Often, the questions from the webmaster-to-be on how much can be set free website. This article provides the basic cost breakdown, arranged in accordance with the categories.
The basic idea
Of those asking this question are obviously people who have not yet begun website, I should mention that this article follows my AZ Beginner's Guide to Starting / Creating Your Own Website closely. Should be consulted to guide for more details so you'll have a clearer idea about what is involved in creating the site.
The analysis of the cost for setting Website
Since the price of the various components of change from time to time, I am connected to the site, provided that the price, except the mention of a general figure here. You should always follow the links to suppliers' websites to get the latest up-to-date prices, because the ballpark figure I list here May not be correct by the time you read this. (Prices are in U.S. dollars.)
Domain Name
Basic "must" in the web page is buying your own domain. Is simply no substitute. Prices for domain registrar is different from registrar, and (at the time when I wrote this article) is about $ 10 or so a year. You can find the exact price of the domain for some popular registration in the article How to Register your own domain name
Since the domain name is required for health and longevity of your website, this price must always be factored into your budget when planning a website. Almost everything else can be substitutes if you do not have money, but my general rule-of-thumb is to never start a website without a domain name. Web sites that do not have their own domain to use your web host is a subdomain name (for example, your-site-name.example.com where the web host name is example.com). Such places are completely at the mercy of that web host. When the latter closes, your site is gone. If the host suddenly decides to charge you for the exhorbitant price of hosting your site, you will have no choice but to obey.
Web Hosting
If you want to use a commercial web host, you'll need to factor in costs as well as web hosting. This is a monthly fee you must pay the web host. Some hosts offer discounts if you pay a year (or more) in advance. Prices vary from a web host web host than usual (at the time when I wrote this article) is about $ 10 per month if your website is new and does not have a lot of traffic or data. You can find actual prices charged by many web hosts on the Budget Web Hosting page. As your site gets more traffic, or if you need to put a lot of large files on your site, you May need to upgrade your site to a web host's high-cost plans.
Those who are not earning an income (for example, students), and only the creation of web pages or personal web site hobby that will earn any money can not use a free web host that gives free domain hosting. Such a web host will allow you to host your domain with them without charging any hosting fees. In exchange, most of them will also place advertisements on your site to recoup the cost of hosting your site. (May there be other restrictions, but as they say, beggars can not be choosers.)
Note, however, that with free hosting web host is risky business. The free web hosts, I tested are often "down" times, times during which your site is unavailable. One of them had a server that is down for almost two months during December last year and January this year, the peak period for many business Web sites. Needless to say, when your site is down, you will receive visitors there is not some money. If you run a web-based business earn money, or with your site through advertising, you should not use the free web host.
In addition, as mentioned in my article, those Disappearing Free Web Hosts, free web hosts come and go with alarming frequency. I do not believe their promises that they will take a long time - there are many free web hosts that I studied in the past have promised that they will be around forever because of its deep pockets, corporate finance, long-term planning, blah blah blah. Nevertheless, they are now extinct. Some have closed shop and others began to charge for its services, because they found that their financial situation has changed. If you host on a free web host, make sure you have your own domain name, so you can easily change web hosts when it closes.
Software
The exact software you need for your website depends on the type of Web page you want to set.
If you blog, you'll probably do just fine using the free software, such as those on the Free PHP Blogging Software page. However, if you have enough resources, you May want to choose the software is not based on the price tag (or lack of same) but on their characteristics, and whether it suits your needs. In such a case, you May want to see my brief comparison of three such software: WordPress vs. Drupal vs. Expression Engine: Blog Software Which should I use?
The above is an overview of relevant for people who want to establish a system for content management, or "CMS" for your site. CMS software allows you to manage your web page directly from the browser without having to use a web editor. Free CMS script can be found at the Free Content Management Systems (CMS) PHP Scripts page.
Whether you use a CMS or blogging software, you need an FTP client, a program that allows you to transfer files from your own computer to your web host computer. There are many free FTP programs available. I personally use a commercial FTP program called WS_FTP.
For those who do not want the overhead CMS or blogging software, with a normal web editor is the way to go. If you have money, Dreamweaver comes highly recommended by many (if not most) professional webmasters. This software is expensive ($ 399 last time I checked), but this is one cost, productivity and profit from the use (in relation to the use of free tools) is unseen. Otherwise, you can use free software such as NGOs or KompoZer. While the free web editors have certain limitations (and unfixed bugs), they are still functional enough to create simple web pages.
If you create your own graphics for your website, you will probably need a program for creating and editing images too. At least you'll probably want to create a logo for your site. This can be done using image editing for free or commercial tools such as the famous Photoshop. Free tool will probably be more than enough for those creating a one-off images (such as site logo) for your web pages. On the other hand, if your graphic design forte, and you see yourself repeatedly creating graphics, or editing photos, Photoshop May it make your life easier in the long run. Photoshop is $ 649 last time I checked.
(For related note, if you buy both Dreamweaver and Photoshop, on May be cost effective to obtain Adobe Web Premium Suite, a package that includes Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Acrobat and other things. I did not, and eventually pay more when I bought the piece of software a certain period of time.)
Optional expenditures
If the sale of goods or services on your site, you also want to May set aside some money for advertising. There are many ways you can advertise your site, such as in newspapers, magazines, TV, as well as over the web. Since the costs for ads in traditional media varies from country to country, you'll have to do your own research.
Advertisements on the Internet can take many forms. For example, you can advertise on Yahoo! Sponsored Search (which puts your ads on Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN), Ask Sponsored list (which places ads on Ask, Excite, Match.com, Gifts.com, etc.), or on some Web sites that you like. The amounts required for such advertisements vary from program to program and Web site on the web site.
As mentioned above, if you are on a shoestring budget, you can usually get by with just buying a domain, design, and with free things for the rest. Your website May be available from time to time, and May you have to fight your web editor to get it to work the way you want, but for simple personal web pages that are not selling anything, and do not need to be always available , this should not pose a significant problem. Commercial sites, on the other hand, should not be penny wise and pound foolish.
