Setting up your own website:
Step 1: Get your domain name
This gives your website a name, for example “google.com” and “msn.com” are the domain names of Google and MSN. Getting a domain name is equivalent to registering a business in the brick and mortar world. When choosing a domain name, remember that it’s good to have a name that reflects your website or business. The site name is the URL. So if the URL is related to your business, there’s a better chance they’ll remember it. However, there is a possibility that the domain name is with another owner. Review the “who is” information for the domain and see if that person is interested in selling it.
Step 2: Register your domain name
After getting a domain name, the next step in creating your own website is to register it. You must register the name you want with an organization called ICANN through a domain name registry. You choose a domain name and pay a registration fee ranging from $10 to $35, valid for one year. Then you need to renew it every year around the same time. To pay for the domain name, you need a credit card or a PayPal account. There are numerous domain name registries such as GoDaddy.com, Dotster.com, Register.com, Moniker, 1&1Internet.
Step 3: Choose a web host and sign up for an account
A web host is an organization that has many computers connected to the internet. When you place your web pages on their system, anyone using the Internet can view and navigate them. So this is like a home for your website. When you registered you received the company name and now the next step to creating your own website is to register with the web host, which is like renting office space in the real world. You can choose a free web host or a commercial web host. A free web host would impose advertising on your website. Also, the amount of web space available would be limited. Some web hosts limit the maximum size of files you can upload, but an important consideration when looking for a host is reliability and access speed.
Step 4: Design your web pages
The next step you need to take is to design the website itself. The best way to put a webpage on your website is to use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web editor. Such editors allow you to design the page visually and not worry about the technical details. In fact, they behave like normal word processors. Again, you have a choice of commercial or free web editors. Dreamweaver is a very good commercial web editor, while KompoZer is an example of a free WYSIWYG web editor.
Step 5: Create content for your website
Once you have registered the domain name and decided on the web host and designed it, the next step in creating your own website is to create content that can be hosted on it. Depending on your website, you may need to write and upload images. You need to make sure that the writing on your site is unique at all times, as you can do that by using article checkers like Copyscape. If you want to publish images on your website, you must be aware of copyright and only use royalty-free images.
