Setting up a Website
1. First decide on a domain name. A domain name is like 'something.com' for example. After you have picked a name, you need to see if it is available in the domain registrar. You can do this by going to whois and entering your domain name into the field "Get your own domain name" and then click "Go". If the domain name is taken, it will say "Sorry, your domain name is already registered. Click here to see the whois record." You can click the link and see who it is registered to. Perhaps, if you really want the name, you can contact the person to see if they will sell it to you. But more likely, you will pick another name or one of the other available suggested names.
If your domain name is available, it will tell you that it is available. You can either register it with whois.net, another domain name registrar such as godaddy, or you can register it with you web host.
If you do not yet have a web host, I suggest that you register it with your web host when you sign up of their hosting plan. It would be easier to get signed up for web hosting and name registration from the same provider, so you have to enter your information and credit card info once. This way, you do not need to perform step 5 of linking the two. For example, I had registered the domain name webmarksonline.com and signed up for hosting both at the same time in one transaction by going to a host provider such as routhost.com.
If you already have hosting, but just want another domain name, I would suggest godaddy because they will park, forward, and mask your domain name for free. For example, I am currently hosting webmarksonline.com at routhost. I later then registered the domain name learnwebdesignonline.com from godaddy. By default, godaddy will automatically "park" your domain name. I then went into my godaddy account and specified that I wanted to forward all traffic that arrives at learnwebdesignonline.com to go to some subdirectory of webmarksonline.com. In addition, I specified that I want URL masking so that the URL address in the user's browser still shows learnwebdesignonline.com even though the pages are hosted at webmarksonline.com.
2. Next you will need to find a web hosting company to support your website. You can visit hostinglogia for a list of some hosting company, read their reviews, and select one that meets your needs and budget. See also this list here. Go to the hosting company site and read the spec for each of their plans. If you need help on the terminology, read the Web Hosting Tutorial . Plans are often distinguished by the amount of disk space and bandwidth allowed. See here for what kinds of numbers to look for. Also look for is how user friendly and robust are the admin tools. I would suggest a plan that uses the CPanel admin tool (which is becoming quite popular). To see some Flash movie tutorials on the use of CPanel, visit here .
3. Once you have choosen a hosting company, it is time to sign up for web hosting and register your domain name. Get your credit card ready. Go to the hosting company website. For the purpose of this example, I am going to use www.routhost.com and select the plan you want. It will ask if you already have a domain name or not. If not, select the option to have the host register the domain name for you. It will ask you for your domain name (an extra price). Enter the domain name that you have choosen. You will then need to enter account owner information as well.
4. Once you have paid and completed all the online forms, you should receive a confirmation email from your host. In your email is the IP address of your site, your domain name of your site, your user name, and password. In the email, it will give you the URL to your "CPanel", or control panel. The CPanel is where go to set up your emails on the host and other administrative tasks. If you signed up for a hosting account and a domain name from the same provider, your account should be ready once your domain name "resolves". It can take up to 24 to 48 hours for this to happen.
5. If you signed up for a hosting account and a domain name from different providers, you will need to link your domain name with your hosting account. In the confirmation email mentioned above, it will indicate the primary and secondary name servers of your web host. You will need to supply these to your name provider. Your name provider will have a place for your to login and set these values.
