Starting A Website – The Guided Approach

The number one reason people never start a website is because they think it way to hard. This site is dedicated in guiding you through creating your very first website.

With the vast network of Internet users nowadays, it is a must that you get to make your mark on this industry, whether in social, personal, or business ventures.  Every day, there are thousands already keeping their mark on the ins and outs of this business, but there are also a fast-growing number of beginners willing to take an adventure in the virtual world.  The best way to create your own entity would be by starting your own website.  Running a website is not rocket science, so don’t think it isn’t something you can’t do.  If you already have a vision and purpose on your mind, you may want to consider the following factors to make those visions come into fruition. (see this post on starting a website for good quick overview.)

In order to start a website you need:

• A Domain Name
• Web Hosting
• Content Management System

Domain Names

First thing to consider would be the domain name.  Take note that before ever starting a website, you should already have formulated the purpose of your website.  Would you be stuffing it with personal stuff? Would you be using it for social networking? You may be enthusiastic with food, fashion, or travel.  Or you want to create an online business venture.  Whatever your aim is, you must have the correct domain name, as this will be your identity on the web.  It is what the people will type on their address bar so that they can go to your site.  Most people find pleasure in getting subdomains from already established domain names, but remember that if you really want to make your own mark in the WWW, you should have your own domain name.  A space on Hubpages, Squidoo, and Gather are nice, but you need your own www.  Finding the perfect domain name isn’t entirely easy, as most good domain names are already taken.  You will have to be creative on mixing up letters, numbers, or spellings so that you can come up with a catchy name for your website.  But remember, never make it complicated or else people would easily forget it.

After finding a suitable domain name, you must register it by paying a fee on a registrar.  Costs will vary from $7.49 to even $2,500 a year, depending on the extension and the registrar you’re signing it from.  Top-level domains include .com, .net, and .org, and these are the most common extensions to use for your site.  I have worked out a special deal for you where you can get a FREE domain if you sign up with InMotion.

Web Hosting

So now that you got a domain name, you will need a web host.  This is where you will be storing your website data and where you’ll be accessing it for customization.  You should do comparison to find a reasonable price for you, and always remember to find something that will suit to what your website needs.  Web hosting is the space where all your data lives on a server that you pay each month.  You essentially can not have a website without web hosting and a domain name.  Some good examples of good hosting companies are InMotion, Hostgator, and Fatcow.

Web Hosting Things You Need To Consider

Web hosting is an essential aspect of having your own website.  Choosing among the vast number of providers can take a long time to decide upon.  The below areas need to be considered when choosing a good web hosting service.

Bandwidth

First thing to look for is the bandwidth.  Simply put, having more bandwidth means being able to handle more traffic for your site.  It is not that expensive as it has been years ago, and you should find a web host that can offer you a higher bandwidth with less of a cost.  There is always a limit their servers can withstand so make sure you contact them before doing business with them.

Uptime

The next factor would be the uptime.  Web hosts should be able to deliver 99% uptime guarantee without any downtime.  With the advancing technology, it has now become easier to find a provider with that promise.  However, there would still be some that would be faking this statistics, so you still have to be careful in finding one with real uptime stats.

Ease of Use

After making sure of the bandwidth and uptime rates of the web host, you should also consider the ease of access in it.  For a beginner, getting a web host with cPanel or for Windows or Linux is option for many people.  Just make sure it comes with Fantastico, which allows you to install a variety of scripts.  You can use these for a good CMS (content management system).

Disk Space

The next factor to consider, but not necessarily that important as the others, is the disk space.  Of course, the more disk space you could have, the better.  But most sites don’t even eat up a huge part of the disk space limit, unless it is a file or video sharing website.  However, it is still a plus, and since hardware is cheaper, more web hosts now offer an unlimited limit for disk space.

Price

The last but certainly not the least factor is the cost and price of the service.  Different types of hosting are offered with different costs of course.  Full “technical” support is a big advantage if you are not to technologically advanced.

Website Platform

Now that you already have a domain name and a web host, you will need to find a platform to publish your website.  This could be WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, ect.

These things are essential to starting up your own website.  But it does not end here.  You will still struggle to keep your site on the loop, by generating traffics and promoting your website.  This is where you should learn these new words:  SEO, marketing, and traffic generation.  In order to get a free domain sign up with InMotion they are the best for starting a website.