You need to know how to make a website if you are planning to go online. Here you will learn how to build your website, create pages, link the pages together and publish them to the internet. You also get to know what tools and services to use and where to get them.
Obviously, if you are planning an online business, you must know how to make a website. Proper planning before you start building your website pays off many times. Make sketches on paper for the layout and make a detailed overview of the content you plan to put on your pages.
Think about the navigation strategy (internal linking of pages) of your site as well. If you intend to make money with your website, put some thoughts into the monetization aspect also in the preparation work.
Tools and services you need to build your website:
•Website builder (software or online)
•FTP uploading (publishing) software
•Web hosting service
•Domain name
Concerning how to make a website, you have two options to create the pages that will make up your website (assuming you don't know HTML). You can either make the pages on your computer using a web page maker (software), or you can use an online site builder (on a web server) provided by your web hosting service (see below).
Using Website Building Software
If you don't know HTML programming and don't intend to learn it, you will need a web page maker program to create your pages. There are many applications that can do the job, even free software. Two good free site makers are Trellian WebPage and KompoZer. Both can make nice looking web pages.
However, if you plan to build an online business website you are much better off with professional software especially designed for making ecommerce websites. One of the best business website makers on the market today, is XSitePro.
Recommended is also Site Build It! , which is so much more than a site builder - it's a complete online business builder in-a-box with every tool and tutorial you can imagine (and some that you can't!).
Using an Online Site Builder
Most serious web hosting services offer a site builder (online - on their web server) as an integrated part of their service, included in the hosting fee. That is the case for the recommended hosting companies. They also have tutorials that help you learn how to make a website.
Some web hosting providers have a trial version of their sitebuilder making it's possible to try it before signing up for an account; you don't get to know the full version until you sign up, though.
If you don't know which kind of site builder you'd like to use, it makes sense to wait deciding on that until you have signed up for a hosting account and tried out their site builder.
Publishing Your Website
If you use the online website builder with your hosting service, your web pages automatically will be published as your build them.
If you are using a website maker on your computer however, you have to upload the pages from your computer to the web server, and you need an FTP Client (software) to accomplish that task.
Most web page builders (even free ones) have built in uploading features, but it's in many cases easier to use an FTP client, and you are more in control with the uploading process with an FTP program.
There are several free programs to choose among; the one I recommend is FileZilla.
Learn more on how to publish a website.
Domain Name
How to make a website also includes finding a good domain name, which should reflect your business name. It must be a unique name, different from all other domain names on the internet. Refer to Finding a Domain Name for in-depth explanation on how to find the best domain name and how to obtain it.
Website Hosting Service
As mentioned above your web pages have to be uploaded to a web server before they can go "live" and be available to visitors on the internet. What you do is buy (or rent) space for your site on a web server that a web hosting company owns. You pay them a monthly or yearly fee for the hosting service. See How to Host a Website for a complete explanation on how to find a quality website hosting service.
Recommended web hosting here.
Content on Web Pages
Most web site builders comes with templates that you can use "as is" or make modifications to fit your taste and style. Usually they have lots of templates covering many categories or themes, making it possible for most people to find a template they can use. Making a website using templates is much less work than doing it from scratch.
Basic content that you will put on your pages is text and pictures. The text you can type directly into a page or you can write it in Notepad or any word processor and then copy and paste it into the web page maker - no matter if you use an online or offline of the kind.
When you know how to make a website you certainly will enhance your pages with pictures and other graphics. Both header and footer of a web page are usually images, and you will have pictures of items you sell or promote on the site, graphics of different kinds, and more.
Find free photo editors, pictures and other graphics here: Tools & Services.
Linking Pages to Each Other
Last but not least you must have a linking strategy for your website. That strategy depends on several things, like how many pages your site will consist of, what structure it will have (how many levels deep, among other things), if there will be a natural hierarchy of pages and so on. Good planning of the link structure before you start building your site will save you lots of work later!
Refer to Plan Your Website Structure for an in-depth explanation on how to make the best site structure (including linking).