Create your Site

In this section, I will show you how to take your idea and turn it into an intellectual property that can be sold on the Internet. This information will be critical to your success, so read it very carefully.

• Domain Name Selection
• Become your own Webmaster
• Get Ready to Create your Website
• Create the Members’ Area
• Create the Marketing Area
• Order Web Hosting
• Publish your Website to the Server
• Specify your Domain Name Servers
• Setup Email for your New Company
• Add Credit Card Processing and Password Management
• Do your Pre-Launch Testing

Domain Name Selection

A domain name represents your company’s name and location on the Internet. For example, this website’s domain name is internetbusinesspros.com. Let’s say you are going to create a website that provides information on how to start a video production company, your domain name might be videocareer.com or videoproducer.com.

Domain names may be comprised of letters, numbers, and/or hyphens (cannot begin or end with a hyphen) and must be less than or equal to 63 characters in length. I would recommend keeping your domains names under 26 characters; long domain names are harder to remember and take too long to type into a browser.

Use Keywords in your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is a critical first step in website creation. You want your domain name to contain descriptive keywords that web surfers might type into a search engine. For example, if you are selling information on excellent restaurants in the United States, good domain names would be:

• www.bestrestaurants.com
• www.bestusrestaurants.com
• www.toprestaurants.com

There are numerous possibilities for domain names, but many of the best names have already been taken. As a result, you will need to be creative and spend some time choosing one. A good domain name - comprised of descriptive keywords - will help potential visitors find your home on the web. Conversely, a bad domain name will bury your site in the Bermuda Triangle of cyberspace.

One mistake that dooms many Internet entrepreneurs is choosing a domain name based on the name of their company. This is not necessary. Let’s imagine a company called Allied Aquarium Solutions, which sells information on saltwater fishkeeping. A bad domain name would be www.alliedaquariumsystems.com. A good domain name would be www.saltwaterfishhelp.com. Therefore, do not worry about a common name for your business and domain name. Instead, concentrate on getting a domain name that contains descriptive keywords. This approach will make your site much easier to find in the search engines, which will lead to increased traffic and greater sales.

Get a .com Domain Name

Furthermore, I would suggest choosing a domain name that uses the .com extension. The .com extension at the end of a domain name indicates the site is a commercial or personal website. You can consider other extensions, such as .net, .info, and .biz, but I would exercise caution. Most people assume that a website ends with the .com extension. As a result, if the name of your website gets promoted through word-of-mouth or the printed page, and it does not end in .com, it may lose significant traffic – possibly to a competitor. I would suggest getting a .com address for your primary domain name and purchasing a redundant .net address for added exposure (additional domain names can be added to your website. Just ask your web hosting company to “Park and Point” the extra domain name to your website.).

Purchase your Domain Name from Alldomains.com

You search for and purchase a domain name from a domain name registrar. There are numerous domain name registrars on the Internet, from the overpriced conglomerates - Register.com and NetworkSolutions - to the cheaper, less reliable operations. I only use one registrar for all of my domain name purchases: Alldomains. In my opinion, they are the best in the business.

Through a special arrangement with my parent company JP Communications, you can purchase your domain names from Alldomains at significant savings. One year is only $24.99!

Click Here to register your domain name.

If you find a domain name you like, I would suggest buying it immediately. Millions of names are being scooped up everyday by entrepreneurs like you. As a result, if you find a domain name that works, buy it. Otherwise, you could lose it.

Become your own Webmaster

Now it's time to create your website. At this point, many entrepreneurs choose to hire costly web designers at $65 to $125 per hour. While there is nothing wrong with hiring a professional web design company to create your website, it will cost you a lot of money.

Since our goal is to minimize costs, I recommend becoming your own webmaster. I don't care if you don't know the first thing about web design. I'm a self-taught web designer; everything I know about web design came from books and on-the-job training. Today, I am capable of producing high-end, database-driven e-commerce websites, and I will show you how to duplicate my success. As your own webmaster, you will save money and enjoy total control over the design and content of your projects.

This is HTML

As you may know, the Internet is based on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). It's a series of tags (<>) that instruct a browser how to display text and images. For example, if you want a word to appear bold on a web page, you enter the following code:

This text is <b>bold</b>.

Tools of the Trade

Well, as simple as HTML may be, I got my start in web design by purchasing a WYSIWYG HTML editor. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” A WYSIWYG HTML editor helps you produce web pages without knowing the first thing about HTML. It's just like a word processor, only for HTML.

As you begin your webmaster training, I recommend buying a good HTML editor. The best HTML editor on the market is Microsoft FrontPage. I purchased my first copy of FrontPage back in 1998.

FrontPage has a host of great features. Beyond creating great-looking web pages, the program includes tools for creating interactive message boards, search engines, and feedback forms quickly and easily. You can order your copy of FrontPage at a great price from Amazon.com. I would also recommend adding a FrontPage training book to your order. The following book is excellent: Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003.

When I first started out, I also bought a good HTML book. As you use FrontPage, you will be able to gradually learn HTML at your own pace. Although the program creates all the HTML for you, there will times when you want to look “under the hood” and modify the HTML directly. Therefore, I recommend getting your feet wet with a copy of Web Design for Dummies. This is a great resource you will refer to time and time again.

Beyond HTML, any good web designer knows a thing or two about graphic design. After all, web pages contain photographs, logos, and other imagery. The industry standard program for image processing and creating bitmap graphics is Adobe Photoshop 7.0. But at close to $600 a copy, I would not recommend purchasing this software right away. Instead, I would recommend buying a less-expensive, but feature-packed graphics and photo editor called Paint Shop Pro 9. Paint Shop Pro is an excellent program that will help you create great-looking web pages without killing your bank account. I would also recommend picking up a copy of Paint Shop Pro 8 for Dummies. This book will give you a good foundation in graphic design using Paint Shop Pro, from file formats to image optimization.

For under $250, you will have all the tools you will need to become a professional web designer. In fact, this is exactly how I started back in 1998. Relatively speaking, this is a tiny investment for the potential income you stand to earn as an Internet Business pro! To review, here is what you should purchase:

• FrontPage 2003
• Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
• Web Design for Dummies
• Paint Shop Pro 9
• Paint Shop Pro 8 for Dummies

In addition to these books, you should really study the Internet. Other websites can teach you ways to improve your website’s layout and design. You should always strive to make your website content fast-loading, organized, and user-friendly. Too many websites on the Internet use slow-loading graphics, poor navigation, and bury important information several levels deep. Such strategies annoy visitors and ultimately reduce sales. If you are interested in purchasing a book on the subject of design, I recommend Web Design for Dummies.

As you become more and more skilled at HTML, you can study the inner workings of other websites on the Internet by viewing source code. Go to the website you wish to analyze. Within your browser, click on the View menu. Then select Source. The HTML source code will appear in your default text editor. Now you can see how the site was coded.

If you ever get confused or need help on a particular topic, Google Groups is a great place to visit. Google Groups lets you post and read comments in Usenet discussion forums. Just type in your question and various web designers from across the globe will help you out.

Beyond the Basics

After you have produced a website or two and feel comfortable with your web design skills, you should consider learning some advanced technologies:

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP): Although FrontPage is an excellent program, veteran web designers will often code websites using only a text editor (e.g., Notepad, WordPad, or SimpleText) and an FTP program. An FTP utility allows you to transfer files to and from your web server and set file permissions (CHMOD). I recommend WS_FTP Pro.
• Secure Shell (SSH): A program enabling secure terminal sessions and file transfers to and from the server. It's similar to FTP, only its communication with the server is encrypted. Many Web hosting companies require SSH for managing MySQL databases. I recommend SSH Secure Shell for Windows.
• JavaScript: A client-side scripting language that allows you to create web pages that respond or react to user interaction with form elements and hypertext links. A great book on the subject is JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual Quick Start.
• Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): Add pizzazz to your web pages, such as fancy drop-down menus, without plug-ins or complicated programming. I recommend DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web: Visual Quick Start.
• PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor): A high-performance, server-side scripting language that allows you to create dynamic content, such as shopping carts, interactive tests, and discussion forums. I recommend PHP and MySQL Web Development.
• MySQL: A low-cost, high-performance database that allows you to create powerful, database-driven content. For example, you could create a website featuring an online food database or people search. I recommend MySQL Cookbook.
• Macromedia Flash: The industry-standard for adding fast-loading animations to your website. To author flash animations, you will need to purchase a copy of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and a good training manual. My favorite book is Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash MX 2004 in 24 Hours.
• Adobe Illustrator: The industry-standard vector-based graphics tool for the Web and print that lets you create scalable logos and imagery. This is also a great tool for creating website mockups prior to production. Click Here to order Adobe Illustrator CS2. And be sure to get a good training guide, such as Illustrator 10 for Dummies.

Get Ready to Create your Website

Once you become comfortable using FrontPage and Paint Shop Pro, you can begin creating your website.

Since you do not yet have a web server, you should create your website on your computer’s local hard drive. This creates a staging platform where you can proofread content and make changes to your site before going “live” on the Internet.

First, create a new Empty Web within FrontPage. This is your root web, the first place visitors will go when they come to your website.

Next, create a Blank Page in your root web. By default, FrontPage will call this new blank page "index.htm"; this is your home page.You will end up storing numerous pages in this folder and your web server must know which page to display first. By calling this page “index.htm," your server knows it's the home page.

It does not matter what you call your other pages, as long as they end with the “.htm” extension. For each folder you create within a website, you should create an “index.htm” page. Otherwise, the server will not know which page to display first, which will result in an ugly directory tree, listing every page in the folder. This not only looks unprofessional but can create security problems.

Within your root web, you must now create a subweb. Unlike a regular folder within your root web, a subweb is a folder within your root that FrontPage treats as a distinct website. You use subwebs when you want to apply different permissions structures to different parts or your website.

To create a subweb, open your root web. Next, create a new Empty Web. In the Web Sites Templates dialogue box, where it says, “Specify the location of the new web,” add “\members” to the end of the file path.

This will create a subweb for your members’ area, which will be password-protected later.

Create the Members’ Area

At first, you should create the members’ area. So, go ahead and open the “…/members” subweb you just created. As mentioned above, you can think of the members’ area as a separate website. It will be accessed online (eventually) by typing in your domain name, followed by “/members.” For example, www.YourDomain.com/members.

This section is ultimately going to be password protected, but do not worry about password protection for the moment. Begin by fleshing out the outline you created earlier. You will want to organize your content into organized segments of information that can be linked to. Use this website as an example for organizing your own content.

If you want to add a discussion forum (feature in FrontPage 2002), it will add value to your website beyond mere static content. I have always found such interactive tools helpful to members. A Discussion Web should be stored in its own subweb, such as “/forum” within the “/members” subweb.

Create the Marketing Area

Once you are satisfied with your members’ area content, it's time to create your free, marketing content. You will want to spend some time making these pages appear as professional as possible. From content to imagery, you will want to sell your premium content and give credibility to your business. Every page you create should ultimately direct visitors to the Join page, where they can purchase a membership.

Essential Pages

For your marketing content, it's a good idea to include the following distinct web pages:

• Home - The home page is a critical part of your website. It must look clean and professional and communicate clearly and concisely what you are selling. I would recommend purchasing professional imagery for your home page. Professional, royalty-free, images can be purchased from photos.com and ClipArt.com. The home page must also include a link to the members’ area for existing members to login.
• Products or Service - The Products or Service page must give a detailed explanation of the membership features and why the customer needs to subscribe now. This page should include a clear call to action, such as “Become a member right now,” with several links to the Join page. Similar to the home page, I would recommend adding professional images from photos.com and ClipArt.com.
• Join - The Join page must give pricing and ordering information. It should include “Join Now” buttons and a security statement, such as “Secure Online Ordering using 128-bit SSL Encryption Technology.” Optionally, you can include an “Order by Mail” form for customers that are afraid to order online. We will discuss the intricacies of pricing and ordering shortly.
• Testimonials - Testimonials are a great sales tool. Initially, you will have to fabricate testimonials, but in time, you will have plenty of genuine testimonials to publish.
• About Us - An About Us page should include an overview of your company and list pertinent contact information, such as the name of your company, the business address, and an email address. Recent data indicates that web surfers order more readily when a street address is included on a website; please note that a P.O. Box is not a good idea, since it creates suspicion that your operation is a scam.
• Privacy Policy - A Privacy Policy will be critical to the success of your business. These days, everyone is concerned about SPAM, Internet fraud, and the protection of personal information. You can put your customers’ minds at ease with a well-written Privacy Policy. If you do not feel like writing a Privacy Policy from scratch, go to virtually any website, scroll down to the bottom of the home page, and click on “Privacy Policy.” Since all Privacy Policies are very similar, you can copy the format for your own website.
• Legal Terms - A Legal Terms web page is vitally important to the health of your business. You should include your Copyright Information, Limitation of Liability, and a Disclaimer. Similar to the Privacy Policy, you can copy the format and some of the legal jargon from other websites.
• Membership Terms - Membership terms describe, at the very least, the cost and duration of the subscription, whether the subscription will renew automatically (recurring billing), and the name of the company that will appear on the credit card billing statement.

Use Keywords in your Content

As you write your content, you must choose your words carefully. Similar to domain names, you must include as many keywords in your text as possible. The search engines will rank your web page higher if you write your content based on common search strings for your topic.

Add Provocative Imagery

As mentioned above, you can improve the look and feel of your website with professional imagery, including photographs and clip art. I highly recommend the royalty-free offerings from photos.com and ClipArt.com. You should also create a simple logo for your business using Paint Shop Pro. These kinds of enhancements will improve your company’s image and ultimately lead to increased sales.

• Photodisc - Royalty-free digital stock photography
• 100,000 stock photos for $99.95. Only at Photos.com.
• Clipart.com. Unlimited access to more than 2,500,000 clipart images, animations, photos, fonts, and sounds!

Determine your Pricing

When it comes to pricing, you have to determine your billing strategy: one-time billing or recurring billing. On one-time billing, the customer is charged only once, immediately following the transaction. You can charge any dollar amount between $2.95 and $100. The charges must be a fixed time period, such as $10 for 30 days, or $59.95 for one year, with the minimum being 3 days.*

On recurring billing, memberships are automatically renewed on a monthly basis unless the customer cancels. You can charge your visitors to your site any dollar amount between $2.95 and $100 for the first charge, but no more than $50 for subsequent monthly charges.*

I prefer one-time billing, such as $49.95 for one year or $59.95 for two years. A lot of customers get turned off by memberships that renew automatically since credit card numbers must be stored in a database.

*These pricing restrictions assume you will use Internet Billing Company for your credit card processing needs.

Order Web Hosting

At this point, you should have most of your content ready. Therefore, you should go ahead and purchase your web hosting. There are A LOT of web hosting providers on the Internet and MANY of them are awful. Since 1998, I have trusted Hostcentric with all of my hosting needs. I now have over 100 accounts with this company. They provide great service and excellent rates.

If you make one mistake as an Internet entrepreneur, do not make the mistake of going with a cheaper, less reliable hosting company. Your website will be frequently inaccessible, members will request refunds, and your income will plummet.

Publish your Website to the Server

Once your hosting account has been established, you will receive a "Welcome to Hostcentric" email. Using FrontPage, publish your website to your web server using Hostcentric's FTP address, ftp.hostcentric.com. You will also need to enter your account username and password, which should appear at the top of the “Welcome to Hostcentric” email.

Specify your Domain Name Servers

Once your site has been uploaded to the server, you will be able to access it by typing its IP address into any web browser. But in order to access your website by its domain name, you must first specify your name servers on your registrar's website. In other words, you must tell your domain name registar (Alldomains.com) where your website's domain name servers are located (Hostcentric).

Although this may sound complicated, it's actually a very simple process to specify your name servers. Just follow these steps for each domain name.

1. Go to the Alldomains.com Domain Manager.
2. Login to your account by entering your username and password. Click Login>>.
3. Click the Service Management tab.
4. Within the Service Management submenu, click the Domain Names button.
5. Next to your domain name, click Edit.
6. Scroll down the page to the Domain Name Servers (DNS) settings. Place a check mark next to all existing name servers (for deletion) and enter your new name servers into the Add Nameserver input boxes. For Hostcentric, you must enter ns1.hostcentric.net and ns2.hostcentric.net. These are your primary and secondary name servers, respectively; both are required.

7. Click Continue>>.
8. Click Complete Update>>.
9. Click Done.

It usually takes 24-48 hours for a domain name to propagate the Internet, so you will need to temporarily access your website using its IP address.

Once your domain name propagates the Internet, you should be able to access your website by typing in its domain name. You can access the members’ area by typing in www.YourDomain.com/members. For the moment, the members’ area should not be password-protected; we will discuss implementing password protection in just a moment.

Setup Email for your New Company

Hostcentric has recently implemented a new Control Panel. Please refer to the Hostcentric website for up-to-date instructions on creating email accounts.

If you are able to access your website using your domain name, you can setup your email. The “Welcome to Hostcentric” email will include detailed information on setting up your email accounts.

I recommend creating the following email accounts:

• support@YourDomain.com
• webmaster@YourDomain.com

I will show you how to create a single mail box on Hostcentric's mail server and configure Microsoft Outlook Express to talk to your new mail box -- so you can send and receive messages. If you have problems configuring your email, do a quick search on Hostcentric's support site or www.google.com for assistance.

1. Login to Hostcentric’s Clientcentric.
2. From the Control Panel on the left of the screen, click the Sites link.
3. Select your site from the pulldown menu next to where its says Active Site, and click Go.
4. Click the Email Accounts link.
5. On the screen that follows, click the Create Email button.
6. It's now time to create your first email account. Enter the desired email address in the Email Address field, such as “support” or “webmaster.”
7. You may enter a first and last name to be associated with this account, but doing so is not necessary.
8. Enter a password. I recommend creating a password that does not contain any words or phrases and combines upper and lowercase letters with an underscore(_). Hackers will try to login to your mail server and steal your messages, so choose a good password. Here's a good sample password: bD77_xZ462.
9. Confirm your password for accuracy.

10. You may disregard the rest of the information on the page and click the Add Email button.
11. Congratulations, you have created your first email account. You will see your new email address listed in the Site Email Addresses window.
12. (optional) You can create additional email aliases (to be delivered to this mail box) by clicking the Edit... Aliases link.
13. (optional) If you click the Set Catch All link, all mispelled and/or non-existent email aliases at your domain will be delievered to this mail box.
14. Next, you want to download and install the latest version of Microsoft Outlook Express from the Microsoft website. It's a free download and comes bundled with Internet Explorer 6.
15. Launch Microsoft Outlook Express. This is an email client and will allow you to send and receive messages using the mail box you created earlier.
16. Within Outlook Express, from the Tools menu, select Accounts.
17. Within the Internet Accounts dialogue box that appears, select Add, and select Mail… from the dropdown menu.
18. The Internet Connection Wizard will load and ask you for your name. Enter your name as you would like it to appear to recipients of your email messages. Click Next.
19. Next, enter your email address (the same one you created earlier at Clientcentric). For example, support@YourDomain.com. Click Next.
20. Your incoming mail server is a POP3 server, so leave the dropdown menu alone.
21. For your incoming and outgoing mail servers enter: mail.YourDomain.com. Click Next.

22. For the Account Name, enter your email address. Then replace the "@" symbol with the "%" sign. For example, support%YourDomain.com.
23. Next, enter your password and click Next.

24. Congratulations, you have created your first email account. Please refer to Outlook’s Help menu for detailed instructions on using the program.

Add Credit Card Processing and Password Management

At this point, you should have your website loaded on your web server (including the members’ area). You should also have your email accounts setup on your personal computer, complete with virus protection and a firewall.

Now it's time to convert your website into an e-commerce site that accepts credit cards and has a password protected member’s area.

If you do some research, you will discover that there are numerous companies on the Internet selling shopping carts, complete with credit card processing. Unfortunately, many of these companies are either fraudulent or not capable of selling soft goods. Some of the larger companies that are very reputable include Verisign and Cardservice International, but they are not capable of selling memberships (soft goods) without a tremendous amount of costly programming and a dedicated web server.

Order iBill Credit Card Complete with Password Management

As a result, I always recommend Internet Billing Company (iBill). iBill specializes in technology designed for selling online memberships.

The product you want to order from iBill is called iBill Credit Card Complete with Password Management. iBill will give you everything you need to automatically password protect your members’ area and securely accept credit cards online, including MasterCard, VISA*, JCB, American Express, and Discover. The whole process is automated, meaning you can process orders while you are sleeping!

Perhaps the best part about iBill is there are no startup fees, and no surprise fees or special costs. They charge a 15% commission for every sale, so you only pay when a sale is made.

When you signup, iBill will provide you with complete instructions for enabling real-time credit card processing on your website. They provide the secure membership order form and instructions for creating your own Join Buttons and Approval page. Once you get everything configured, iBill’s secure Commerce Management Interface will help you track and manage all your orders online, eliminating the need for your own expensive database.

*VISA – If you create an adult website (high-risk), in order to accept VISA, you must pay a registration fee to become a VISA Sponsored Merchant. Details can be found on iBill’s website.

Password Management

Beyond credit card processing, iBill will also implement and manage your password system. They will install all the necessary files for password protecting your members’ area.

Here’s how it works: following a successful, real-time credit card transaction, a new member will automatically receive a username and password to access the members’ area. When his membership expires, the username and password will be deleted, and he will lose access to the members’ area. Everything is automatic, meaning less work for you! This is truly a great product. They even give you a Forgot password Button that you can place on your site for customers to retrieve their passwords online. If it were not for the Forgot password button, you would be inundated with emails requesting lost passwords.

Click Here to signup with iBill!

Password Protect your Members' Area

After ordering iBill Credit Card Complete with Password Management, contact iBill customer support and instruct them to install password protection on your website (you will have to grant iBill temporary FTP access). They will install three files: .htaccess, .htpasswd, and a Perl script. Without getting too technical, .htaccess is a file that is placed inside your members’ area folder that instructs your web server that a username and password are required to access the information. The usernames and passwords are stored in the .htpasswd file stored elsewhere on your server. The Perl script automatically manages the creation and deletion of usernames and passwords.

Use Caution when using FrontPage to Publish Members' Area Content

While this password protection scheme works well, FrontPage is capable of destroying it. That is, if you are not careful when publishing your members’ area subweb to your server, you may delete one of the above mentioned critical files (.htaccess, .htpasswd, iBillpm.cgi).

Here is iBill’s explanation of the problem:

After you've published your website to your server for the first time, you must make sure you do not choose the option to "Publish all pages, overwriting any already on the destination", or you will delete the Password Management files. Instead, after you've clicked Publish Web, click the Options button, and make sure that "Publish Changed Pages Only" is enabled.

Even when you do that, you will be asked if you want to delete files from your web server. If they are one of the three files listed above, click NO. If you click Yes, or Yes to All, you will delete the Password Management system. Saving the necessary files to your hard drive will not resolve the issue, since your password file will become outdated as new customers join. It's safest to click NO for deleting the files.

Do your Pre-Launch Testing

Once iBill has implemented password protection for you and you have made all the necessary modifications to accept credit cards on your website, you are almost ready to begin promoting your website. But first, spend considerable time proofreading your website and showing it to friends and family. Now is the time to catch your mistakes. This is a particularly good time to view your website on a variety of computers with different browser versions and screen resolutions. You may be surprised to discover that there are problems that need correcting. Also, be sure to test your ordering system for problems by completing a couple of “test” transactions; iBill offers a “testing” mode for this purpose.

Next Section: Market your Site