Website Completion Checklist

This is a form to help you set a realistic expectation as to when your website should be fully up and running, and to help you organize your website building project. Also, note that there are links to specific areas of the website that relate to each task.

1.  Choose a domain name  - 2.5 hours

2.  Determine whether you require a Basic or Standard style website - 1 hour

3.  Choose your hosting provider and package - 1 hour

4.  Write at a minimum 10, 500 word articles - 10 to 15 hours

5.  Install Joomla (if Standard) or launch Site Builder (if Basic) - 1 hour

6.  Download and customize Joomla template (2 to 10 hours, depending on amount of customization)

7.  Add articles and link to your menu (1 hour)

9.  Add pictures, video or other cool content (1 to 5 hours, depending on # of pictures)

Congrats! Your Website is Now Functionally Complete!!

10. Optional: Add advertisements to monetize your site (2 - 10 hours, depending on your HTML/Joomla knowledge)

11. Optional: Search Engine Optimize the site (1 to 5 hours)

12. Optional: Build backlinks (2 hours per week minimum)

13. Optional: Submit to search engines (1 hour)

That summarizes the bare-bones version of constructing a website. As you can see, it can take anywhere from about 20 working hours, to 50+, easily. When you factor in your day job, kids, pets, spouse, and everything else - building a website can easily take months. Further, this doesn't take into account all of the figuring out where things are in Joomla, and what you should do if you really want an ad in a certain place or a larger font for your header or some random thing that will take some time to figure out. Some things will come to you easily, some will take some time - the important thing is to keep going, and don't settle for mediocrity. Bad looking websites are easy to spot, and people just won't stay at them long enough to bother with the content within, even if it's gold.