The Essentials of Creating a Website

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1) A domain 

and 

2) A hosting company.

The domain is sort of like the house where your web site will sit, and the hosting company provides you with the space to build your web pages, sets up all your email accounts, and these are the people you contact if you need help with building your site.

Before you purchase your domain name (yourname.com), you need to decide on what your site will be called.  And please pay special attention to the next few paragraphs because choosing the domain name of your site may be more important than you think.

Someone that filled out the newsletter survey mentioned they wanted to start a web site about wedding products and services.

So before this person buys their domain name, it's a good idea to think about how people will find this person's site.  For example, if someone were looking for a wedding planner, they would go to Yahoo or some search engine and type in "wedding planner", "wedding services" or some wedding-related keywords or phrases.

Many people are tempted to name their domains after their name or business and register a domain name like BJ-Enterprises.com. If you are not interested in people finding your site via the search engines, then this is fine.

However, if you want people to find your site when they go to Yahoo or any of the popular search engines, I would recommend that you reserve a domain name that contains the keywords that you'd like to be found with.

I made this mistake with my first site and learned the hard way.  It was a marketing site and I named it after my last name.  And of course no one is going to find my site by searching for my last name, they'd find me by searching for what they need.  "marketing tips", "marketing advice", etc.  So instead of using a site with my name, I should have used something like internetmarketingtips.com or something like that.

Many of the search engines put lots of emphasis on your domain name when they display search results, so it's important to include your keywords within if possible.

So using the example of the person that wants to create a site about wedding services, a good domain for this person would be "weddingplanningservices.com"  or "tipsforyourwedding.com"  (assuming that's what their site will be about).

So just remember that your domain name should ALWAYS reflect the theme of your web site if you want searchers to find you.   Domain names aren't everything when it comes to getting found on the web, but they sure help when they describe the content of your site.

For more info about choosing domain names, see http://www.2createawebsite.com/prebuild/domain.html

How Much Does It Cost to Register a Domain?

Please don't pay those ridiculous $35/year fees that so many registrars are advertising.  The prices have come down tremendously and you'll get the same service as you would receive with any higher-priced domain registrar.

Click here for details.

After you register your domain name, you really won't have to do anything else with the domain registrar except transfer your domain name to the hosting company that you decide to use.

Some domain registrars offer hosting as well.  So you can do everything at one place.

The Hosting Company

Without a hosting company, no one would be able to view your site and having a domain name would mean nothing.

Be careful because a lot of hosting companies will try to get you to register your domain name through them.  Usually what is happening is that they are receiving a commission from you, and the price is going to be higher than if you'd registered it on your own.

Don't do it. 

Register your domain name here FIRST and then when you find a hosting company just TRANSFER your domain to them. (They'll show you how to do it and the process is very simple).  It's the only way I've ever done it.

What Exactly Does The Hosting Company Give Me?

There are certain features that almost all hosting companies have:

1) Space For Your Pages:  They will give you a certain amount of space for all of your pages and they always measure it in "megabytes".  As a beginner, you won't need more than 30MB (megabytes) of space unless you plan on using lots and lots of big graphics on your web site.  Of course, you can always upgrade if you need more later.

2) Multiple Email Accounts:  This would be something like tommy@yournameofchoice.com. Most people find that 5 email addresses is enough for their site.

3) Bandwidth Limit: In English, the word "bandwidth" just means "traffic." 

Every time someone visits your site they download a page (even though they may not realize it)  and every time a page is downloaded (or transferred) to their PC, they're using up bandwidth on your hosting company's server. 

Hosting companies give you a limit on how much bandwidth you can use up in a month.  Usually 3GB (gigabytes) of transfer is plenty.  That's about 150,000 page hits in a month.  Most people never exceed their limits.

As you read over the hosting company's benefits, you'll see a lot more features than the above three but these are the main features you'll need to be most concerned about as a beginner. 

"How Much Does Hosting Cost?"

You normally pay the hosting company monthly and the prices can range anywhere from free to $1,000 per month. 

As a beginner you shouldn't need to pay any more that $10/month.

Powweb provides an excellent service. Along with their affordable fee of only $7/month, they also give you a free web site building tool to build your pages.

PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE FREE HOSTING COMPANIES!

I had a nightmare with one and I would never recommend this to anyone who is serious about creating a long-lasting, professional web site.  You could wake up one morning and your site could be gone and you don't get the customer service you need.   

And if you are just starting out, you definitely need someone to be there if you need help or have questions about building your site.

If your hosting company won't be there to help you, no one will.

The "free" company I used wanted to charge me to answer a question on an issue that was THEIR problem!  Sure, they're hosting was free but they ask you to pay for any kind of technical customer service you need.

Nothing in life is free, and on the Internet that philosophy still holds true. It's worth it to just cough up the few extra bucks per month and receive the quality service and support you need. 

The word "free" may sound nice up front, but you'll soon realize they'll always be some kind of price later on...whether it be monetary of costs related to time.

Building Your Web Pages

If you don't know HTML (the language web pages are created in) then don't worry. I didn't know it when I first started and I taught myself all I need to know with Microsoft FrontPage. You can use any HTML editor to get the web building help you need.

An HTML editor is a program that allows you to create your web site in a "word processor-like" environment while the program writes the HTML code for you in the background.   So in order to get your page on your site, you just copy the code, paste it into a blank document and then save the page to the web (via your hosting company). 

And of course if you need help, your hosting company will help you out with this process.

Using Macromedia Dreamweaver

I was amazingly pleased with how much better it is than FrontPage. It doesn't add all that extraneous code and it is much better with CSS (cascading style sheets) - which is a must for large sites.

If you need a software to create and edit your web pages, I highly recommend Dreamweaver.

Learn HTML On Your Own!

It's a good language to know and it's not hard to grasp.
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Did You Know?

If you just want to practice with HTML...

1) Open up a blank document in Notepad (For Windows users it's located under START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES).

2) Write the code, then save the file as yourpage.html. 

3) Then open up this file in Microsoft Explorer or Netscape.  Voila!  You can see your page!!

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So there you have the essentials of building a site.  Of course there's much more to learn about enhancing your web site, but if you follow the above steps regarding registering your domain name and signing up with a hosting company then you are well on your way to starting your site.

And if you choose the services I recommended you'll only be paying about $6 per month to run your site...which is extremely reasonable considering what it used to cost to maintain a web site.

Items You May Have Missed...

Need a Domain Name for Cheap?
http://www.websitepalace.com

For a High Quality, Low Cost Hosting Company
http://www.Powweb.com

Get a Copy of Dreamweaver
http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/

The Ideal Guide for Creating a Site That SELLS!
http://www.sitesell.com/