If you are new to building your own website and lacking the skills of a professional website designer then you will probably benefit from using a website builder or template. WYSIWYG or (what you see is what you get) software is an application that helps beginner site builders to use a web browser to build a new website.
This can be a real jump start to building your own website as opposed to learning complex website building softwares like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. The advantage to this is you can easily build a site sometimes in very little time and maintain the site yourself.
Some things to consider before starting are:
1. The purpose of your site. Is it ecommerce, advertising your business or someone else’s, selling a product or service. Give some thought to this before starting.
2. One of the first things you will need is a domain name. This is the name of your site and first thing is to see if the domain name you choose is available. This can be done through companies like GoDaddy or HostGator. These also have web hosting available which you will need also.
3. Next you need to think about what type of technology you will use for your site. An HTML site is mainly text, images and say a contact form for an informational purposes. Or you could build an ecommerce site to sell products and accept payments. A database type of site is mainly to interact with your visitors. It most likely will require PHP programming. An example would be a login site, dating site,or download sites.
4. Map out your site on paper first and get a good idea of where you are going with your site to avoid confusion and holdups when putting your site online. Gather content written by you or maybe a copywriter. Get any images and or forms you might need.
Advantages to building your own site are:
1. Low cost.
2. No web designer needed.
3. Control and your update own site which will also give you a sense of accomplishment.
These are a few thoughts that will get you started in the right direction and soon you will be uploading your very own website you can be proud of.