1) Buy a domain name (yourname.com or what you want it to be).
To buy a domain name I use godaddy.com. On their home page you just fill in the domain you want and they will immediatly tell you if it’s available. The cost is usually around $10 a year for a dot com and a bit less for dot net or dot us. If you use the same company to host your website they will usually include the cost (one year) of the domain name.
2) Sign up for a hosting service.
Simply put, a host is a computer server where your website will live. You need a host to have your site published. A hosting service should cost you around $7 a month, but some offer the website free as long as you pay them to host it.
3) Build your site.
To build a basic site you can use any of these links to build a (free) website (as long as you use them for a hosting service). Actually if you Google “free website” you will have a choice of over 900 million hits, but these links on the right will give you an idea of what it takes to put one together.
4) Launch your site.
Once your site is finished you will need to follow the instructions of the hosting service to get it online. If you use the same company to build it and host it, you usually just click on a “submit” or “publish” button.
5) Register your site (free) with the popular search engines.
This is a must. You go to these sites and just register your domain with them. Registering your site will not make your site immediatly appear on page one of a property search. A site has to be optomized to raise its ranking in the web and this takes time and effort. You will have to put in some study time to learn about site optomization, but for now you can advertise your site in your print ads as well as on your business cards. If you want to force your site to appear on the first page in a search your only option is to just throw money at the proplem by paying Yahoo and Google to have your site appear in their “Sponsored Search” area. These sites will direct you to the Yahoo and Google sponsored pages. Basicly you set a daily limit for a budget and list keywords that you want your site to be connected to (such as “fort myers real estate”). Both services provide easy steps to set up this service... or you can always just contact me ☺ 239.333.5268
