STEP 4 WEB PAGE HOSTING SERVICE
Internet Domain Name
Domain Internet Registration
Free Web Site Hosting
Shared Web Site Hosting
Charges
Facilities
Affordable Web Site Host
Publishing
Search for Internet Domain Name
All web pages on the internet need to be stored somewhere so that they are accessible to users. Storage is usually on a server, or host, and there are thousands of them. Each web page hosting service has different capabilities and services.
Choosing an affordable web site host and plan should not be done until the planning, evaluation and business plan for your site has been completed. You will then know exactly what your needs are, and be able to come up with a check list for a web host. For example, you may want to add a video to your site, so you will require streaming media capability from your host, plus higher bandwidth.
If you choose your host before you know what you need, you will be limited to what they can provide, unless they allow you to upgrade. Most hosts offer a variety of plans and capabilities. There are however, many features you can add on to your site, even if your host does not provide them. See Web Tools.
Some web hosting services offer online sitebuilders. See Website Building Tools
Internet Domain Name
This is the exclusive URL for your site that is registered with a domain name registrar. For example http://www.how-to-build-web-sites.com. It is the address users type into their browser to find your site.
If you have done your keyword research for your site’s theme, you will have a number of keywords you would like to use for your domain name.
There are a number of suffixes you can choose from for your domain name, including .com, .net, .info, .com.au, .co.uk, .co.nz, .biz, etc etc. Letters, numbers and hyphens can form part of a domain name, but not other characters or spaces.
Domain Internet Registration
While you can register a domain name separately, a lot of web hosts include it in their packages, or charge a fee to transfer it from elsewhere. It is therefore more cost-effective to choose your web host BEFORE registering your domain name.
Registration can be for 1 year or more, and must be renewed, or it can be registered by someone else after its expiration.
iPowerWeb was the cheapest company around for domain name registration, however, they have now reduced their prices even further, from $8.25/year to $6.50/year for all domains ending in .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .us. With every domain purchase, customers receive a free parked page, free domain forwarding, and free email forwarding.
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Free Web Site Hosting
See Free Web Sites
Shared Web Site Hosting
Is where many websites share the same server space and is the most common hosting choice for small businesses. Sharing reduces the costs, without affecting the integrity of your site. Large corporations or businesses that need more power mostly use virtual or dedicated servers, with far greater costs.
Charges
Some web hosting companies may seem less expensive than others in their monthly fees, however, they may charge extra for facilities that other web hosts provide for free. Or some have low monthly fees, but charge a higher than market rate to register a domain name. Some charge to transfer a domain name. Some have set up fees.
All these separate costs can add up. For this reason, it is a good idea to work out exactly what you need, then make up a spreadsheet with those needs on it. Then find out from the different web hosts exactly how much they charge for what. Total the costs at the bottom – you will be surprised at the result.
Facilities
Your web host choice will depend not only on your budget, but also on the facilities they provide. This is why it is important to work out what you need, beforehand. If the host you choose does not support a facility you need, it can probably be provided separately elsewhere.
Here is a quick overview of some features to look for :
- Technical Support Email, phone, chat lines, 24/7
- Web Space 20Mb is average for a 20page site, although media files will take up a lot more
- Bandwidth The number of hits you expect to receive at any one time.
- Connection Bandwidth The speed at which your site will load in browsers, which will also influence quality
- Data Transfer Limit The amount of data that can be transferred to the server, in Mb, or Gb.
- Uptime During downtime, your site will not be visible. A good host will have 99.9% uptime, when your site is available.
- CGI Bin Script support for online forms - perl, asp, php, cgi
- Pre-installed Scripts For forms etc, much easier for novices
- eCommerce Capability Shopping carts
- Search Engine Submission Registering with the major search engines
- Email Addresses Ideally get enough to create several eg sales@, support@, info@, webmaster@, subscribe@, unsubscribe@ etc. Email forwarding.
- Autoresponders Automatic messages that get sent in response to an emailed enquiry to you
- Spam Filtering and Anti Virus Of your emails
- WebMail To be able to read emails when away from your own computer
- Mailing List Manager To be able to send one email out to your entire database at once
- Security Use of SSL for secure pages
- Password Protection Capability of allowing only certain users to a section of your site
- FTP File transfer capability, from your web building program or computer to the host
- Traffic/Web Statistics An invaluable marketing tool, statistics can show how many hits your site has received, and when, where your visitors come from, which pages are most popular, exit pages, and the search terms they used to get there.
- Control Panel To easily manage your site and its facilities
- Site Monitoring To check the downtime of your site
- Subdomains Eg http://subdomain.maindomain.com. Ideal for different departments within an organisation. Some hosts allow unlimited subdomains
- Upgrading Ability to easily upgrade to increased space or bandwidth.
- Contract Length Some hosts have fixed contract lengths, some allow you pay as you go. Discounts are sometimes available for longer contracts, say 12 months.
- Domain Name Registration See above
- Blogging
- SQL For databases
- Forums
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Affordable Web Site Hosts
These are our choices for Web Hosting :
HostGator has all the facilities and support you’ll ever need, plus hosting of an UNLIMITED number oif websites per account. If you are considering building a multitude of sites, this is the one to get.
Website Source has everything you’ll need at very reasonable rates. Easy to use interfaces, online chat for technical support and many features included that other hosting companies charge extra for.
MD Web Hosting Free Domain Name & Web Site Builder with hosting. No lock-in contracts. No setup fees. 99.9% uptime. 24/7 support. Hosting from $20/year.
WebSite Wizard Total website hosting with 100's of free templates, photos, scripts and tons of other features.
Powerful web hosting with control panel, 24/7 support and step-by-step website templates, graphics, stock photos, scripts and more. Create logos, manage mailing lists, add pop-ups, etc. All you need in one place, with step by step wizards making it real easy. FREE activation and domain for a limited time.
GoDaddy is the largest domain name registrar, and has a variety of plans and features. Very reliable with 99.9% uptime and 24/7 live support.
iPowerWeb hosting package has Free Marketing, Free Content, Free Easy-to-use Web Builder + 3000 Megs of Space, 50 gigs of traffic, 500 Email accounts; more than enough for the overwhelming majority of all sites on the internet. Plus Award Winning 24/7 Customer Support via Toll Free Phone & Email.
Publishing
When your site is ready to be published, it will need to be uploaded to your web page hosting service. This is done via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Most servers provide an FTP service, and will give you the file paths and destination folders to upload to, when you sign up with them.
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