professional design will never reach their full potential. A site that relies on professional design and layout is more likely to be successful over a competitor without professional design. It is a fact that cannot be ignored.
The myth of web design
Professional web design is expensive. Web design companies will charge you a base fee for the initial layout and design, and then charge an additional fee for each page of your website (usually starting at $75.00 per page). You can expect to pay upwards of $1500 for even the most basic sites that consist entirely of HTML. That’s a lot of change that can easily triple or quadruple before your website is complete! Not everyone has the financial means (or the will) to invest that kind of money in a website, especially when you are just starting out. The only way to present a professionally designed website with beautiful aesthetics to attract a user is to hire a professional company to do it. If you plan to do it yourself, you’ll need to be an HTML expert and have some sort of degree in design or the IT industry. That’s the myth… now here’s the reality. You can publish a professionally designed website without hiring the services of a web design company! Best of all, you don’t need to be an HTML or web design expert and you can do it for less than $60! All you need is this guide, some basic HTML skills, and a few hours of time and you’ll be on your way to owning a truly professional quality site that your competition will envy!
Preparing for your design
Before the secrets of design on a dime are revealed, take a moment to think about the website you want to create. Ask yourself the following two questions: “Who is my target audience?” and “What service or product am I providing?” Once you’ve figured it out, try categorizing your website. Perhaps your website provides SEO services. If so, your site would fit into an IT business category. Perhaps you plan to sell beautiful wedding cards, in which case your site falls into a wedding category. Try narrowing down the category most relevant to the content on your site. Now that you have your category, I’m going to share one of the best-kept secrets that web design professionals don’t want you to know.
The best kept secret of web design
Two words… Monster template! Template Monster is revolutionizing the web by providing webmasters with highly professional pre-built website templates for a fraction of what you’d pay from a web design company. In fact, all the templates on Template Monster are designed by true professionals and rival those of any web design company. Template Monster is the secret that will give you the edge over your competition! At Template Monster you can explore thousands of high-quality, professionally designed website templates in any number of categories. Remember that category you chose for your website earlier? Now is the time to apply it. Visit Template Monster and choose your category from the drop down list in the center of the home page. A list of one hundred or more category-specific web designs will be displayed. Hovering over the image will display a larger preview of the template. When choosing a template, try to find the one that appeals to you the most. Chances are that if the site is attractive to you, it will also be attractive to its users. Now that you’ve chosen your template, purchase that template and you’ll be WELL on your way to the web domain of a high-quality site that will compete with your competitors.
competitive advantage
Congratulations! You’ve just gained a competitive edge over your competition and are now the proud owner of a professional website template! Best of all, it cost less than $60.00 and required no effort on your part. Of course, web design templates are just one piece of the puzzle to designing on a dime. Below, we’ll guide you through the process of finding equally profitable domain registration and web hosting services.
know your domain
Now that you have your website design, you will need to secure a domain name. The domain name is the URL that users type into their browser to visit your site (for example: http://www.freelinksdirect.com). Big domain names are becoming very hard to come by. There’s a lot of competition and once you buy a domain name, it’s gone (with a few exceptions that we won’t cover here). The simple rule to follow when choosing a domain name is to try to keep it short and relevant to the content of your website. Alternatively, if you can think of something that is catchy and that people will remember, it can be just as effective. Before you go out and buy your domain, take a moment to read the next section. Chances are you can get that domain name for free.
Hosting for less, free domains (and more)
When it comes to hosting, your goal is to find the hosting service that offers the best value for money while providing a stable environment and excellent customer service. Here we present two viable and profitable hosting solutions. In fact, they are among the most competitive in the industry and offer great tools and customer support.
Our highest recommendation is Yahoo Small Business hosting. Do you remember your domain name? Typically, you’d spend $8.95 or more to register it for a year. It’s FREE when you sign up for a Yahoo hosting plan. Also included with your hosting plan (for as low as $11.95 per month) is an invaluable $50.00 Google AdWords credit, $100 Yahoo search marketing credit, free search engine submission, 100 free leads on infoUSA mailing lists, and much more! When you break down the total cost against the credits and the service you receive, this is an exceptional value! You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor by signing up for Yahoo Small Business hosting, one of the most respected companies in the business.
For those of you on a tighter budget looking to host a multitude of websites, a very viable and more affordable alternative to Yahoo Small Business is Host Gator. With Host Gator you pay $10.00 per month for UNLIMITED website hosting! That’s right, you can host any number of websites you want and only pay $10.00 per month for all of them. It’s a bargain that can’t be beat and just one more way you can style on a dime!
free seo
As important as great content and a professional presentation, search engine optimization (SEO) is just as important. SEO is what will drive traffic to your website. After all, what’s the point of having the best site in the world if no one knows about it? Since SEO is itself a huge topic to cover (and one often debated), we suggest you visit Direct Free Links for free SEO articles, one way links, Google AdWords tips and advice, and SEO services. They have an excellent technical support team that is always open to answer questions and help new webmasters optimize their site.
With a little effort and knowing where to look, you too can have your own professionally designed website in a stellar hosting environment at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing. Using this guide as your resource, you’re well on your way to success in your online business!