A portal website is an online destination that directs you to other pages or resources that you may find useful. For instance, if you visit a portal website about nail care, the website might provide you with a list of links to other nail-care websites and products that can benefit you. It may also offer forums and search engines that allow visitors to interact with others. As the owner of a Web portal you can sell advertising space to help pay for the cost of maintaining this type of website.
Instructions
1. Create an account with a Web hosting provider that offers page-building software with templates and add-on features such as forums. This is the quickest way to set up a basic, professional-looking portal website. All you have to do is add your links.
2. Select a domain name that contains terms (keywords) someone might type into a search engine when looking for the subject matter of your portal website.
3. Load your page-building software, which is commonly accessible from your online Web hosting provider account. Choose a template design consistent with the type of portal you plan to establish. For instance, use a design that has a picture of nails for a nail-care portal.
4. Add links to related resources that you want visitors to access when they visit the homepage of your portal. Write a short description next to each link if you want. Limit each description to about 100 to 150 words.
5. Select the option to add a forum to your website from your Web hosting provider's dashboard (look for "add-ons" or "Web tools"). The Web hosting provider's service generates a new message-board address that you can customize to your liking.
6. Add a search box to your portal website for free using Google Site Search. This allows visitors to search for pages on your website only or the entire World Wide Web. Google Site Search gives you a simple HTML code to add to your page.
7. Add new pages to your portal website if you want. You can divide your general subject into more individualized portals within the same website. For instance, you can create a general portal containing information about nail care on the home page, then a separate portal page with information about nail vitamins in particular.
8. Publish the portal website when you're finished adding links and pages. Add more resources as time goes on to continue growing your portal website.
9. Submit the portal Web address to Web directories, such as the dmoz Open Directory Project, so that people can find your resource.
