Launching a web site

So you want to get started online with your business presence hun!!.Having a website is the first step in that direction.If you blog occasionally about your website or products that you do business with,that will help promote your website and products too.You should create an account on Blogger,Wordpress or Today.com and starting blogging before actually launching your website officially.

Choose the Layout/Design

You should consider choosing the design and content of your site before thinking of launching it. It is important to have this done well in advance before you begin the site launch process. It is important, for example, that you not only have the layout and style of your site finalised before you consider launching, but that you also have a minimum amount of content prepared for you site prior to launching it. Here are few places you can look for good design layouts for your site.If you have some html knowledge,that will be a plus.

freewebsitetemplates

freesitetemplates

templatesbox (some good flash layouts)

freelayouts

metamorphozis

steves-templates

templateyes


Finalize the Site Contents & Functionality

Launching a half finished, incomplete site with little or no actual content only discourages first-time visitors to your site from ever coming back. If your site is of an e-commerce nature and you intend to provide goods or services, it is crucial for your company's image to ensure that all the procedures are in place to process orders through your site before you go ahead and launch it.

Proofread the contents/functionality

Upon the completion of your site you may decide to have a design firm or site manager launch the site for you, but this will cost you extra. The alternative is to launch the site yourself, which will save you money while giving you valuable experience in setting up and maintaining your own site. This will save you a bunch of hassles in troubleshooting any problems or enhancing the capabilities of your site yourself.

Choose the Domain Name

One of the important steps you need to take is to secure your domain name, which is the address that your future client will type into their browsers in order to reach your site (e.g. www.YourName.com or www.yourbusinessname.com etc.). The actual content of your domain name is largely up to you, and will reflect your business name and image.
Domain names, in general, are quite cheap to purchase and can be bought for 1-5 years at a time. Once you have decided on your name, you must now go to a domain name registrar (such as www.networksolutions.com or www.3ix.com) to check and see if that name is available. If it is not, then you will have to change your choice of domain name slightly, or perhaps go for a .NET instead of a .COM, for example. Please note that it used to be that .com domains are mainly used for commercial purposes but nowadays, you can also go with .net or .org domains.

Choose the Website Hosting company

Now that you have bought your domain name, you will need to purchase some space on a web server to physically 'host' (store) your web site, so that it will be available to your clients, 24hrs a day. There are some companies that will do a good job and some can be horrible experiences.
Try one of following:

3ix
networksolutions
GoDaddy

I will add more to this list later.

Web site set-up

Now that you have secured your domain name and hosting option for your site for the first year, it is time to think about how you are going to launch the site. This can be a little technical,but with right knowledge,you can do it.Search through Google and online documentation to get an idea and master it. You have three options:

1. Launch the site yourself using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. If you know what you are doing, it is the most economical option.
2. Let your web designer/firm launch the site for you, using FTP.
3. Let the web host firm place the site on the server for you. If your web designer has given you the site on a disk, for example, you can provide this disk to the web host firm so that they can set it up for you for a small fee.

Your site may encounter some early problems which can be filtered using technical help of hosting company.Try to learn as much as possible because it will save you more headaches later.

The key to launching your site successfully is to be realistic about costs and the time you can devote in maintaining it in future. Also sticking with only do those actions that you know you are capable of doing, and pay professionals to do the rest. The days of dot com's spending $1 million on the building of a web site before it has even been launched are over, that kind of venture capital is just not there anymore. The low-cost approach holds the answer to your future e-commerce success.