Getting a Website
Tutorial
There are so many choices out there for website development and hosting that it can be confusing at first. Having a good idea of your short and long term needs will help you narrow it down.
Website Types: For our purposes we will talk in terms of three different types or purposes for websites.
Informational: Good for introducing your business and providing contact information. Also good for showing an on-line portfolio, client testimonials, etc. Even if you won't be directly selling products on-line, almost any business is expected to have some web presence for contact information and to explain your services.
E-commerce: You will need this type of site if you want clients to be able to purchase or order something directly from your website.
Interactive: This is a broad category where your website IS your business and the client will be interacting in many ways to get information, transact business, leave comments or join forums, upload personal items, etc.
Domain Names: You must first decide if you need your own domain name or if you can "piggyback" off a hosting site. Your own domain name would be in the form of www.mysite.com, while a hosted domain would be www.hostsite.com/mysite or www.mysite.hostsite.com or something similar.
Original domain names in the .com domain are getting really hard to find as so many are already taken. If your business depends on clients being able to remember and type in your domain, or to be easily searchable, then you must choose a domain name carefully. Go to www.godaddy.com or www.networksolutions.com and search for an unused domain name. Be prepared for this to take some time unless you have a very unique business name. Personal names are often still available like SusanTyler.com or SusanTylerGraphics.com and can be quite memorable once you have an established working relationship.
If your website will be mostly informational (work portfolio or general information), then you can probably get away with a hosted domain. Clients will be led to your site through your web advertising or direct links from printed brochures and resumes, not through search engines or keywords.
Registering a domain will cost about $9.99 per year to do it yourself, but often comes as part of the site hosting service. See more below. If you register yourself, be sure and keep a copy of your username and password and all other information. You will need it when setting up your website hosting.
Website Hosting:
The next thing to think about is what type of hosting service you need. Hosting companies have large servers on the internet that host your website. If you don't have your own server (which most of us don't), then you need to contract service through a hosting company.
Free/Basic: Many Internet Service Providers (ISP's) and some hosting companies offer free website space for personal or limited use. These services offer a small amount of space, around 5 Gigabytes, (about 5-15 pages depending on how many graphics/photos you upload), and sometimes some simple design tools. They are easy to get started but only suitable to informational sites. You are limited in the available bandwidth as well, so this would not be suitable for a heavy-use e-commerce site. You can usually upload logo graphics, photos, etc. and some come with tools to add blogs, forums, etc. Most hosts then offer "premium" services with more space, bandwidth, and design tools for a fee.
Website Design and Hosting: Most website design companies also offer hosting packages ranging from small to large. Website design and hosting comes in two flavors: Do-it-yourself site design, where the company provides you with easy to use tools and design templates to design your own site, or Design Consulting, where designers on staff will design your site. A small website will probably cost about $10 a month to host, where a larger, more complex site will start at about $35 a month and go up from there. Design costs will vary with the complexity of the project. Domain registration is usually included.
Data Center: If you are planning a large e-commerce or highly interactive site where site response time, uptime, and accuracy are critical to your business, you might look into a data center that provides high security, guaranteed availability, and on-going technical support. Prices are usually scalable as your site and business grow. Oftentimes you will still need website design so ask the data center for references of companies they have worked with.
Hire a Webmaster
Next you will need to decide who is going to be the webmaster for your site.
If you have a lot of time and a desire to learn, and need a more customized look, you can design your own website using Adobe Dreamweaver (popular, powerful, and expensive), Mozilla SeaMonkey (free download), Microsoft Frontpage (comes with Office but not supported on all servers), or other free html editors. You still need a server or hosting service and a domain name, and make sure your hosting service supports web pages built in your chosen editor. The hosting service will help you upload your pages and configure your domain.
If you want to delegate website design and maintenance for a more professional look, you must hire a webmaster. First, search our Member Profiles for talented web designers who understand the needs of flexible workers. Another place to look is on freelance sites like those listed on our freelance page. Craig’s list (www.craigslist.com) or your local classifieds or phone book is also a good choice to find qualified web designers. A web designer can often help you step through the process of domain registration and finding a suitable hosting site. Then you can decide if you just want to hire them to design the site, or provide on-going technical support and maintenance as well.
Website Design and Hosting Services
Now that you have thought about what type of web presence you are interested in, here are some options to look into, in addition to those listed above, for getting your business on-line.
Next Steps
Search our Member Profiles for qualified web designers
Check off the steps to starting your small business
Promote your business or website with ideas from our Promotion Hub
Other Tips and Tricks
When you run a search on a domain name to see if it's registered, be prepared to buy it on the spot if it's available. You see, if you check a domain's availability with Network Solutions, the registrar will put it on "reserve" (which effectively means that it registers the domain). Then, the only place you can register the domain name is with Network Solutions -- at its chosen price. This practice has been called Domain Tasting, and Network Solutions happily admits to it.
