Purchasing a URL and Hosting

Leslie's Advice on Purchasing a Domain (URL), Choosing a Hosting Service and Creating your Site

If you're interested in getting up on the internet, the first thing you should do is decide why. The very basic question to ask is will your site be personal or business related? If you'd like to create a personal site, you may be interested in starting a blog. in this situation, you would not necessarily need a web developer to build a site. But if you'd like to add a nice looking blog to your business site, you might want to hire a professional to customize your blog. Or if you'd like to offer item for sale on one of the many auction sites, you'll create an "e-shop" on the big one and go to town. But if your interest lies in promoting yourself or your business in a very professional way and actually owning your own site, then it's time to start shopping for a domain and hosting!

Domain
A domain or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of your site. Think of it as the street address of your home. It's how you give people directions on where to find you. You can find a site's URL by looking in the address bar of your web browser. When choosing a URL, you want to think of a name that directly relates to and supports your web site content. I'll use my company name and site as an example. I wanted a fun, memorable name that means something to me AND tells other people that I am a creative. So I decided to use one of my favorite literary characters who also (not by chance) gets across my personality and what it is like to work with me. I chose Laughing Cat instead of Cheshire Cat, because I wanted to go a bit more generalized than the standard Lewis Carroll image and then I added on the word Arts to tell people I am an artist. To back up for just a bit, when you choose your name, you must also make sure the URL is available, so it's a good idea to have a B plan, C plan, D plan and maybe even more. The registration site will make alternate suggestions, but don't rely on these as your back-up plan. Also stick with .com instead of .net (or any of the others). Research in site optimization tells us that .com ranks higher on browser searches than .net, .biz, .tv, etc. The popular URL registration sites charge $20 per year per domain (or less) and have auto-renew options.

Hosting
Now that you have a site URL (an address) you need site hosting (a house). If you've never shopped for site hosting, the search for a great host service can be confusing and frustrating. And there are an awful lot of hosting companies out there. Do your due diligence, google "Hosting Companies", read reviews and ask folks you know with sucessful websites who they use as their website hosting company. For my clients and my business Bluehost is my preferred host. If you want a Wordpress site, they partner with WordPress for a seamless site building experience. Their uptime is legendary, they have great customer service and an easy to understand user admin/control panel.

A few website hosting companies that get high marks:

Bluehost
Highly dependable uptime, inexpensive WordPress hosting plans, seamless WordPress site-building software, free site migration for those moving their site(s) from another hosting company, knowledgeable customer service and easy-to-use interface.

DreamHost
Extensive domain-management tools, strong security features, unlimited data transfers, shared hosting money-back guarantee and cloud hosting offerings.

InMotion Hosting
All plans offer unlimited email, many hosting types to choose from, money-back guarantee, simple website-building software and excellent uptime.

HostGator
Free SSL certificates, feature-rich plans, useful site-building software and e-commerce tools, dedicated, VPS and shared hosting plans are all available.

PURCHASING A URL AND HOSTING SERVICE | DEVELOPING CONTENT | DESIGNING YOUR SITE