Website Building 101
Website Building 101: The pros and cons to owning your own website and which Web Hosts and Platforms are best suited for your business.
The best way to be able to sell your products is by creating your own website.
5 Pros to having your own website
1. You can brand yourself and acquire credibility.
Although you can brand your products on other sites, most won’t allow you to brand yourself entirely. Having your own website means branding every single piece of content and product to your own personal brand and in turn, establishing your credibility.
2. There’s less competition.
A lot of people may be selling the same products that you are, making it hard to compete on those well-known platforms.
If you’ve taken the time and effort of creating your own dedicated niche website, you have a much higher chance of ranking on Google and the other major search engines for those particular products.
Not to mention, you can increase traffic with SEO, fix broken links, add affiliate marketing, training courses, E-books, basically anything you want from having your own website.
3. You’ll make more money.
Within a sea of competitors your products need to stand out above the rest.
Sometimes this will mean dropping your prices or changing your designs to get more attention to actually sell.
Not only will you have to match prices with other competitors, but you’ll have to pay fees or commissions to every platform you’re selling on.
Having your own website means you get 100% of the profit from your sales and you can charge at a higher price point.
4. The advantage of email campaigns.
Having your own website means you can obtain subscribers.
The more subscribers you have, the more money you’ll ultimately be making.
There’s a good chance that once someone comes across your website, they’ll forget about it.
Having an email subscriber campaign reminds them of your website on a frequent basis.
If you have excellent content or products they love, they’ll also be more inclined to share your products or posts with their friends and family, gaining you even more recognition and more subscribers.
5. You’ll acquire profitable skills.
If you’ve never created a website before, there is so much you will learn and want to learn by designing your own.
You’re going to become one of Google and YouTubes’ biggest fans, and sometimes you’ll get distracted and start researching another topic and another, but in turn, you will be constantly learning.
Having the knowledge and skills can help you teach others how to do these things as well, which can help you build your income in the future.
TIP: Type or write down all of the things you learn that you want to remember, EVEN IF you think you’re sure to remember it.
Now lets talk about the cons.
5 Cons to having your own website
1. It’s time-consuming.
With most of the selling platforms, it takes minutes (after creating your products) to list them online and available for purchase.
When creating your own website, it’s going to take time, patience, and unless you already know exactly what you’re doing.
Additionally, you’ll be doing a lot of research.
This alone can take hours, days, maybe even weeks until you’re ready to actually start creating your website design.
2. You’ll run into problems.
When creating a store on other platforms, running into issues isn’t a big deal.
You can simply email support or chat with someone online to help you solve the issue you’re having.
When creating your own website however, your problems are just that – your problems, and finding the answers yourself can be quite challenging.
Lucky for you, YouTube has the answers to almost all of them you’ll run into.
3. The initial traffic will be low.
If you’re looking for success overnight (It’s possible of course but..) it’s not likely.
After you’ll officially launched your site you’re going to have a few months waiting to finally see some traffic and sales.
This brings us to the next con.
4. You’ll have to manually market your site.
Unlike those already established selling platforms, there’s going to be no way for anyone to find your site without marketing it.
You’ll have to manually share it on other sites, social media platforms, etc to start getting your traffic.
However, it will already be on google, so your goal will need to be to rank on the first page, and you can with the right content, keyword research, and SEO.
5. Consistent checking and updating.
Initially, when you launch your site, you’ll more than likely get emails warning you of broken links or pages, SEO changes, or glitches within your site until you’ve mastered all the details and crushed all the little issues. However, even after everything seems to be perfect, you’re still going to have to be checking constantly to make sure there are no issues and your website is running smoothly. Having a website is just like owning your own business, so making sure everything is in working order is going to have to be a priority.
Again, you can choose to, and should, figure out how to have both a website and sell on other platforms. If you’re ready to start building your own website there are some things you’ll need.
The 4 things you’ll need when starting a website
- Keyword research tool
- Trusted webhost (where your website information is stored on)
- Affordable domain name
- Strong building platform
When first starting out in building a website, figuring out the difference between a web host, building platform, and domain name can be confusing. Let’s put it into easier terms to understand.
Consider that you were going to build a house. The web host would be the land you build the house on, the building platform is the actual house, and the domain name would be your address.
A domain name.
As far as choosing a domain, there really isn’t a wrong answer.
Think about all of those top dog websites and their names (Google, Etsy, Bing, eBay) none of them are actually relevant to the content they’re putting out, so you don’t need to spend a whole lot of time with this.
There are several companies that provide domain names, but there are a few that we recommend slightly more than others.
You will find that some of the web hosts or platforms you choose will have the option to purchase a domain through them directly; however, they typically charge a little more.
Having price be a factor in picking a domain, we recommend Namecheap for multiple reasons.
6 reasons to use Namecheap
- It’s the most affordable
- 24/7 customer support
- Provides full DNS Access and a free SSL Certificate for 1 year
- Domain name security
- Extremely reliable
- Free domain email
Your next step is picking a web host. Like we went over earlier, it’s essential to have a web host. This is the land you’ll need to build your house (so to speak) and store all of your information.
Although some building platforms may come with a web host already integrated for you, some of them can be costly or not as user-friendly as these recommended hosts.
Depending on which building platform you choose, will help you decide which web host is best for you.
5 best Web Hosts for Website Building
1.Bluehost
- Beginner friendly
- Most famous and widely used web hosts
- WordPress’s #1 recommendation for their platform
- Easily integrateable
- Affordable
- Weekly automatic backups
- Fast load time
2.HostGator
- They’re environmentally conscious
- Has one of the highest uptimes
- There’s a 45 money back guarantee
- It’s easy to upgrade or downgrade your plan
Step by Step Tutorial to starting a blog using HostGator
3.DreamHost
- Better support than it’s competitors
- Benefits advanced users
- Slightly faster uptime than it’s competitors
- Easy to get refunds
4.HostMonster
- Has an excellent support team
- One of the most affordable
- Great for advanced users
- Allows for unlimited domains
- Owned by the same company as Bluehost
5.SiteGround
- Includes speed boosting for free
- Made specifically for beginners
- Offers free mitigation from other webhosts
- Free and automatic daily back ups
- Affordable
After you’ve chosen your web host, it’s time to integrate your platform.
Keep in mind that there are no wrong answers. All of the platforms below are used by some of the most successful websites out there; you’ll want to be focused on the one that works best for you and the website you’re creating.
5 Best Building Platforms for Website Building
1.WordPress
WordPress is the most used (60% of the web is powered by wordpress websites) and most popularly ranked in search engines.
Whether you’re starting a blog or building an E-commerce store, WordPress is a solid option.
With tons of plug-ins, features, and themes, this free website builder is great for beginners or advanced techs.
2.Wix
Wix is the top dog when it comes to free website builders, but it also offers some powerful paid plans. These start from as little as $8.50 per month for the Combo plan, which gets you 3GB of storage space, a free domain, and a free SSL certificate.
3.Squarespace
Squarespace is the top website platform to use if you’re website is based on blogging.
There are tons of features specifically for bloggers and writers including the ability to schedule posts, edit through your smartphone, and sync to your social media.
4.Weebly
While setting up your website through Weebly may take a little extra time, this website platform is well worth it.
Weebly is probably the best option for creating an E-commerce store, created in great regard to those looking to start a business.
An inventory tracker, product search tool, shopping cart, and secure checkout for your consumers are just a few of the features Weebly offers.
5.Site123
Site123 is a great option for beginners.
This website builder is probably the easiest to use when setting up a website and integrates well with social media platforms.
Additionally, Site123 offers services such as website domain registration, web hosting, eCommerce tools, and SEO support.
Unlike other websites, however, Site123 does not include a drag and drop feature.
All of your content must be uploaded to the site.
As for those more experienced website builders, you will find you’re limited in some functions compared to other sites.
Like mentioned earlier, the best platform for you is going to depend on what you’re doing with your website.
Whether you’re starting a blog, dropshipping, or selling your own digital products, having a website can give you a chance to build your brand as well as look professional.