Last Updated: 4/1/06

Getting a Web Address
Finding a Web Site Host
Picking How/Who to Design the Site

To start your own web site, you will first need a web site address (also called domain or URL). If you want a free web site, then simply put "free web site" into any search engine, and you will find a ton of hits. A free web site will be an extension of someone else's URL. For example, if I offered free web sites off my site, your URL might me http://www.fishpondinfo.com/mywebsite . Most free sites will have ads from the parent company on them to help pay for the site. They will also greatly limit the size and quantity of files that you can upload. For small personal sites though when you just get started, they are fine.

If you want a web site of your own with a unique URL, you need to register the domain. There are a ton of places out now who will register your domain, too many to list! I use Domain People for my site. They seem fine. Here are some tips.

• Pick a URL that is short and sweet if you can. The longer the URL, the harder it is for people to remember. The name should be unique and memorable.

• Stick to .org if you are a non-profit and .com if you are a business or informational site. People are not going to remember if you have a strange ending to your URL. They are going to assume it is .com.

• Unless you are super rich, it is not worth buying a URL that is already registered for $1000+ which is the going rate for sites that are already bought. There are companies that buy up anything that sounds like it could be a name and resell the URL's for $1000's which is absolutely ridiculous.

• To find out who owns a URL if you want to offer to buy it, use Whois.com which you can also access from most domain-selling companies when you enter in a query about a URL.

• You can get a domain from your host server but one advantage of registering separately is that if you decide you want to change hosts, it does not effect the status of your URL.

In order for people to see stuff from your URL, you need a server which is just a computer that is on all the time that holds your files. Huge companies may have their own server. For most of us though, we pay to have web hosts keep the files on their server computers. I use Net Nation for my site but there are many out there you can try by searching for web site hosts. Their service has been pretty good. I was very glad when they changed to unlimited bandwidth for shared hosting as I had been paying for bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of file upload traffic that you have. It is determined not only by the number of visitors that you have but the size and number of files that they open up. In a package, you will look for the following:

• Total MB (mega-byte) disk space - This is the total size of total files you can add to their server. The more room you have, the better but you do not need to start with a lot of room if you do not need it. You can always upgrade your plan to a higher level.

• Bandwidth - This is the total MB of files that viewers upload to their computers. If you get a lot of visitors, you can be charged a hefty fee for going over or have your site blocked. Some sites have unlimited bandwidth which is the way to go if you have a lot of visitors.

• E-mails - This is the number of e-mail addresses that you can get with your site extension - name@yoursite.com . I see no reason that the average person needs more than one or two of these but businesses may need more, for many people who work there. Most packages give you more e-mails than you will ever need.

• Shopping carts - If you plan to sell things from your site, you will want a secure shopping cart.

• Downtime - This is how much time your site will be down for maintenance. Good sites only go down is something goes wrong as they run your site off another server while they do required maintenance.

• Customer Service - You will want a company that actually answers your e-mails and phone calls when you need help. If you buy a cheap package, you may not be able to get help when you need it.

You can either design your site yourself or pay someone to do that. I do my own site so I really cannot comment on hiring someone. Most web hosts will also create a site for you. There are also web designers all over the place, just search for one.

If you design your own site, you can chose to write it in HTML yourself like I do or use a program that converts to HTML for you like Microsoft Frontpage. I have never used a web creation program myself because I like to have control over the entire web page. Basic HTML is simple (see my HTML page). Luckily, my brother is a computer programmer so he can do some Java script and other more complex stuff. Do not ask me about that stuff as I do not have a clue!

You will also have to decide if you want a site with or without frames. In frames, each page is framed within the same picture if you will with whatever is in the frame. The frame follows along with all the pages. There are some bad things about frames. Search engines may not pick up the pages beyond the main page, and no one can type in unique URL's for specific pages as they are all from the main page. Searching for web site frames will give you plenty of information on that. As an alternative to frames, I use headers and footers which get inserted into each page which makes updating things like the copyright date much easier. Instead of updating all 300+ pages on my site, I change a few when the year turns over, etc.

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