Have you ever though of starting your own website or blog but have no idea where to begin? This tutorial will show you how to get started with your own website. We will cover all the very basics of hosting and domain names.
The first step in creating a website is deciding if you want to host your own site (on your own server or a server you rent out from a hosting company) or using an online tool to build your site. If you are looking to use an online tool to build your website or blog, this tutorial is not for you. However, if you are looking to run your own website at your own domain name, keep reading.
You will need to decide on what you want your domain name to be. This is the www.yoursite.com. You have to register a domain name for people to be able to find your website. There are millions of domain names already registered, so you may have some trouble coming up with a unique name. You will also have to choose a domain suffix (.com, .net, .org, .info, .tv, .biz, etc.). I will always recommend getting a .com domain name. If you can get your hands on a unique .com domain name, you will want to also purchase the .net and .org names. If you can’t find the name you want in a .com you can choose a .net or .org suffix. Personally I would stay away from all other domain names, but it is up to you. It is always a good idea to try to get good keywords in your domain name.
Ok, so you want to see if the domain name you have chosen is available? You will first have to check with a domain name registrar to see if the name you have chosen is available. Here are few registrars that we recommend:
Go through the sites and purchase the domain names that you want. After you have a great domain name, you will need to purchase some web hosting. When you purchase web hosting you are basically renting space on a server to host your website. You will need to decide how much bandwidth (amount of data transferred) and disk space (storage space) you will need to run your website. To give you an idea, this website currently get about 800 unique visitors a day. We used 10gb of bandwidth last month and used 18mb of disk space. Generally a recommend at least a couple hundred mbsof disk space and probably 10gb or so of bandwidth. You can always upgrade later. Here are a few hosting companies that you can try.
When looking for a host we also recommend that you get one that include CPanel web base administration panel. CPanel can make a world of difference in the difficulty it will take to maintain the server later on. We actually use Surpass Hosting. They even offer reseller accounts, so you can sell your own hosting to make your money back.
Once you have your domain name and hosting setup, you will be ready to start designing your site. We will be writing more Web Design and Development tutorials in the future. Be sure to check back later. As always, we will try to answer any question you may have.
Johnathan Ward is an experienced developer and consultant that writes tutorials to help other developers. In his day job, he is an IBM Watson Consultant with several years of experience deploying and customizing Watson Explorer solutions.