So You Want Your Own Website?
There are many reasons to want a website. You can sell things, share information, post pictures, etc. If there’s a reason someone will visit (or sometimes not) there is a reason to build a website. Well, where do you start?
First, many Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) provide a certain amount of webspace as part of your monthly Internet service. If you’re just looking to share a few pictures with your friends, but not expect a lot of visits, this may be the way to go.
If you’re looking for something more than that, you can look online at free hosting services. These will often give you a certain amount of webspace, more than your ISP, and you’ll get a website along the lines of http://freehostingexample.com/~yourname. This will usually give you more freedom than your ISP, but not always. Since I haven’t used any of these services, I won’t recommend any specifically.
The next level would be to pay for web hosting. In this case, you buy your domain name (www.domainname.com) and you pick a company to host your site. This allows the most freedom and variety. Each web host usually offers a variety of packages, from beginner up to professional. Typically, a web host will include the domain name in the cost of hosting for a new account. The prices to have your website hosted has gotten very reasonable, and if you’re serious about building and maintaining a site, this is the way to go.
The things to look at when picking out a package depend on what kind of site you plan to build. The basic stats you’re looking for are web space, email addresses, transfer volume allowed, database/MySQL support (we’ll get to that later), and you may want to see if they offer web design tools. If you plan on having a lot of pictures and videos on your site, you will want to have a decent amount of web space. If you’re going to have a text based site (like this one) like a blog, you don’t need as much web space.
Email addresses are not that important to some people for personal sites, but if you plan to do any business on your website, you may want a fair amount of email addresses for your employees or just to make yourself sound a little more professional.
The transfer volume amount is how much data is being moved to and from your website every month. Again, if you’re using large files like pictures and movies, you’ll want a high number here. If it’s a small site without much downloading or uploading, you don’t need the highest amount available.
Databases are used on many websites. If you plan to have a blog on your website, you’ll want database support. That means you will want your package to include MySQL databases. This may seem intimidating now if you’re new to this, but by the time you’ll need to do anything with them, I’ll walk you through it.
Once you’ve decided what kind of website you want and pick out a host, you’re ready to register your domain name and get started. After you’re sure, register the domain name and sign up for your hosting and you’re ready to start building a website.
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