I have about five websites now but only a few were successful. But I have learned what works and what doesn't.

Follow up:

Before you purchase a domain name or web hosting space we should take a look at what a website is made of. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the basic script that it used to make a website. To learn about html and its structure I recommend you visit this great website: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp

Premade websites to learn from

That will take you through some html. So what if you don't want to get into the details of what is going on and you want to start a blog. If you are interested in starting a blog I would recommend you go to www.b2evolution.net and download their PHP script and upload it to your file host in the directory where your domain will look for the index file. Further questions about b2evolutions PHP blog script can be found in their forums.

Lets say you want to just get a premade website and start adding content. This is possible by downloading html and css files from.
www.freecsstemplates.org
www.free-css.com
But I would recommend you learn both html and CSS rather than use a premade design.

What is CSS?

CSS is called Cascading Style Sheets. Websites used .css files to simplify and the HTML files. Not only that, but it makes it easier and faster to write HTML code. And overall, the code looks clearer. Basically css files store formatting styles that can be referenced from the HTML page.

Server side script

"The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing web based software applications." www.tutorialseek.com/blog/glossary/

Lets talk about PHP. PHP is another script that is used to make websites. To some it is considered a programming language. But for the most part, it is a script that runs on the server side of the website. This means that your computer does not run any of the code. The PHP is meant to do the work on the server. A simple function that PHP could return is the date and time of the server.

Designing a dynamic website

The major reason people use PHP is because of MySql; a database system and language. MySql is relatively easy to learn. When you move beyond just HTML and into the realm of PHP and MySql you can create dynamic websites that have databases such as search engines, social networking websites, and file hosts. The PHP is a means of processing data to and from a database. When you send an email or post something on the internet it is stored into a database. A database for our concerns, is just a table of information. Like an excel spreadsheet. Much of this can be learned at www.w3schools.com.

Other things to consider when making a website

There are other aspects to a website such as audience and usefulness. This website may be useful to people that are trying to find out something relating to computers. The audience is important because you need to know that there are people viewing your website.

What webhosting service should I choose?

You may want to know what web hosting is good for you. I recommend doing as much research as possible. Get a web hosting service that works well and has good support. I have tried several web hosting services. www.1and1.com seems to have a simple, user-friendly way of handling website administration. I seem to like www.hostupon.com at the moment because of their features and great price.

To see if a website name (domain name) is available go here:

http://centralops.net/asp/co/DomainCheck.vbs.asp

conclusion about designing a website

Hopefully that will get you in the right path of making a website. One of the important ideas to remember for a website is that is should be made for the audience and no other purpose. If your plans are to make money then you will be fooled. The content is very important because that is what makes a good website. Of course, there are other aspects such as website design and userfriendly feel. But that content is very important when setting up a website.

Making money with a website

If you would like to make money then look into some pay-per click advertising. Probably the most widely used advertising service today is Google Adsense. Try it out and have some fun making websites. Much of the technical stuff can be found at www.w3schools.com