What is Web Hosting?

So many people out there have a web presence from company owners to those who have own personal websites. The numbers are just growing which means that the demand for hosting and domain names are growing at a large also so obviously as you can imagine the hosting and domain market is competitive compared to how it was two or three years back. Many hosting companies are run by a large companies whilst others are run by a sole owner. They have a website informing their customers about their company and about it's product and services, how they can be contacted, what's new and generally how they do their business.

If you own your own business or personal website and wish to have a presence on the internet then you need to think about buying a hosting package that is right for you.

Web hosting means the method of buying disk space and bandwidth (Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a fixed amount of time) from a hosting company that will enable you to launch your site on the world wide web (www) making your website visible to the outside world.

So basically you would buying a hosting package with a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth that is suitable for your website according to how big the site is in size and whether or not you plan to update the site regularly as obviously this would take up more disk space on the server. Once this is done ad the payment has been made to the hosting company, then you would need to transfer your website files across to the host server. This is done by a method known as 'file transfer protocol' Your website then becomes accessible to everyone using the internet enabling them to surf your website.

Domain Name

Prior to finding a company to host your website you will need to choose a domain name for your website. A domain name is basically an address for your website or otherwise know as it's URL. For example this website's address is www.allofweb.com. Other example are www.google.com, www.dmoz.com and so on. In my opinion it’s better to have your domain name as your website name because that way when people think of your website they will think of it by name and they will be able to find your site more easily. It should also be catchy and easy to remember.

Design Your Website

There are three ways in which to design your website. Here they are:

1.You can design the website yourself There are a few website editors available as discussed in the previous article "do I need to learn html to build my own website". Two examples are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. You can use these editor programs to easily create and edit your web pages. The nice thing about these editor is that the html code is automatically written in the background while all you have to do is design the pages the way you want from the design view which is no different to lets say a word document with all its existing formatting and standard toolbar options.

2.various companies offer an effortless way for you to create your website by providing a supply of templates for you to choose from. These can be selected from pre-defined categories so all you need to do is select the appropriate category that best fits the content of your website. Once you have your templates it's yours and you may be able to select your own theme, edit the colours, graphics, font and on on till you are completely satisfied. You can browse for Free templates but just be aware that the free templates tend to be quite general and simple so it just depends on what you are looking for.

3.You could pay a freelancer or a web design company to create your website for you. This is considered the most expensive option however you are guaranteed to get it looking the way you want.

Getting a web host

So you have chosen the domain name, designed your website so now you need to decide who to host with.

As mentioned at the start the hosting market has become quite competive so there are literally hundreds of hosting companies out there. Best advice is to search the internet for those companies wthat have a good reputation and offers the kind of services you need and reasonable prices. Always find out about the company before you buy. Ways of doing this is to look on the internet and view the testimonials if any and look at forums to see what others have to say.

Once you have decided on the company you now need to select a web hosting package that is suitable for your needs and register for an account. Normally the transaction is made online using a credit card or PayPal. Most hosting company will also allow you to register a domain name with them too and infact its better to buy a domain name with the same company that you host with because you may get a better deal or a discount depending on whom you host with.

As soon as the payment has been processed, you will be sent a confirmation email with details about your hosting package. Read the email carefully and keep it safe as this will contain your username and password you used to register the account and your hosting details.

Finally you need to upload all your web pages (html) including images, scripts and other files to the host server. Instructions on how to do this should be given in the email sent confirming your account details. Usually it's done one of two ways. Either visa the cpanel which you will be given access to or a File Transfer Protocol(FTP) program which can be downloaded from the internet This can be done via the control panel on your website, or by using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program such as WS_FTP.

So now you are all LIVE and ready to go so everyone all over the world can access your website. EASY!

Do I need to learn HTML to build my own website?

What is Web Hosting?

Marketing effectively on the net is free