If you are a mom looking to work online for yourself, the first thing you’ll need to decide is where you will set up business. You may choose to build your own web site over going with choices like eBay, Etsy, Cafepress, Zazzle, etc.

It may seem like there are many confusing things that come up when you decide you want to build your own web site. If you don’t know much about them, you may not even know where you can get web space to put up your site. You can choose from free websites out there, and or you may choose to spend some money. You have many options for domain names, storage space, and other things. When you don’t know what you are doing, this can all be very confusing.

A few thoughts about free web space

• You can get free web space when you are going to build a personal site. This is something that most do, and then they are given a domain name to go with it. The domain name is the web addresses. When you get free web space, you have to take the name that they give you.
• When you get free web space, you are going to have ads on your page that you have to put up with. That means you have no control over them, and you cannot remove them. If you move up to a paid account for web space, those ads will disappear. Though most of the free ones will have ads, there are a few out there that don’t. They are very hard to find though, and they may not remain that way for long. The idea of totally free space free from ads is a great one, but is rarely feasible for very long.
• However, using Blogger to start your blog is a great way to get a web site started for no cost. It is free from ads, and you can choose from a multitude of templates. It is great for a beginner because you can learn about installing templates, setting up your settings, learn about AdSense, get a feel for posting articles and learn how much time you would have to devote to your blog.

A few thoughts about buying your own domain

• You can have the name that you envisioned when you buy a domain as long as that name is available. There are new endings out there now, so if something you want does not come up as a .com, you can always use one of the others like .info or .tv.
• Domains are cheap to purchase.
• There may be a greater learning curve when starting out to build your own web site. You’ll need to learn about hosting, auto-responders, server size. You may design your own website or install a blog.  A popular blog platform is WordPress. It too comes with templates and designs and can help managing a web site be easier for a beginner.
• Having your own domain will allow you have a shopping cart if you wish to sell goods.
• If you are going to have a large site with a lot of pictures, you have to have enough web space to handle all of that information. That is when storage space comes into play. Whenever someone comes to your web space, those images and graphics that you have are going to have to download for that person, and that takes up bandwidth. When that happens often enough, your page will go down. If that happens, you may have to pay for more storage space so you don’t have to worry about your page going down when you have visitors on a regular basis.

If you are a beginner to the opportunity of working online, don’t let fear hold you back. Once you have a business plan written out, start learning about one new topic each few days until you feel more comfortable with the terminology. Find safe places where you can ask questions. And most of all, don’t beat yourself up and call yourself stupid. Everyone has to start at the beginning.

One you get more comfortable online it will be time to consider what purchases you need to make for your new online business and you’ll have some of the basic skills to build your own web site.

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