Choosing the right type of website is vital to match your content.

I am going to give you a brief introduction to three different types of websites and let you decide which one you will use.

 

Blog
A blog is website that can be updated in 3 easy steps; logging in to the admin section, typing up your content and publishing your content.
A blog would be ideal for someone wanting to publish basic information frequently.

 

Examples of blogs
Blogger – A blog that is pre-hosted on their servers for you, you should only start on this type of blog if you have no budget buy a domain and web hosting.

WordPress – A blog that can be installed on your own server hence allot more customizable than blogger, but harder to setup. You will need access to a mysql database to install it.

 

Forum
A forum isn’t easy to start up as it relies on users to post regularly in order to work.
The benefit of an active forum is that you will have the users writing fresh content for you in the form of posts and you will always have people returning to read, reply and start posts.

I would strongly suggest that you buy your own domain and hosting (php & mysql) rather than using a free forum hosted elsewhere as the free forums usually display other peoples adverts and won’t let you display your adverts which defeats your purpose of making money from the forum.

 

Examples of forums
vBulletin
PunBB
phpBB

 

Standard website
The best option if you want a customized website is to build one from scratch, working with HTML, PHP and other web based languages.
There are code editing programs around such as Macromedia Dream Weaver and Microsoft FrontPage.
If you do not feel up to the task of building your own website from scratch then you could always hire a professional coder.