There are 4 parts to having a website:
- Domain Name
- Registration
- Hosting
- Design/Presentation
What’s in a name you say?
Everything. The only thing that trumps a good name is a good URL. Where they should always be associated to each other, find something catchy and memorable.
Back in the ’80s the big marketing identity hot items was a custom 800 number. Today, the digital age, it’s all about the domain name.
Once you’ve got it, register it!
Find a reliable hosting service that totally meets your needs – not someone else’s, but yours. There are a lot of multi-service agencies available now, but find one that gives you exactly what you want. Personally, I do not host with the same place that I register my domains. I used to do my registration and hosting with the same place, until one time the service closed and it took me 6 months to get control of my domain names. I could still get to the physical files, but not the registration records.
Hosting, Hosting, Hosting – it’s all about location. There are so many hosting options available these days, the best suggestion I can make is “Ask someone”. See what others are using for their hosting. Or google a host that you’ve see a ‘SPECIAL’ and see if they are talked about on any forums – good or bad, I’ll bet they are.
Once you’ve got a name and a place, then what?
Before you sign-up with your hosting company, you should consider what type of web design you are going to use.
Content management system or template systems are very common programs to use. All editing is done thru a webpage interface – so there is no uploading & downloading of files, except for media (pictures, graphics, etc.). These are also called Blog systems. WordPress(This is what I’m using here) & Joomla are open source programs that are very powerful and there is so many free add-ons for these programs you should never have to spend out money to get what you want.
HTML – you can do html pages using many different desktop programs like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. These require uploading all files once you have developed a page (file).
The best thing I can tell you is to keep asking until you are satisfied with the answer you get. If you feel comfortable then go with it.
