Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website

Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website An Organized Approach for Establishing Your Presence on the World Wide Web 2009 Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website Table of Contents STEP ONE: Determine Functionality of the Site ......................................................................................................... 2 STEP TWO: Establish Your Domain ........................................................................................................................... 2 Shared Hosting .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Dedicated Hosting ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 STEP THREE: Obtain a Hosting Site........................................................................................................................... 3 Colocation ................................................................................................................................................................. 4 File Types and Sizes.................................................................................................................................................. 4 Speed and Downtime ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Hiring an Expert ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 STEP FOUR: Design Your Site.................................................................................................................................... 4 Using Software to Design it Yourself ....................................................................................................................... 5 Definition of HTML .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Learning HTML on your own ................................................................................................................................... 5 HTML Translation Software ..................................................................................................................................... 5 STEP FIVE: Using HTML ........................................................................................................................................... 5 STEP SIX: Learning about Servers and Clients ........................................................................................................... 6 STEP SEVEN: Learning about Flash ........................................................................................................................... 6 Definition of Shopping Cart ...................................................................................................................................... 8 STEP EIGHT: Hiring a Web Designer ......................................................................................................................... 7 STEP NINE: Adding a Back-End Database and Shopping Cart .................................................................................. 7 Cost-per-Click (CPC)/Pay-per-Click (PPC) .............................................................................................................. 8 Cost-per-Mil (CPM)/Cost-per-Impression (CPI) ...................................................................................................... 8 Pay-for-Performance (P4P) ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Sponsorship ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 STEP TEN: Obtain Advertising Revenue..................................................................................................................... 8 Appendix A: Worksheet for Determining Functionality of Your Website ................................................................. 10 Appendix B: HTML Resources .................................................................................................................................. 10 Appendix C: Checklist for Web Design Software Comparison.................................................................................. 10 Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website 1 Ten Steps to Creating a Functional Website This checklist will walk you through the steps in getting a website up and running, and will provide you with information you need to know in order to build the site that is right for you, and that fits within your budgetary constraints. Where you have alternate choices, this document will point that out, and includes money-saving tips and tricks.  STEP ONE: Determine Functionality of the Site Before you can begin the process of designing your site, which is for most of us the fun part, you need to figure out what you need your site to do for you and for the users of and visitors to your site. In order to make this step a little easier for you, we have included a worksheet attached as Appendix A. This worksheet will help you to consider all of the functionality that will be needed to make your site ef