Guide to Starting Your Own Web Site

Guide to Starting Your Own Web Site



If you have a hobby, business or family in this day and age there is

almost no excuse for not having a web site. Web sites are now for

more than just techie geeks and large companies.



As a web developer I have built coutless web sites, but for personal

use as well as many coporate clients. Below are a few links to

web companies that I personally go out of my way to do business with,

they offer the best proces and features, no matter what size your web

project is.



Small Business Owner

Running your own business is often a very tough job, and one of the

most difficult tasks you face it in trying to appear as professional

and legitimate as possible. In my experience once of the fastest ways

to ruin your illusion of size and experience is to do business under a

generic email account, like xxx@aol.com, xxx@yahoo.com or

xxx@hotmail.com. There are many ways to buy your own domain (web

Address) and get your own email address, with your business name in

it. You should do this right away if you are thinking about

getting business cards.



Registering a Web Site Name (Domain)

When you are trying to come up with a name, it helps to use a service

like godaddy below to search and see if your domain is available.

If you cannot find the exact domain you are looking for I

recommend going with a domain that is as close to your business name as

possible. While it may end up being long, it will be much easier

to spell and give to clients. Nothing is more frustrating that

trying to guess the web address of a company that is using an address

that is nothing like their name.



Email Only

I have provided a few links below to find a place to go buy an web

domain and set up your email. If your thinking about just setting up an

email account for now, and you are not ready to set up a web site, I

strongly recommend that you buy a web domain through godaddy.com.

They are very easy to use and offer great prices (around $9 a

year). Some other web domain registraars charge up to $30 for the

same service.



Full Fledged Web Site

If you are ready to do both a web site and a personalized email address

then you have the option of registering your web domain thoughyour

hosting company. The two hosting companies I have recommended

below offer a nice deal of domain registrations. This simplifies

the process, however the down side is if you ever change web hosts you

have to go through the process of transfering your domain to another

registraar, which while not difficult can be time consuming. For

an small business just starting up that is on a tight budget I would

recommend that you let your hosting company handle the registration for

you. If are a larger small business then I would recommend that

you register your domain through a dedicated registraar like GoDaddy.



Godaddy provides other services besides registering your domnain,

however you will only want to sign up for that. Do not select any

of the other options they offer INCLUDING Email or

hosting. This will all be handled by your hosting company.



Family Web Site or Hobbyist



One of the best reasons to start up a web site as a family (especially

one that lives in different cities or states) OR as a hobbyist is that

it provides you with a central place to share pictures, newletters, get

together schedules, etc. While there are many services out there

that you can use to do some of these things, few let you do it all in

one place and all have limits on usage, like the number of pictures you

can share online, or the file size.



Great Free Web Site Software

As hard as it is to believe some of the best software out there to run

on your web site, for picture galleries, message boards, etc is

free. The hosting companies I have recommended below both offer

quite a few of these ready to use. This means you can add many

increadible features to your web site for free without having to know

anything about web programming. Most of it has been writted in

php (a web scripting language) and requires a web server the supports

php and mySQL Database server. Both of the hosting companies I

recommend below support these technologies.



Full Features Web Site - with ZERO Code

One of the coolest web site applications out there is Mambo.

Mambo is a full-featured content management system that can be used for

everything from simple websites to complex corporate

applications. You can check out some of the web sites made with

Mambo.



Mambo Server

http://mamboserver.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=101



Message Board

http://www.phpbb.com



Other Great Scripts

http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/

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