One of the components for a successful home-based business is a working commercial website for promoting products or services. Although the information about website creation is already out there and freely available, it is scattered about over the Internet, often incomplete and hard to locate at a later time. For those of you who want to start a home business, it seems to be a daunting task to create your own website, and it's frustrating to find yourself get stuck and have no clues at all after spending lots of time doing research online. I totally understand this frustration because I've been there. This is the reason why I'm writing this article. I'll give the basic steps for building a website but won't cover the subjects related to selecting server software, image maps, Java applets, and so on so forth, which fall into the category of advanced WWW administration.

The basic components required to build a working website include:

1. Register a domain name:

If you're creating a website that's industry specific, you should purchase a domain name that's relevant yet easy to remember. Ask yourself what could make a cool name. It's important to choose a domain name that has meaning for your business. You must understand that many good names have been taken with more than 10 years of public access to the Internet. Using dashes will make it easier for you to register a domain name that you like. For example, you can select 'ebay-products-reviews.com' as your domain name. 'GoDaddy.com' has tools that make this process easier, and they are the about the cheapest. Here is a money saving tip: some web hosting companies provide free domain names with the purchase of their packages!

2. Choose a hosting account:

Having a hosting account means you are allocated a disk space (webspace) on a computer by a hosting company. It is set up so that people typing your domain name into their browsers will be connected your webspace. There is a wide range of hosting companies and packages you can choose from. Several different types of hosting are also available. If you are just creating a small home business website, then a basic Unix or Windows hosting package will be suitable for you. Both of these servers support HTML. However, the Windows server is for websites developed in .asp while the Unix server is for PHP websites. Hosting is inexpensive, but it's better to have a good one with enough bandwidth and space. Lots of web hosting companies even allow you to host multiple domains and sub-domains on their servers, which is good because it will add scalability to your business.

3. Deal with DNS settings:

The domain name system (DNS) is a global network of servers that translate host names into numerical IP addresses, which computers on the Internet use to communicate with each other. For example, the domain name 'www.your-site.com' might translate to '187.210.24.84'. In providing a worldwide redirection service, DNS makes it possible for us to use an intuitive domain name to locate a website, instead of memorizing its hard-to-remember IP address. Hosting companies usually provide primary and secondary domain name servers. You need to copy your DNS information and change it within the DNS settings of the domain that you purchased. For instance, if you purchased a domain from 'GoDaddy.com', you would have to access your DNS settings and update the DNS info. It usually takes 3 days to resolve your URL and let your website display on the Internet under your domain name. With all of this being said, if the domain name is included in your hosting package, you won't have to worry about changing your DNS settings. Your hosting company will take care of this for you.

4. Write content or create websites' files:

This is one thing that only you, the webmaster, can do. I don't want to stress the importance of content here. Many websites don't stand a chance of attracting free traffic from search engines simply because of the lack of fresh content. To make your business a success, you need to think about what you have to offer for your visitors. You have to come up with ideas to satisfy their needs or curiosity and make your website more 'sticky'. Don't forget to keep the content on your site fresh as time goes on. If you don't have time but want fresh content to put on your website, you may want to check out 'Just Articles Home Business Niche Article Club', which provides its members with 30 fresh and original content articles every month at a low price.

5. Upload websites' files to the hosting server:

After you have your hosting and domain set up, you need an FTP program to upload your website's files. You will be required to enter server specific information, such as FTP host, login, and password. All of the required info will be provided by your hosting provider. In my experience, web hosting companies usually have their own upload tools. In this case, you won't have to install an FTP program. If you use programs like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or XSitePro, they all have FTP programs built in and are very easy to use.

The goal of this article is to give you easy steps to follow in the process of creating a website. Building a website is just a starting point on your way to establishing a home business. Driving prospects to your website is the next step you will have to take to earn automatic lifetime income. There are many techniques you can implement in driving traffic and turning tire kickers into buyers. These are the areas you'll have to work on. However, creating your own website means you are an action taker, and you will be one of the successful home business stories if you promote your website in a right way and do it consistently.