Building your own website has never been easier. In just a few short steps you’ll be up and running in no time. Simply follow the steps below in order and you’ll be on your way to your very own web presence!
Step 1 – Find an available website name
Finding an available name can be one of the more difficult parts of starting a website. The reason being is that many of the “available” names (called Domain Names) have already been taken. So, you may have to be creative and jot down a list of domain names that you can check. The gold standard in the Internet world is the famous “.com” domain name extension. Anything with a “.com” at the end will be difficult to find, so be patient and keep trying when looking for an available name.
There are many different ways that you can check for an available domain name. One quick way is to go to the Network Solutions website at http://www.netsol.com and simply enter your idea in the search box and go. There’s even a tool that lets you check up to ten domain names at once. You can also search other domain name extensions if you wish.
The cost for this step runs anywhere from $0 to around $38 per year, depending on the hosting provider you choose in Step 2 below. The best part is that as long as you continue to pay the annual fee, you OWN the name! Many names purchased early on were later sold at a pretty good profit. For example, www.insurance.com was sold for $35.6 million in 2010 and www.hotels.com was sold in 2001 for $11 million! In fact, many people have turned domain name trading into a full-time business!
Step 2 – Find a hosting provider
Now that you have a domain name in mind, you need to find a “host” for your upcoming website. The host is essentially the computer server that your new website will actually reside on that everyone in the Internet world will be able to see when they type in your domain name in the their browser.
From here, the options are endless. Do a search on the Internet for website hosting and you’ll quickly see all the available options there are. Fortunately, most hosting providers are largely similar so it mainly comes down to price for hosting. The cost for this step runs anywhere from $0.99 per month up to around $3.49 per month. In general, but not always the case, you get what you pay for. The more expensive options may offer slightly more features (such as 24/7 tech support) and some additional software capabilities (like website development) for example.
Most of the web hosting providers include domain name registration as part of a package deal, which is a nice feature. So, once you settle on a hosting provider, you can usually secure your domain name and pay for the hosting service all at once. Since the domain names are registered a year at a time, I would recommend you purchase hosting for a year at a time as well. If you are unfamiliar with physically creating a website using design software, then I would suggest you look for a hosting provider that includes a website builder as part of their package. These website builders are generally very simple to use and require no experience in website development or coding. The provider I used to host this website is www.GoDaddy.com. The domain name (www.themagicofmoney.com) was free and the hosting was $1 per month for a total of $12 for the year. The plan also includes a free personal website builder. Check their website for current sales and other promotions.
One note of caution. There are plenty of hosting providers out there that offer FREE website hosting. The catch, however, is that your domain name will not look like you might have intended. For example, your domain name “www.mycooldomainname.com” might actually look something like this: “www.everyonescoolfreesite.mycooldomainname.com”. If you’re looking to do something extremely simple or just want to try out developing a small website, then certainly a free site could be an option.
Step 3 – Design the website
The last step to get you up and running is to actually design and upload your new website to your hosting service so that it may be viewed by everyone in the Internet world. If your hosting plan includes a website builder, then great, you can simply use that to create your work of art. Most of these builders will walk you through step by step in designing your site.
If your hosting package does not include a website builder, then there are several options available depending on your level of website designing knowledge and the depth of your pocketbook. Many of these standalone software packages can be downloaded right from the Internet for free (Microsoft WebMatrix for example). Others, such as Adobe Dreamweaver which offers a full development studio, can cost around $240 for an annual license.
Whatever method you choose to physically create your new website, all that is left is to publish it to your hosting service. Once this is done, your new site will be live! Congratulations – you just published your new website in three easy steps!