How to Get your Business Online with a Domain Name
How to Obtain a Domain Name and Web Host for your Business Website
The Basics
The simplest way to get a domain name, as in, yourbusinessname.com and set up a website on it is to purchase web hosting (pay a company to store your website files on their computers and connect these files to the Internet) from a web host that will register your domain for you and provide an easy site builder or one-touch wordpress or other content management application installation. That way, the web host will take care of all the details for you. They will point your new domain to the correct nameservers and provide you with instructions on how to get files up. If something doesn’t go right or you are having problems you can contact support for help.
Hosting I Recommend
The best all around, inexpensive hosting company I have found is Hostgator. When you go through their sign up process they will register your domain for you, if it is available. Their prices are incredibly low for everything they offer. I host two websites with them right now and have never had a problem. When you click on the link you will then want to click on Shared hosting. What this means is your website is hosted on a server that also hosts other peoples’ sites. Everyone has their own alloted space and bandwidth. Shared hosting is what keeps your costs down. Many experts will recommend you get a dedicated server or insure your site does not share its IP with other sites. You will need to make that decision for yourself. Personally, I have never had a problem with shared hosting.
When choosing a plan I wouldn’t worry about how much disk space or bandwidth comes with the plan - even their lowest-end plan provides plenty of space and bandwidth for any new website. If you don’t need a site builder you can choose the Hatchling plan which is the cheapest, but if you need the site builder you should choose the Baby plan, which (at the time of this writing) is about $10 a month.
What is a Site Builder
A Site Builder is a software application that makes creating websites easier. Different site builders work differently, but typically they will have a graphical representation of the webpage you are working on with textboxes and buttons to make webpage creation easier. No HTML knowledge is needed. When you have created or modified a page you would then push a button and the site builder would put your page on the Web. HostGator SiteBuilder Demo and Explanation. Personally, I don’t like site builders. I prefer wordpress or blogger if you don’t know anything about HTML, but site builders are probably the easiest.
Other than the site builder, how else could I get my website up?
- Option 1: Use a Web Development Tool
A web development tool is like a site builder that you buy and that sits on your computer. Popular ones are DreamWeaver and Frontpage. - Option 2: Use a Content Management System
Hostgator offers Fantastico, which allows you to install blogs or content management systems on your website very easily. You just go to your cpanel, click the fantastico icon, fill in the information it asks for and click the button. Then, you’d need to spend a little bit of time figuring out how to use the blog or CMS (some instruction is provided), and then you can publish information to your website from your website. In my opinion, the easiest one to install and use is Wordpress. This would be in your Fantastico menu under blogs. - Option 3: Pay a web designer to create a web site for you.
I don’t really have any suggestions here. I have never hired a designer. - Option 4: Learn HTML and FTP and write your code yourself
This is not hard, but takes a long time to learn. HTML is the language that web pages are written in. You could get a book or look for a tutorial and learn how to code html. You could download an FTP application and then upload your pages to your website yourself. When I started making websites in 1997 this is what I did. I currently write my HTML code in Arachnophilia, use SSI for headers and footers, and upload my pages using WSFTP on my older websites. My websites that I have established in the last 6 months are all completely wordpress driven.
If you are already familiar with blogger they allow you to use their tools to publish a blog on your own domain.
Need a logo?
thelogocompany.com
I bought a few logos from The Logo Company
. I was extremely impressed with the company. This is one of the lowest prices you will find on the Internet, especially for everything they offer. You get a lot of input at the beginning about what you want to logo to look like, and then you get three choices to pick from. They did exactly what I asked for and got it to me in less than three days. It was definitely one of my best experiences with purchasing graphics online.
gotlogos
The absolute cheapest but still professional you will find is at GotLogos. Here, the turnaround is not as fast, you only get the one logo choice, and you don’t get a lot of input but prices are dirt cheap.
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