How to create Site

Site design is critical to increasing your AdSense revenue. Both Google (the
Brains Behind It All) and AdSense users (Average Janes and Joes working in
the Web trenches) have tested different combinations of content, ad placement,
and ad design to see what works best. There are some clear leaders —
site design is important, and it all starts with the site name.
Name and address, please
Okay, it’s time for the Obvious Tip of the Week: The name of your site should
be closely related to the topic of your site. There’s also more to your name
than just a name; a well-designed site has a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) —
fancy talk for a Web site address — that reflects the site name.
The URL is the address that you see in the address bar of a Web site. For
example, you don’t want a Web site named TheKittenPalace.com if your
target topic is dogs or tropical fish. If you look at Web sites, you’ll find that
the content on the site is usually closely related to the site name Domain names come in two flavors: free and premium (or not free). A free
domain name is usually used with Web pages that are hosted in a Web site
community, whereas a premium domain name is usually hosted all by itself.
Think of domain names like a neighborhood. An apartment in a complex at the
end of the street usually has to share the same address as several other apartments
(those in the same building), the only difference being the apartment
number. Houses, on the other hand, have the luxury of their own address.
Free domains are available from a number of sources, including
Google Pages: (www.pages.google.com): A free service you can use
when you create your Web pages with Google Page Creator.
Geocities: (http://geocities.yahoo.com): This free Web hosting
provider has been around for a while. If you don’t mind someone else
controlling the ads on your site, it’s a good option.
Homestead: (www.homestead.com): Another free hosting provider,
Homestead offers templates that make creating your Web site fast and easy.
Free WebSites: (www.freewebsites.com): This service hosts your site
for free, but requires that you allow them to advertise on your site. The
ads are small, but you don’t control them.
Most of these services provide a Web page creator tool that lets you design
your pages in minutes. You can literally sign up for an account and have a
Web site online in less than an hour, and that’s if you’re being very creative
about putting your site together.
The problem with pages like these — pages that are part of a community — is
that you don’t have a direct URL. The URL for the site — which, if you remember
my advice, should reflect the actual topic of your site — is usually something
quite generic, like www.yoursite.community.com.
Nothing’s wrong with being generic — if you don’t mind ending up buried in
search results — and nothing’s wrong with being buried in the search results
if you don’t want to generate income with AdSense.
Oh, and one more thing. These pages are usually free because they’re preloaded
with advertisements from which you make no money. However, that
would make it even harder for you to generate an AdSense income with these
pages.
If you do want to generate income with AdSense, your Web site address
should reflect your site name and it should be a direct address. A direct
address states www.yoursite.com loud and clear and nothing else. I don’t know
about you, but I’m much more likely to type that than to type http://www.
example1.com/ Search-Engine-Optimization /dp/0470175001/
ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208363273&sr=8-10 if I’m
looking for a particular type of Web site. Getting set up with a premium Web site that provides you with a direct
address is a little more involved. You first have to purchase a domain name,
which you can do from the following companies:
GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com): Offers regular sales on domain names.
You can also purchase your domain name, hosting, and other Web site
services through GoDaddy.
Register.com (www.register.com): Also offers domain names as well
as hosting packages and other services. You can order domain names
online through Register.com or by phone.
NameSeek (www.nameseek.com): This company strictly sells domain
names. It might even be more accurate to say this company negotiates
the sale of domain names between current owner and purchaser.
After you have a domain name in hand, build the site and upload it to the
Web. Many of the companies that sell you a domain name (or URL) will also
offer to host your Web site for a monthly or yearly fee. (Hosting is like having
land on which to put a house. You host your Web site on a server somewhere
or on your own server.) You don’t have to host with the company you purchased
the domain name from, however. Any hosting company that you’re
comfortable with will do.
What’s in a name?
The exception that proves the Name a Site
in Accordance with the Site’s Content rule is
when a personal name is also the name of the
domain. For example, my personal Web site,
JerriLedford.com, has a variety of information
on it, all different types of articles and personal
interests that I have. Over the past decade or
so, the site has changed dramatically in design,
but the variety of the content remains largely
the same. This is because that’s the site I use to
showcase (to editors) what type of work I can
do. The goal of that site isn’t to sell a product
but rather to sell a package — me.
JerriLedford.com does its job well, but it’s
not the only dog I have in the World Wide
Web race. Another site that I have is Google-
Geek.com, which I built for a very different
purpose — to help people understand the different
products and services that Google makes
available. The site’s focal point is the Google
Geek blog, but the site also has other pages
that showcase different Google-related topics.
Some are more in-depth articles about Google
products and services, and a few are tutorials
that guide users through using those products
and services. The content of the entire site is
focused on helping users use Google better. As
you might expect, Google-Geek.com consistently
lands much better targeted AdSense ads
than the content on the JerriLedford.com I use GoDaddy.com because their pricing for domain names is good and they
offer the convenience of Web site hosting as well. However, you have plenty
of options out there. Prices vary from one company to another, and what’s
included with the domain name also varies. With some companies, you’re
purchasing the name only. With others, you might be purchasing the name
and security, the hosting, or any of a hundred or so other services.
Review each company to find the one that suits you and ask others what
company they use. Find one that you like and then stay with it. That way, if
you purchase multiple domain names, you can manage them all from one
location. (For more on Web site hosting, check out the “Selecting the right
Web host” section, later in this chapter.)