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Basics: How to Set up a Website
What you should know about website creation (even before you start building):
- How to set up my own website: 5 things every beginner should know.
- Tip! Website Creation for Absolute Beginners: our free ebook, full of useful tips
- Website Builder Reviews: here you’ll find the right tool for your website project.
- How to create your own blog with these 8 steps.
- Setting up a membership website: the best and most easy-to-use providers.
- Start your own online store: everything you need to get started in ecommerce.
- Domain Connector Tool: you’ve already purchased a domain name and now want to use a website builder? This tool tells you how to connect your domain with site builders like Weebly, Jimdo or Wix.
Marketing: Start a Conversation With Your Visitors
If you don’t promote your site you won’t attract many visitors. Luckily there are some easy ways to fix this.
- Comparison of newsletter services: find detailed reviews of MailChimp, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign and many other email marketing tools. Also features a cost calculator.
- Live chat support: a great way to interact with your website visitors. Let us help you find the right provider.
- Create your own iOS or Android app: app makers don’t require any programming skills. Using push notifications you have a quick and easy channel to your customers.
- Animated Videos: consider creating a short animated video to present your company or product. It’s a lot easier than you think it is.
- Buy useful tools and resources with huge discounts at AppSumo and StackSocial.
- Learn how to write for the web and engage with your readers.
Professional Stock Photos
Great images at no or little cost that can make all the difference to your site:
- Creative Commons Search: search Flickr, Google and Yahoo at once for Creative Commons photos.
- Allthefreestock: Interesting CC-Search alternative.
- Tip! Da Button Factory: Nice little creator for buttons that include text, e.g. for call to actions like “Register now!”.
- Smashing Magazine: excellent icons and other freebies that can usually be used for even commercial purposes.
- Tip! Shiny Icon Maker: create free Web 2.0 icons for your site.
- Just as important as professional images: a professional font type. Dafont.com offers loads of great free fonts.
Tools and Plug-ins
The internet is a fantastic repository of free tools you can use to make your life easier. Here are some tools we use ourselves:
- Appointment booking: let your clients book appointments right through your website with Appointlet – integrates nicely with Google Calendar. We’re fans!
- Grammarly: avoid spelling mistakes and generally improve your writing with this handy plug-in. Freemium version available!
- Use Disqus for a more sophisticated blog commenting feature – includes email notifications, moderation and more.
- Talkwalker Alerts: get email alerts when your or your competitors’ brand is mentioned on the web.
- Email Obfuscator: want to avoid spam on your website? Use this tool to make your email address unreadable by spammers.
- Tip! Dropbox und Google Drive – share files with your coworkers. We use it quite extensively ourselves. Get 2 GB for free with Dropbox or 15 GB with Google Drive.
- HTTrack Website Copier: a brilliant tool to create backups of your website.
- Tip! Trello: an excellent tool to manage projects the Japanese ‘Kanban’ way. Can also be used to organize your to-do list.
- Tip! Screencasts: for short screencasts we can recommend CloudApp. It’s also great for sharing screenshots.
- Tip! Hexometer: analyses your website every day to find broken links. It also alerts you if your site goes offline and keeps track of your loading speed. All for free!
Web law
Know your rights before launching your website!
- Legal requirements: comprehensive list of legal information for the U.S. and UK.
- Website Law Blog: find information on numerous topics, for a UK audience.
- And here is more on the legal situation for ecommerce stores.
Free Web Analytics
Two free professional web statistic tools:
- Google Analytics is THE standard in web analytics. We highly recommend it. Learn how to add it to your website in our tutorial.
- For advanced users: Clicky gives you a real-time picture of your website traffic. It’s a great way to understand how they navigate your site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Boost Your Traffic
SEO starts with your choice of website builder, and includes both On-Page Optimization (everything that happens on your site) and Off-Page Optimization (backlinks from other sites to yours).
- Tip! Moz’s: free beginners guide: nicely illustrated crash course on SEO.
- Google SEO guideline (PDF): why not check what the world’s most important search engine has to say?
- Google Webmasters: register your new site here for detailed insights.
- Link Building Strategies: PointBlankSEO features a fantastic resource with ideas to find backlinking opportunities.
- Speed up your website: our free image compression tools helps you with that.
- Analyse your website for SEO: rates several key factors.
- HyperSuggest: discover what people are searching for to improve your content.
- Getting backlinks to your site: Great compilation of 41 tips that you may not have thought about.
Monetize Your Website
There are numerous ways to make money online, for example start an online shop and sell things, or be an affiliate for another company. Here are some great resources to get you started:
- Smartpassiveincome.com: Pat Flynn’s highly recommended blog. No pop-up banners, no sales pages. Simply great content.