102 Creating your own website in 15 minutes

The internet is a great source of new business and we haven’t yet started to scratch its surface.

I know what you are thinking here. You are thinking that the internet marketplace is for the bright young nerds who are making a fortune on e-bay, but this is just not true. Even if you think that “Java” is coffee and “Flash” is what men do in raincoats in the park. You can still make use of the internet to sell your products or services very easily.

The first thing you need is a website. Wait a minute! Don’t switch off just yet. A website does not have to be a 100 page monster that costs half the national debt to create. You can create a website in 10 minutes for free! (yes YOU!)

It is very easy to do and as long as you know how to switch on the computer and connect to the internet you too can be the proud owner of a website selling your products or services. In fact, it is so easy that I recommend that you consider doing it for each of your products.

The easiest way to create a website is to create a “Blog”. Blogs were originally designed as an internet diary, and bloggers (everyone has a name on the internet) compete with each other to have the most interesting (and therefore the most sought after) blog.

Blog software is, however, the easiest to use and you can easily create a blog for yourself for FREE, in just 10 minutes. Let me explain how it is done:

1. Switch on your computer and make sure it is connected to the internet
2. Open your internet software (usually Internet Explorer) and type in the following address: https://www.blogger.com/start.
3. I will be creating the website in Blogger which is Google’s free blog generator. There are others out there to choose from I just use Blogger because it seems to be the easiest, and they don’t insist on you using their advertising.
4. If you like you can cruise around the site learning more about how it all works but for now we are going to create the site.
5. Click on “Create your Blog Now”
6. If you haven’t got a Google account you will have to do this now. Follow the instructions, it costs nothing and all you have to have is an e-mail address.
7. Keep following the instructions and you will get to the Blogger Dashboard. You are now ready to create your blog.
8. Click on “Create your Blog Now”
9. Type in the name of your Blog. Anything will do here… “Fred’s Spanners”
10. Now type in the URL name. This will be http://www.(yoursitename).blogspot.com. Again you can type in anything you like to describe the content of your site.
11. You are now directed to the template page. You can choose what you want your blog to look like. It doesn’t matter what you choose because you can change it later. Click on one of the templates, then press “Continue”
12. Click “Start Blogging” and you will be directed to a page that you have to complete with your first article or information.
13. Fill in the title at the top and then some description of your product or service.
14. Click on “Post Article” and you are away.
15. You can click on a button to view your blog, but I recommend you click on the “Layout” tab, and add a few interesting additions.
16. Click on “Add a Gadget” on the right hand column and you can add pictures, videos, slide shows, text, pretty much anything.
17. Keep referring back to your Blog to see how you are going.
18. Don’t forget to put your telephone number or contact details so that people can contact you to buy…..

How simple is that? It has probably taken longer to read this that it does to start your own website. Now we have to drive people to your website, and we will look at that in the next issue

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph