Technology

Simple steps to build your own website: A beginner’s guide

Published

6 months ago

July 16, 2024

Simple steps to build your own website: A beginner’s guide

Remember when you were young and dreamed of opening up that store one day or starting that business? For many retirees, there is no time like the present. Many retired people still like to keep themselves active and busy, and what better way to do that than realizing a passion you’ve always had? For some people, this may seem like a daunting task, but the internet has made it much easier to open up shop from the comfort of your home. And the start-up costs are also much more affordable than doing it the brick-and-mortar way.

Still, opening a store online, whether you’d describe yourself as tech-savvy or not, can be challenging if you don’t know the correct steps to take. The good news is that today, we’re going to walk you through it all in this beginner’s guide to building an online presence and finally pursuing that post-retirement passion project (that could also earn you some bucks).

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A woman doing yoga on her laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

1) Choose your passion project

Deciding what to sell is the first step in setting up an online store. Perhaps you’ve already known the answer to this for a long time, and that’s what inspired the store in the first place. But if you’re not quite sure, consider your expertise, interests and what’s in demand in the market.

For retirees, it’s often beneficial to choose products or services that align with your passions or past experiences, as it’s not just something you’re interested in but, by now, you’re likely already an expert in it, too. And, being an expert in your niche will help you establish yourself as a trusted authority in the industry, which is something that potential customers look for.

And, it’s not just products you can sell; you can also sell services like coaching or consulting or even create a blog that can be monetized. The options are endless, but it’s important to have some direction before you get started.

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A woman working on her laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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2) Identify your target audience

Knowing what you want to sell is one thing, but knowing who to sell it to is another. Understanding who your potential customers are is essential for effective marketing and product development. Therefore, take some time to research and understand your target demographic. Consider factors such as age, gender, location, interests and purchasing behavior. A good idea is to start off in your own community.

If you know anyone who would be interested, talk to them and see who they can connect you with. You can even create a research survey to get feedback on your audience and what they are looking for. In fact, some people do this step first if they are not sure what to sell but are certain they want to start an online store.

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A couple conversing and looking at their tablet (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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3) Ideas for online stores and businesses you can create

When it comes to doing your passion project online, the options are endless. But if you’re not sure, there are various types of online stores you can establish to cater to diverse needs and preferences. Start with an idea that you are passionate about. Below are some examples:

E-commerce store: This is the most common type of online store, where you can sell physical products ranging from clothing and electronics to groceries and furniture.

Digital products store: If you specialize in creating digital goods such as e-books, software, music or online courses, you can set up a digital products store to distribute your creations.

Subscription box service: Subscription-based businesses are gaining popularity, offering curated boxes of products delivered to customers’ doorstep on a recurring basis. Examples include beauty boxes, snack boxes and pet subscription services.

Marketplace platform: Instead of selling your own products, you can create a marketplace platform where multiple vendors can list and sell their items. Etsy and eBay are prime examples of successful marketplace platforms.

Service-based store: Beyond physical and digital products, you can offer various services through an online store, such as consulting, tutoring, freelance services or event planning.

Dropshipping store: With dropshipping, you can sell products without holding inventory. When a customer makes a purchase, the order is fulfilled by a third-party supplier who ships the product directly to the customer.

Print-on-demand store: This model allows you to sell custom-designed merchandise, such as T-shirts, mugs and phone cases, without the need for inventory. Products are created and shipped on demand.

Membership-based store: Create a store where customers pay a membership fee to access exclusive products, discounts or content. This model fosters customer loyalty and recurring revenue.

Blog: Combine content creation with e-commerce by creating a blog where you share valuable information or insights related to your niche, such as health and exercise, and integrate it with an online store to sell related products or services.

Get my picks for the best website builders to easily set up.

A group of people exercising (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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4) Choose a website builder

Selecting the right website builder is crucial if you are looking to set up an online store. A good website builder should have a user-friendly interface and customizable templates, making it accessible even to those who aren’t tech-savvy. Look for a platform that requires no coding knowledge and offers a variety of professionally designed templates that can be easily customized to create a unique and visually appealing website for your online store.

Additionally, the website builder should offer built-in e-commerce features, making it easy to manage inventory, process payments and track orders all in one place. Before you start building your online store, you’ll need to select a plan that best suits your needs and budget. Many website builders offer a range of plans, from free options with basic features to premium plans with advanced e-commerce capabilities.

Consider factors such as storage, bandwidth and the number of products you plan to sell when choosing a plan. If you’re just starting out, you may want to start with a basic plan and upgrade as your business grows. With flexible pricing options, you can easily scale up your plan as needed to accommodate your growing online store.

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Father and son looking at tablet (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

5) Pick a website name, domain name, hosting provider

Choosing the right name and domain for your online store is crucial as it’s the first thing customers will see and remember about your brand. Your name should be catchy, memorable and reflective of your brand identity. When selecting a domain, try to keep it simple and easy to spell to ensure that potential customers can easily find and remember your website.

You can use various domain search tools to check the availability of your desired domain name and explore different options until you find the perfect match for your online store. While some platforms offer free domains, upgrading to a premium plan often allows you to connect your own domain and remove any platform-specific branding from your URL.

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6) Design your website for success

Now, it’s time to start designing your website. There are many platforms that offer a wide range of professionally designed templates that you can customize to create a unique and visually appealing online store. Choose a template that best fits your brand identity and industry, then use the platform’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor to customize it to your liking.

Add your logo, change colors and fonts and rearrange elements to create a website that reflects your brand personality and effectively showcases your products or services. A good tip is to start off simple; you can always add to your design as you go.

Get my picks for the best website builders to easily set up.

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7) Decide on what pages to include on your site

When building your online store, blog or business, you’ll want to have useful pages on your website. This not only helps people find your website, but once they are there, it gives them all the information they need.

Common pages for an online store include a home page, product or service pages, an “about us” page, a contact page and a blog (unless, of course, this is the focus of your site, in which case the blog page may be the home page). Generally speaking, the fewer steps it takes for someone to engage in a call to action the better.

You may also want to consider adding pages for shipping and return policies, FAQs and customer testimonials to build trust and credibility with your audience, as well as a privacy policy, disclaimer, regulatory compliance and other legal notices.

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Illustration of various pages to use on your site (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

8) Familiarize yourself with SEO to stand out

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a buzzword that you may have heard going around. SEO is essential for driving organic traffic to your online store and improving your visibility in search engine results. You can optimize your website for search engines by adding relevant keywords to your content, optimizing your meta tags and descriptions, and improving your site’s loading speed and mobile responsiveness. Many website builders offer built-in SEO tools and guides to help you optimize your website for search engines and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.

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Illustration of search engine optimization on a laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

9) Consider email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for engaging with your audience, promoting your products or services and driving sales for your online store. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. If you already have email contacts, consider reaching out to them to tell them about your project. Most people want to support their friends and family with their pursuits, even if it’s just by spreading the word.

Otherwise, in order to collect more emails, consider offering a discount or incentive in exchange for signing up for your email list to encourage visitors to subscribe, like an e-book or a downloadable such as a brochure. Then use an email marketing platform to design and send professional-looking emails that direct them to products, services or blog posts on your website.

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A couple looking at a tablet (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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What else to consider

The above are some of the most common steps to opening an online store, but it will look different for everyone. There may be steps you skip and steps you add, and some good advice is to perhaps talk to other retirees you know who have already done it. Maybe they have some suggestions, especially if there’s anything they can share that they wish they had known before they started down that path.

When launching a website, you have a variety of choices to suit your specific needs, whether you’re seeking simplicity, customization or advanced features. Explore these top website builders to find the perfect fit for your online presence: Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify and WordPress. Learn more about these options by clicking here.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Starting an online shop or launching a website for your passion project might seem a little overwhelming, but many of these sites have wizards, resources and customer support teams that can help. Once you get started, you’ll be on your way to running your online store or project while enjoying your retirement.

Have you started an online store or blog? What was your experience? If you haven’t, is it something you would consider? Why or why not? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

How Watch Duty’s wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA

Published

4 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

How Watch Duty’s wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA

If you live in Los Angeles, you are probably already intimately familiar with Watch Duty, the free app that shows active fires, mandatory evacuation zones, air quality indexes, wind direction, and a wealth of other information that everyone, from firefighters to regular people, have come to rely on during this week’s historic and devastating wildfires.

Watch Duty is unique in the tech world in that it doesn’t care about user engagement, time spent, or ad sales. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit behind it only cares about the accuracy of the information it provides and the speed with which the service can deliver that information. The app itself has taken off, rocketing to the top of Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Over 1 million people have downloaded it over the last few days alone.

The elegance of the app lies in its simplicity. It doesn’t scrape user data, show ads, require any kind of login, or track your information. Its simple tech stack and UI — most of which is maintained by volunteer engineers and reporters — has likely helped save countless lives. While Watch Duty is free to use, the app accepts tax-deductible donations and offers two tiers of membership that unlock additional features, like a firefighting flight tracker and the ability to set alerts for more than four counties.

With plans to expand the service across the United States, as well as overseas and into other emergency services, Watch Duty may eventually replace some of the slower and less reliable local government alert systems for millions of people.

Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol / Anadolu via Getty Images

An app born from fire

The idea for Watch Duty came to cofounder John Mills while he was trying to protect his off-grid Sonoma County home from the Walbridge fire in 2020. He realized there wasn’t a single source for all the information people needed to protect themselves from the blaze, which ultimately killed 33 people and destroyed 156 homes. John and his friend David Merritt, who is Watch Duty’s cofounder and CTO, decided to build an app to help.

“This came out of an idea that John had, and he talked to me about it four years ago,” Merritt tells The Verge. “We built the app in 60 days, and it was run completely by volunteers, no full-time staff. It was a side project for a lot of engineers, so the aim was to keep it as simple as possible.”

Fire reporting is piecemeal at best in fire-prone areas and frequently scattered across platforms like Facebook and X, where fire departments and counties have verified pages sharing relevant updates. But increasingly, social media platforms are putting automated access for alert services behind paywalls. Governments also use a wide variety of alert systems, causing delays that can cost lives, especially in fast-moving fires like the Palisades and Eaton fires that have forced evacuations for more than 180,000 people. And sometimes, these government-run alerts are sent out mistakenly, causing mass confusion.

Watch Duty simplifies all that for millions of people.

“We view what we are doing as a public service,” says Merritt. “It is a utility that everyone should have, which is timely, relevant information for their safety during emergencies. Right now, it’s very scattered. Even the agencies themselves, which have the best intentions, their hands are tied by bureaucracy or contracts. We partner with government sources with a focus on firefighting.”

“We view what we are doing as a public service.”

One of the biggest issues around fires, in particular, is that they can move quickly and consume large swaths of land and structures in minutes. For example, the winds that drove the Palisades fire to spread to more than 10,000 acres reached 90 miles per hour on Tuesday. When minutes matter, the piecemeal alert system that Watch Duty replaces can cause delays that cost lives.

“Some of the delivery systems for push notifications and text messages that government agencies use had a 15-minute delay, which is not good for fire,” says Merritt. “We shoot to have push notifications out in under a minute. Right now, 1.5 million people in LA are getting push notifications through the app. That’s a lot of messages to send out in 60 seconds. In general, people are getting it pretty much all at the same time.”

A simple tech stack

For Watch Duty, this kind of mass communication requires reliable technology as well as a group of dedicated staff and skilled volunteers. Merritt says that Watch Duty relies on a number of corporate partners with whom it has relationships and contracts to provide its service.

“We shoot to have push notifications out in under a minute.”

The app is built on a mix of technology, including Google’s cloud platform, Amazon Web Services, Firebase, Fastly, and Heroku. Merritt says the app uses some AI, but only for internal routing of alerts and emails. Reporters at Watch Duty — those who listen to scanners and update the app with push notifications about everything from air drops to evacuation updates — are mostly volunteers who coordinate coverage via Slack.

“All information is vetted for quality over quantity,” he says. “We have a code of conduct for reporters. For example, we never report on injuries or give specific addresses. It’s all tailored with a specific set of criteria. We don’t editorialize. We report on what we have heard on the scanners.”

According to Merritt, the app has 100 percent uptime. Even though it started with volunteer engineers, the nonprofit has slowly added more full-time people. “We still have volunteers helping us, but it’s becoming more on the internal paid staff as we grow, as things get more complex, and as we have more rigorous processes,” he says.

“All information is vetted for quality over quantity.”

He says there are no plans to ever charge for the app or scrape user data. The approach is kind of the Field of Dreams method to building a free app that saves people’s lives: if you build it well, the funding will come.

“It’s the antithesis of what a lot of tech does,” Merritt says. “We don’t want you to spend time in the app. You get information and get out. We have the option of adding more photos, but we limit those to the ones that provide different views of a fire we have been tracking. We don’t want people doom scrolling.”

Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images

Collecting information in the era of Trump

Watch Duty relies heavily on publicly available information from places like the National Weather Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Should the incoming Trump administration decide to execute on threats to dismantle and disband the EPA (which monitors air quality) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency to the National Weather Service, such moves would impact Watch Duty’s ability to operate.

Even still, Merritt is optimistic. “We will be pretty well insulated from any change to policy,” he says. “We are either buying that information ourselves already or we are happy to buy it, and we will take that cost on. The fact that we’re soon going to be covering the entire US will defray the cost of anything that shifts from a policy perspective. Our operation costs are mostly salaries. We are trying to hire really good engineers and have a really solid platform. If we need to raise a grant to buy data from the National Weather Service, then we will.”

Regardless of what the next administration does, it’s clear that Watch Duty has become a critical and necessary app for those in Southern California right now. The app currently covers 22 states and plans to roll out nationwide soon.

“We got 1.4 million app downloads in the last few days,” according to Merritt. “I think we have only received 60 support tickets, so that shows that something is working there. We are really just focused on the delivery of this information.”

Technology

China’s newest humanoid robot is ready to serve like never before

Published

5 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

China’s newest humanoid robot is ready to serve like never before

Chinese startup Pudu Robotics has unveiled its latest creation, the D9 humanoid robot, designed to revolutionize the way we work and interact with machines.

Standing at an impressive 5.57 feet tall, this bipedal machine is not just another robot — it’s a versatile assistant ready to tackle a wide range of tasks in various settings.

D9 humanoid robot. (Pudu Robotics)

Capabilities and features of the humanoid robot

The D9 is no ordinary robot. With its ability to walk upright and carry loads up to 44 pounds, it’s built to handle real-world challenges. But what sets it apart from its predecessors?

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Advanced mobility: The D9 can walk at speeds of up to 4.5 mph, outpacing the average human stroll. It’s not just about speed, though. This robot can navigate stairs, slopes and even maintain balance when knocked off-kilter.

Intelligent navigation: Equipped with high-accuracy sensors, the D9 creates real-time 3D semantic maps of its surroundings. This allows for autonomous route planning and precise self-positioning.

Versatile applications: From performing ground cleaning tasks with the Pudu SH1 to carrying boxes in warehouses and stocking shelves in stores, the D9’s potential applications are vast.

Natural interaction: Perhaps most impressively, the D9 boasts “human-level multimodal natural interactions,” thanks to its sophisticated artificial intelligence processing frameworks.

D9 humanoid robot. (Pudu Robotics)

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The evolution of Pudu robotics

The D9 isn’t Pudu’s first foray into robotics. In September, they introduced the D7, a semi-humanoid robot on wheels designed for tasks like sorting components, serving in restaurants and operating elevators. The D9 builds on this foundation, expanding the range of possible applications.

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D9 humanoid robot. (Pudu Robotics)

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Competitive landscape

With the introduction of the D9, Pudu Robotics enters a competitive field alongside giants like Tesla and Unitree. While pricing details for the D9 are yet to be announced, it’s speculated to fall in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, similar to Tesla’s Optimus.

D9 humanoid robot. (Pudu Robotics)

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Kurt’s key takeaways

The Pudu D9 showcases advanced mobility and intelligent interaction capabilities. As it prepares to enter the market, its potential impact on various industries could be profound, transforming how we approach tasks across sectors. The future looks promising for humanoid robots like the D9 as they pave the way for more efficient and interactive work environments.

What concerns do you have about the potential impact of humanoid robots like the Pudu D9 on the future of work and everyday life? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact

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Technology

Intel still dreams of modular PCs — it brought a tablet laptop gaming handheld to CES

Published

14 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Intel still dreams of modular PCs — it brought a tablet laptop gaming handheld to CES

At CES 2025, Intel let journalists into its private “Innovation Showcase,” where we saw things like prototype next-gen laptops and giant stereo 3D handheld gaming PCs.

While I was there, I also spotted a heavy metal handheld on a table that didn’t seem… fully attached… to its screen. When I lifted the screen, it came away easily.

It felt suspiciously light to be a real tablet, so I flipped it over and saw three connectors underneath:

Above it, on a shelf, was a laptop with a suspiciously sized chunk of plastic on the bottom that looked like a perfect match. A minute later, Intel gaming evangelist Colin Helms confirmed: I was looking at a concept modular PC.

That module contains a complete Intel Lunar Lake computer, the entire guts you’d need to make one work outside of peripherals and screen. It’s basically a reboot of Intel’s abandoned Compute Card idea, except it’s not all Intel’s doing and you probably shouldn’t ever expect it to ship.

It’s a concept from Quanta, a company whose name you don’t typically see on the laptops and tablets they create, because Quanta is an ODM (like Compal, Pegatron, Wistron, and Apple’s better known iPhone supplier Foxconn) that designs and manufactures hardware on behalf of brand names.

Quanta’s calling the whole modular system the “AI8A,” and the aforementioned module at its heart is the “Detachable AI Core.” Helms told me it plugs into other concept computers as well, including an all-in-one desktop that Intel didn’t have to show off. And presumably, like the Compute Card idea, you could upgrade your computer just by putting a new new module into it.

The modular laptop has lots of concept-y bells and whistles too, so many that Intel’s CES staff hadn’t even worked them all out yet.

For starts, the laptop has a motorized hinge, so you can tell it to open and close its own lid; it also claims to offer eye-tracking that lets you sling around multitasking windows just by looking at where you’d like them to be. It apparently comes with a mouse integrated into a ring that you could wear.

The most mundane: a built-in Qi wireless charging pad in the palmrest, with indicator lights to show your battery’s remaining capacity.

I couldn’t try any of it working, unfortunately, nor did I manage to ask what “AI8A” means, because I mistakenly thought it said Aiba until I checked my photos closely just now. Nor could we hotswap the module between the handheld and laptop, since the module apparently doesn’t have a battery inside.

Again, this is a cool computing concept car: it’s not likely that this computer will ever ship, even in a more practical / less gadgety form. Thankfully, we have begun to see some real, practical modularity in the laptop space since the death of Intel’s Compute Card. Framework just celebrated its fifth anniversary this week, and Dell took a smaller step forward at CES with its first modular repairable USB-C port.

Photos by Sean Hollister / The Verge