by Stirlyn

Created on: January 27, 2007   Last Updated: February 10, 2007

Just Like Tony Williams says Don't!

Microsoft word will produce a website that's bloated with unnecessary HTML code. You won't see them but the search engines and browsers will.

Rather than trying to create something from scratch, why not try to use a free content management system (CMS) like Joomla, Mambo, or WebGUI. CMS help you to organize and automate various activities related to your website creation. They will include features like templates, e-commerce tools, mailing lists or customer/user account management, event calendars, news service, and much more.

If you don't have experience of operating websites (dealing with servers, domains and alike) then why not try one of the many services online provided by social networking sites such as MySpace, Tagworld, Bebo - or Blogging sites such as Wordpress.com, Blogger.com or Blogspot.

Social Networking sites offer you the chance to reach a network of customers that you can target using criteria such as Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Location, Education, Religion etc etc.

Create a profile on one of these sites and you can begin to add 'friends' to your profile which you can then send messages, post bulletins, post classifieds advertising your products or services. If you are a band, artist, writer, you can invite people to your events, keep a calendar the list, while not endless, is comprehensive.

Myspace receives 1 Billion hits per day and has over 130 million registered users globally. (source http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA1 11906.01A.myspacepastor_.305b1af.html)

Bebo has 22 million registered users (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4826218.stm) and was the number 1 search on Google for 2006.

Some networking sites such as Tagworld give you opportunity to build a website as part of your profile. You can also become a VIP member and remove the banner advertising.

If you have your own domain name (e.g it may have been provided to you by your Internet service provider) then you can always put a redirect to your profile URL or upload a page that opens the url within a full page frame using some simple HTML code.

There is so much more to the web than just creating your webaite. You have to get people to see your website in order for it to be successful. Choosing one of the options listed above will deliver so much more of a return, and for very little cost (apart from time) than using Microsoft Word.

Free Content Management Systems:
Joomla - http://www.joomla.org
Mambo = http://www.mamboserver.com
WebGui - http://www.plainblack.com/webgui

Networking sites:
Myspace.com
Tagword.com
Bebo.com

Learn more about this author, Stirlyn.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.