How to create, run & manage your own website - Part III

Howdy!

This is the concluding part of the series that talks about creating, managing and running your own website. Let's have a brief overview of part I and II

In Part I: We discussed the basics of having your own website. Having your own domain, web space and bandwidth.

In Part II: We talked about different web hosting plans and content management systems and other software you might need to run your website.

Now, let's assume you have purchased your own domain, web space and installed the software you need to run the website. Now comes the most important part - managing your website. So pay attention, this will give you a peek into what it takes to run your website.

I'll classify this article into different sections with titles that give you an idea of what all is required. This not 100% perfect list; but it will surely give you a good start.

1. Traffic: The success of most of the website depends on how much traffic they drive. Traffic in simple terms the number of users a website attracts. Mind well; getting traffic to your website is no child's play. It requires lot of patience, time, efforts and learning to attract traffic to your website.

There are few rules to attract traffic -

a. Content: Unless you have unique content; it's almost impossible to attract visitors. You should always present your users with new and content which users find relevant.

b. SEO: This is short for Search Engine Optimization. In simple terms, it's about tweaks that you do in your website so that your website appears on first or at the most second page of popular search engines. This is a huge topic and lot of information is available on the Internet that might help you. Keep reading!

c. Word of mouth: Trust me, nothing beats word of mouth advertising. I've learned it over past three years. When your friends' friend tells his/her friend about your website - you've achieved something.

d. Regular update: No one wants to read the same content every time they visit your site. This is a painful task! But quite an important one.

2. Analysis: You must analyze your traffic. There are wonderful, free traffic analysis tools available. The leading free service is 'Analytics' by Google. Very simple to use and very useful. All you have to do is install a simple code provided by Analytics on your website and you're done. Google does the math for you.

3. Monetizing: I've been asked queries on how to monetize a website. Again, there are no short cuts to earning great sums of money. The simplest way to monetize your website is to subscribe to Google Adsense. Install their code on your website and you're done. There are many networks that may work for you. But above all - the direct advertisement works the best! 😀

4. Security: You can't ignore this one. Always have the latest version of software that you run on your website and harden the server. The security also depends on your web host. Always choose a good web host for your website. I'd pay more for a better host that provides better security than a cheaper host that does not pay lot of attention to site security.

These are the starters for you. There is lot of fun involved in running a website and watching it grow. Feel free to ask any queries you may have in our technical discussion sections. General queries may go in this thread.

I hope you enjoyed reading these articles and got information about what it takes to have your own website.