Host Your Website
Register A Domain Name and
Find Website Hosting
Now that your pages are ready you will need 2 things: a domain name and website hosting.
Domain Name
If is important to choose your domain name (yourname.com) carefully. It should be easy
to remember. It should be easy to spell - easy enough that you can give it to someone over
the phone and be confident that they will be get it right. And it should contain
key words that will help your site rank high in the search engines.
Be sure you get a dot com name. That is what people will expect. If your name is CoolStuff.net
a lot of your visitors will accidently end up at CoolStuff.com. Unless they have it written
down, they will just assume you are a dot com.
Domain names are registered, not bought. You do not own a dot come name the way you own a
toaster. Basically you rent the name. The name is registered for 1 or 2 years. It must
then be renewed annually.
There are literally hundreds of places to register your domain name. Just type "domain names"
into your favorite search engine to see what is available. Compare prices - they can vary
widely. And make sure the domain is registered in your name and not the name of the
registrar.
If the name you want has already been registered, you may still be able to buy it. Some
people buy good domain names in the hopes of reselling them at a profit. Good dot com
names are in short supply, so some sell for thousands - even millions - of dollars!
A new site, ValueNIC.com, buys up abandoned high quality domain names and offers them for sale
for US$49.00 or less. This gives you the opportunity to get a good name at a reasonable
price. ValueNic is definitely worth a look.
(If you are using
Site Build It
domain name registration comes as part of the package.)
Web Site Hosting
Free Hosting: A number of companies offer free web site hosting in exchange for placing
an advertisement at the top of each of your pages. While you cannot beat the free price tag,
they have a number of disadvantages:
- Search engines discriminate against sites hosted for free (for a variety of reasons).
- Customers may not consider you professional if you are not willing to pay a few dollars
per month for professional hosting.
- The advertising income from the ads on your page go to the web host, not to you.
If you wish to try free hosting check out the following sites:
Cheap Hosting: You will often see ads for web hosting at extremely cheap prices.
Don't bother. For a low price you get low service. A site that is always crashing
cannot sell anything.
Professional hosting: Professional webiste hosting will cost you from US$10.00-20.00 and
up depending on how big your site is, how much traffic you get and what features you will
need (shopping carts, autoresponders, etc.).
Try one of the following:
WebWizards
DellHost
Hosting.com
(Again, if you use SiteBuildIt professional web hosting is included as part of your
package!)
Now you have your site up and running. All you have to do now is sit back and wait
for the customers to flock to your site, right? WRONG!
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