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Ask A Vet Question - my first website

I have always wanted to create a website, but I didn’t have a clue about how to do it!  In the spring of 2009 my dreams became reality when I designed www.AskaVetQuestion.com and it is now a successful veterinary advice website.  I’m sharing my story so that it will hopefully inspire others who want to get into web design or marketing on the internet, but don’t know how to do it.

Learning html

I knew I had to have some knowledge of html programming.  (HTML is the language that web pages are usually written in).  Basic html is not hard to learn!

I found a great tutorial at about.com by Jennifer Kyrnin and signed up for an email class on learning html.  Each week I worked through the exercises and learned how to program.  It really was not hard!

Then, something really bad happened, that God used for great good!  One morning I bent over to pick up my baby and felt a pop in my back.  A few hours later my back went into total spasm.  It turned out that I had a protruding disc.  For the next 5 weeks I was restricted to bed rest.  My wonderful husband and amazing extended family looked after me, and did all the childcare and housework for the next month an a half.  And I was relegated to the couch…

The quest begins…

So here I was, on the couch with no responsibilities other than to rest.  We bought a laptop.  I decided to get serious about creating a website.  I started off by posting in a web design forum about what I wanted to do – create a website where people could ask me veterinary questions for a small fee and I could respond.

The first time I posted, I was laughed at.  I was told that with no programming experience it would be too hard.  Plus, there were already lots of sites out there so there would be too much competition for me to succeed.  Fortunately I posted in another site,  www.webdeveloper.com and was told that what I wanted to do could be done but would take some hard work.

They advised me to learn some basic programming in a language called php, a style sheet language called css, as well as a database system called mySQL.  Again, I found some great free tutorials at FreeWebMasterHelp.com.

I also learned about where to host my website and how to buy a domain name.  I’ll be writing more about that in future blogs.

Is it really that hard to learn web design?

What I found out later is that I didn’t really need to do all of this.  There are great programs that can allow you to create a website with very little programming knowledge.  However, if you have the time, learning some basic programming is definitely worth it.  I will be blogging about some of these methods in the months to come.

The launch of the site

It took a few weeks for me to get my site running.  The hardest part was learning how to do the database.  For most people who are reading this, a database will not be necessary for your website.  In many cases a wordpress blog (more info in future posts) will give you everything you need.  For example, this website you are reading right now was up and running within about an hour by using a wordpress blog.

Once my site was up I delved into learning about SEO (search engine optimization).  I found really good information on forums such as HighRankings and a great tutorial at webconfs.com.

My first sale

One day, I checked my email and it said I had a new question from someone about their cat.  I was sooooooo excited!  Then, when I read the question, it was from my husband (and it was very silly!) LOL!

However, a couple of days later I had my first real question about a cat with some skin problems.  And since then I have had lots of paying customers.

Can you create a website when you have limited experience?

Definitely!  You don’t need to go through all of the hard work that I did.    As I write this blog you will get lots of information on how to set up your site, including advice on hosting, domain name purchase and more.

I’d like to thank….God. 

John Counsell and I do a radio show every 3 months

I have to tell you that it is very exciting creating a website with the help of the Lord.  When I was on my time of rest with my back injury there were nights that I could not sleep – not because of my back pain but instead, because the Lord was downloading ideas in my mind.  I would be trying to sleep and then all of a sudden I would think, “Oh, I could promote my website by doing a radio show!”, and then I would be up all night daydreaming with the Lord about how that would look.  (The next day I contacted a local radio host and it turned out that he was looking for a veterinarian to do a show with him.  I now do a regular late night talk show on the radio!  How cool is God?)

It has only been a few months since www.AskAVetQuestion has gone online and since then I have created several websites including some for local businesses.  It really is a lot of fun.  I’m looking forward to teaching you what I have learned, and what I am continuing to learn as I go along!

Marie