I need to make a Website, but don't know how.

[Michael Lerch]

I currently have freedomsoft so I have a buyer and a seller website, but they don't generate any traffic unless I have links to them.

I want to get a seller website that is SEO for my area. I'm terrible at this. I don't understand websites, keywords (well I get keywords, but don't know which ones to use), or web hosting. I can do a simple template website, but again it comes down to SEO.

I'd also like to start a wholesaler blog with wordpress or something, but don't know how to use wordpress or uploading stuff to the host site with web disks and FTPs confuse the heck out of me.

Does anyone have any resources or tips for this?

[Rob Simpson]

Hi Michael,

In "real life" (opposed to my secret investor identity) I am a web developer and run Ally Web Solutions, LLC, on a daily basis. I'd be happy to help you get some knowledge under your belt.

"SEO" is an acronym for Search Engine Optimizer/ation/ed. (The suffix changes depending on who you talk to). The entire point of the acronym involves an individual using programming techniques and content placement to structure the semantic "flow" of your web site's data. By doing so search engines will be able to determine, in their computer logic, what your web site is all about. Keywords play a good part in this, but equally important is the placement and "mark up" of those keywords. Social linking, as I call it, plays the next largest role. This is the one that not everyone has control over because it is the "street cred" your web site has in a given subject. For example: if BiggerPockets.com linked to your site and called it "The Best Wholesale Real Estate Web Site Ever" then a search engine (say, Google) might determine that BiggerPockets is "voting" for your web site as a web site dealing with wholesale real estate. Enough votes like this and your web site stars to ascend higher in the search results.

Template web sites can be great because they offer a fast, inexpensive deployment solution. When clients work on a tight budget, I advise them to reduce their design costs by utilizing a template.

Wordpress is a content management system (CMS). There are HUNDREDS of such systems on the internet, but something about Wordpress made it hugely popular. It grew from a tiny CMS into a very popular CMS in the span of six months, I'd guess. It "blew up." CMSs help folks who do not know how to write web page code by offering them a rich-text editor (akin to Wordpad for Windows) to author their web site's content. So, while you might not know the code to create a hyperlink, you can click a button, fill in some details, and the CMS inserts the necessary code for you.

Uploading is a word that means "sending" data to another place. When my clients ask the difference between uploading and downloading, I use an analogy involving cabinet shelves. Imagine you wake up late at night and simply must have an Oreo cookie. You stride into the kitchen and open the cabinet to retrieve the cookie pack. It's on a high shelf so you must bring it "down" in order to get your Oreo. You "download" it to your hands in order to have access.
Having eaten the last Oreo, it is time to restock. You come back from the grocery with a new package. Open the cabinet and place the new package "up" on the shelves. So, you have "uploaded" your package to the shelf.

Do you see the difference and understand its analogic meaning? In the web world, when you download a file, that means you are bringing a file from somewhere else to your computer. When you are uploading, you are sending a file to somewhere else.

FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. The entire purpose of FTP is to upload and download files from a specific place. Many programs are available for download (for free) which facilitate this process. Here is an example of what FTP might be used for: a web developer (me, maybe?) creates your web site on his personal computer. Once it is finished, he has to upload the web site (all the files which compose the site) to a computer that is specially configured to host the web site for the entire Internet. He would use an FTP program to do this.

I hope this has helped. If you have more questions, please let me know.

// Rob