Setting up your first website can be a major challenge. If you have not done enough preparation and planning you will battle to set up your own website.

The best part about setting up your own website is the time you save - yes! every time you want to make any changes you can do them immediately. It is very important to take advantage of the opportunities given by certain products where you get a professional website which you, yourself build from scratch.

The problem with trying to build a 'free' site is having to find all the different pieces that finish a site professionally.

This is the one area where it is worth an investment. You can be presented with so many different options, programming languages and then of course the web terminology is enough to make your head spin. It is hard to know where to begin or what to do. Even when you follow guidelines given by other people, until you actively set it up yourself you will not understand your own Website.

Try not let yourself be distracted by unnecessary complication. If you have a proper plan and follow a simple process you will have a website in no time. Research, Develop and Cultivate your plan.

1. Website Framework
Websites have a specific code framework and if you do not set up your website with the right files and codes you will have endless problems.
The best thing I can suggest is that you invested some money and buy yourself a suitable website program so that you can learn about all the different aspects needed to run a successful website. You will also be guided with tutorials to setup your own personal website and the program will take care of all the necessary code files that need to be incorporated into your site. A lot of the code is hidden but needless to say needs to be part of any website.

2. Picture your Site
Before trying to build your web site - investigate other sites and give yourself an idea of what you want your site to look like and what you want to achieve. Once you have done this, setting up your web site will be much easier.

3. Know your Target Market
Your main aim when building a web site will be to attract your target market.

You need to build a website to attract targeted web visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. If you are not in your own target market find someone who is and ask them what attracts them to a website. Always do research, do not assume you know everything. You do not need to just get visitors you need to turn visitors into customers and customers into returning customers. With this is mind - build a site that attracts customers and keeps them coming back. Have a good look at your most successful competitors because if they are attracting customers and making sales - they have to be doing something right.

4. Keep It Simple
Make your website easy to use. Keep your website attractive, clean and neat and make it easy for your visitors to navigate on your website.

5. Quality Content
Ensure that all content on your site is quality, good grammar and no spelling mistakes. Make it interesting and knowledgeable so that you get return customers. Ensure that your graphics and data are clean and crisp of high quality. Ensure that your page theme is inviting to your customers and reflects what you are all about.

6. Growing and Expanding
The advantage of purchasing and learning to set up your own website is that you can make changes whenever you want. Your first web site will need regular updating and you may want to expand in a short space of time as your knowledge and experience grows.

Do not agonize over your first web site - follow the training, build it, test it and launch it - you will learn from the results and be able to make improvements daily. It takes time for visitors to find your site so you can launch a site and spend a few days testing all the attributes and making changes