Thinking about having a website?
Here are some things you need to know...
Two must haves:
-
A domain name
A domain name is the URL or website address that people will
type into their browser's address bar to find your website -
such as my domain name, whizweb.net. Your name has to be
registered with a domain registrar in order to use it. I usually
recommend that people register their domain name at
www.godaddy.com.
But you will find many other domain registrars available by
doing a search of domain registrars. I prefer to keep my
domain names registered at one company and my hosting at another
company. It's much easier to change your hosting than it
is to change your domain registrar.
How much does it cost? It usually costs between $10-15
per year. You can choose to register for any length of time you
like, but I usually recommend one to two years and decline any
other add-on costs they recommend along the sign-up process.
They will send you an email notice when it is time to renew and
may offer you a discount to renew early and then you can see how
your business is going and if renew if you like. Be aware, that
if you let your domain name expire, you may not get that name
back at a later date. Someone else may choose to register that
name.
Registering the name is easy, but finding a name needs to
take some thought and research. When you go to
GoDaddy's website, the first thing you can do is type in some
URLs that you might want to use and see if they are available.
They provide a big box on the home page where you can type some
URLs. .com, .net, and .org are the most widely used. COM &
NET are usually for businesses and ORG are for non-profits and
ministries. When you type in a name - they will show you many
options. So when you're ready to buy your name, be sure to
double check that you are selecting the name you want and make
sure you've spelled it correctly. If the name of your
company or ministry isn't available, they give you some other
options you might consider. You might also consider adding word
to the name that tell what you do. Such as, if your company's
name is Al's Painting and your work in the Seattle area, you
might want to choose the domain name alpaintsseattle.com or
alspaintingseattle.com because alspainting may not be available.
Since painting is what you do, having painting in the name helps
search engines find your website, and since Seattle is where you
are, many people might search using the words painting seattle.
You will need an email address and credit card and they will ask
you to set up a password during the registration process. After
completing the registration, they will send you an email with
your account information and receipt of your purchase.
Keep this information in a safe location because you will need
it to renew your domain or to make any changes to your account.
Whomever designs your website will also need to access your
account to change some numbers so that the website will be
visible unless you can change those numbers for them. Please
contact me if you would like me to help you through the domain
name registering process.
-
A hosting service
The next thing you need is a hosting service that will put
your website on their servers. Having it on your computer
doesn't put it on the internet. It's just the place you
design it and back it up. Currently, I recommend that my
clients use
www.lunarpages.com to host their website. They have a
STARTER PLAN that costs $3.95 a month/$47.40 a year
and that usually is all that a small business or ministry needs.
If you want to have more than one website, their Basic Plan is
unlimited everything and is reasonably priced, especially if you
sign up for 5 years. You can also start with the Starter
Plan and move to a bigger plan if you need to in the future.
I have been with Lunarpages for several years and they have been
very responsive when I've had a question or problem and they are
one of the most reasonably priced. To sign up you will
also need an email address and credit card. You can sign
up online or call them. Following the sign up they will
send you an email with account information that your web
designer will need to put your website on their server. The
hosting service also includes email service if you need that.
You can see all of the features available for each plan on
Lunarpages website. Remember to renew your hosting service
each year or your website will not be available on the internet.
Please contact me if you would like me to help you through
the hosting service sign up process.
NOTE: If you are just wanting a
free blog or a small free website - you can also look into
www.blogger.com or
www.wordpress.com - however,
the URL will have that name in the URL. There are other free website
services, but they include ads or also include their name in the
URL.
So, the two things above are the must
haves before you can have a website. Next, you will need someone to
design it for you if you cannot do it yourself. That's where I
come in! Click here to find out what I
do? |
Topics:
Domain Name
Hosting Service
Web Design
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