Building A Website - More Difficult Than EMail But Easier Than You Think

Building a basic website is not difficult, although some exposure to HTML beforehand can make it even easier.  Even so (and even without prior exposure to, or familiarity with, HTML, building a website is a relatively easy (although sometimes frustrating and usually time-consuming) task.

Whether free or paid, most hosting sites offer user-friendly site-builders with access to help.  Some offer tutorials.  Gaining a little familiarity with the basics of the site-builder is probably the biggest challenge, but the good news is that challenge isn't an awfully difficult one to overcome.  It just takes a little "playing" with the features.

Site-builders generally offer ready-designed templates, so the user needs only to select the one of his choice.  Some templates can be customized more than others, so before selecting a ready-made template it's worth reading the description of it to see whether things like the heading and colors can be changed.  Easily customizable templates are the best choice for someone who has little or no background in site-building.

For the person who knows nothing about creating his first website, the first step is to get a domain name.   The domain name will be the name of the website.  You can find a domain host by first searching for something like, "inexpensive domain hosting" or "low-cost websites".  (You can also, if you are so inclined, search for "premium website hosting".  I've assumed most people would prefer a less expensive one to start.)

After getting enough search results, it's always wise to look for reviews or discussions about any hosting site.  It's also wise to compare pricing, services, and terms. 

Some domain hosts charge for just the domain name.  What getting the domain name means is that you will reserve the name, and you may get a "coming soon" page, on which you can post basic contact information.  In order to build the site you would need to then pay for the site, separate from paying for the domain name.

While some hosts charge very little for just the domain name, others may charge more but include with it the website, itself. 

These differences are things to look for when deciding on a host; because some (such as GoDaddy) will charge the higher annual rate for the name, but then offer the website "free" (which then allows GoDaddy to put advertisements above the website, and to advertise themselves; as well as post the statement, "This site is hosted free...").  A host like Yahoo may charge very little for the domain name, but it is "established" that your website is not free.  Essentially, the annual cost to have a basic site is approximately between $12 and $20.

An additional expense may be an additional $10 optional fee, which will keep your name and account information out of a world-wide directory of people who have websites.  (I think of this as "protection money".)

Once you have established your domain name and paid for the site, it's generally easy to navigate to the site-builder and/or "help" section. 

It's wise, of course, to have a vision of what you want to include on your site before you start to build it.  It also makes sense to have any files you'll want uploaded ready to go.  In the beginning, when you're still unfamiliar with the site-builder, you can always copy and paste text into the text blocks on your site-builder.

Since site-builders are designed to be user-friendly, many of the things you would want to do are self-explanatory.  For example, your site may have an image library, to which you can add your images and from which you can then include them on the various pages of your site.  Doing something like adding pages is very easy.

One thing that can make building a site a little easier is to practice a little on a free blog site.  Blogs and web sites operate in much the same way; although, of course, site-building is just slightly more complicated because blogs often do for you what you need to do yourself on your own site.  The person who has not designed a blog or two may be at a slight disadvantage over someone who has at least that much experience, but this doesn't mean that a complete novice would find building a site too difficult.  Blog experience does give someone a little head-start, though.

Something that helps when it comes to building a site, however, is that - obviously - nothing is "written in granite".  It's all written into that user-friendly site-builder, which offers a way to preview, publish, revise, and then publish again.

The complete novice who wishes to build his own website should begin by getting a domain name and site.  The best idea may be to set out to build a very simple site, with "the basics" on it.  Doing this will give the new user experience with the site-builder.  Depending on how good a "muddler" one is, peforming the basic tasks on the site-builder may not require much use of the "help" feature at all.  Once the site has taken basic shape, the new user can then learn to do the "fancier" things.

For the most part, basic computer skills are really all that is needed to build a basic website.  The more experience and skills, the better; but basic skills will fairly easily get you a basic website.