#3 - Pick a Software Platform

After you've established a hosting account and registered your domain names, the next step is to review the types of website software available through your host account's control panel. If you want to FTP the files to your hosting server and manually install the scripts for your website, you won't be limited to those platforms provided by the host - but for most websites and hosts these days, you can get all the best content management systems installed quickly.

Blogs:

Blogs are probably the most popular content management software for new webmasters. The software builds templates that allow new pages and posts to be quickly created through an interface that works like a word processor. Very little technical experience is required to run a blog, and set up can be pretty automated through most hosting providers.

Popular Blog Software

• Wordpress - Free and open source. Wordpress can be installed on a hosting account or hosted for free at Wordpress.com (warning: you can't make money on a free Wordpress account)
  
• Joomla - Joomla is a little bit trickier to use but it probably has more overall potential as far as building in community aspects. Or so I'm told. I would highly recommend building a blog out of Wordpress but it can also be done with Joomla. Joomla is also useful for some professional sites. Remember, it has high potential but its quite complicated and more challenging for beginner webmasters.
  
• Blogger - This site right here is posted on Blogger and its done free through Google's Blogspot service.
  

Forums:

Forums are like the original social community online. Discussions are threaded so they can continue over long periods of time even if eventually they get a long way off from where they started. Forums tend to create a smaller base of more loyal users, so it can present a monetization challenge. However, they make a great supplement to any other type of site.

• PHPBB3 - Example Webmaster forum in PHPBB3
  
• Simple Machine Forums - Example Scholarship forum in SMF
  

Social Bookmarking:

Social bookmarking sites like Pligg allow users who visit the website to submit their own links and comment on other visitor's submissions as well. These sites can be a great way to build a community and in many ways they are the modern equivalent of a web directory - one that incorporates social aspects and a more democratic editorial review.

Pligg is popular because its free and widely supported both with templates, addons, and community support at the Pligg forums. Here's an example site in action, a Pligg site for website news.