If you want to get online and are wondering, “How do I make a website?” you have three choices: hire a Web vendor such as a Web designer to make it for you, use an online template-based turnkey service or make it yourself from scratch. This article is specifically for the Web novice that simply needs a place to begin. Every website consists of a domain name, a host provider and the website content. To have a live website on the Internet, all three things need to exist.
Companies can provide you with a domain name, hosting services,
And usually a template-based, turnkey website creation service as well. Homestead is an online service that allows you to create a website from a list of templates, customize it and publish it on your own domain name. And there are websites that allow you to create a blog for instance, and they’ll host it for you. Two examples are Word Press and Blogger. They are very easy to use, even for the novice and you don’t need to know any HTML. The downside to template-based sites is that they are cookie-cutter sites that risk looking a lot like other websites (especially ones in the same industry). And if they don’t allow you to have your own domain name than any marketing efforts are severely diluted.
Finally, you could take the time to learn the craft of making websites and make it yourself.
This latter scenario is good for two reasons. First, you’ll save money in the long run by doing it yourself and second, you’ll always be able to manage and update your site since you created it in the first place and you have necessary skills. Of course the downside to this option is that it takes a lot of time and dedication to learn the art and technical skills necessary to find company website based on name that works. Regardless of the choice you make, you’ll fare much better if you understand the fundamentals of making a website. So let’s look more closely at the three parts that make up every website.
Domain Names
A domain name is unique and contains two parts, the actual unique name and the extension. A domain name is also called a URL (for Universal Resource Locator). You buy domain names from registrars, basically domain name brokers. There are many registrars in existence today. However, I always use the original company that used to have a monopoly on domain names back in the dawn of the Web, Network Solutions. To determine if a domain name is taken or not (remember, they all have to be unique), just go to Network Solutions and type in the name you are considering and you’ll find out immediately if it’s available.
An important thing to remember when buying and managing your domain name is that they are “rented” to you for a set period of years. This means they expire. So if you don’t stay on top of it and renew, then you risk someone else grabbing your domain name if you let it expire. Also, it is infinitely better to have your own domain name than it is to use an online service for your website. Online services that offer you a website but the site “lives” on their domain name are not as good because your marketing efforts are wasted.
A Host Computer (Server)
A physical computer where the content of your website is stored is called a host computer or Web server. This server can be one you own or one you rent from a hosting company. I recommend that you use a hosting company since it is far cheaper and much easier to manage. To access the content on a server, you type in the domain name of an Internet-connected website, which then accesses the content stored on the host computer and serves the content back to you. (This is basically the same process as opening up you’re My Documents folder on a Windows machine and clicking on a file, except on the Web, the file is located on another computer.)
