Buy Domain Name (that’s your online website address)
www.Vodien.Com
Go there to buy your .SG and .COM.SG domain names. Free domains for newly registered Singapore companies.
www.GoDaddy.Com
Buy Hosting Plan (that’s your online c:\ drive)
- Very responsive customer service
- Remote assistance, i.e. they enter your PC and help you solve any hosting/email problem
- Pretty good speed
- Singapore hosting company with servers in Singapore and United States
Set Domain Name Server (DNS) (tell your website where to get the files and contents)
Setup your email accounts
Install a Content Management System (CMS) (No more coding, just click your way to a website)
Content Management System (CMS) is like a Microsoft Office, that allows you to click around to manage your website’s pages and contents. For the beginning I recommend WordPress, visit www.WordPress.Org for more information. It’s the fastest and easiest to start with.
See video on Content Management System (CMS): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLJ-Lie_ks
See video for a 1.5 minute video on WordPress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLJ-Lie_ks&feature=related
http://www.vodien.com/tutorials/fantastico-voice/fantastico-wordpress.html
Read before you start! It’s not that easy, hard work involved!
I hope you scroll to this section before you start. There’s still a lot of hard work involve to customize your web site to suit your corporate identity. Go to YouTube and search “WordPress Tutorial”, there are a lot of features that you’ll need to learn.
Word of caution, there are many Plugins that some of the sites will try to sell you. You can probably do most of the functions you want with the FREE Plugins on www.WordPress.Org.
Look through some of the articles and videos online before you Do-It-Yourself (DIY), else you may end up paying someone else to finish what you started.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Websites are useless if people can’t find it)
How many pages of Google Search results do you go through? Probable answer will be 1 – 3 pages. So if your website doesn’t appear on your friend’s PC (because Google knows you always visit www.MyCompany.Com, so your PC is not a good gauge) after 3 – 6 months of completion, the website won’t bring in leads / money for you.
Good thing about SEO is, if it’s done right, your website will appear on search results at no additional cost to you. This is another massive subject on its own.
Adwords – Google Advertising based on keywords (if you’re feeling rich)
When you search in Google, you see small boxes in “Ads”, those are paid advertisements. When I click on your advertisement, you will be charged by number of clicks (repeated clicks by same person is not counted). Cost per clicks can range from a few cents to a few dollars, depending how many other competitors are fighting for the same keywords as you. Adwords runs on a bidding system.
E.g. “moon cake” keyword will definitely cost more during Mid-Autumn festival. It’s supply and demand, you get the idea.
DANGER: remember to set daily budget and keyword maximum bid. Otherwise Google Adwords system will bid a “Sure Get” price, this means a higher advertising cost to you. Set daily budgets, otherwise your Adwords expenses will balloon and you’ll get a bill shock.
This is another topic by itself. Adwords similar to SEO, businesses are created to just to provide such services.