Most Hosting companies who offer domain registration services provide a page within their website which contains a search box. In most cases, you simply type in the Domain name you would like to have and it will instantly carry out a search and produce a set of results telling you whether the specific Domain name you are looking for has already been registered by someone else. It will also normally provide you with a list of different Domain extensions showing which are and are not still available.
The main difference beween them is that as the internet has grown up, the number of different Domain extensions has expanded. This was partially because people often found that it offered an alternative method of them getting the name which they wanted.
Initially, .com (referred to a company), .net (referred to companies in a network), .org (referred to companies who were part of an organisation), .gov (specifically for government departments), .ac (academic establishemnts), .sch schools.
This list of different extensions has now grown to include several hundred extra Extensions from .xxx (x-rated sites) to .plumber (for plumbers)
What do I do if the Domain name I want is not available ?
In this case you have several options,
- Check to see if the person who registered it did so with the intention of not using it but with the sole intention of selling it at a profit. You can normally find this out by going to the web address to see if it says it is for sale.
- If you are not in a rush you can always place a 'Back order' on it. This is a sort of notification service offered by some domain sellers who will register it for you if it ever becomes available.
- If the .co.uk version of your site has already been taken, look at the different TLD's which may stil be available such as .TV(for Media companies) or .org.uk or .info .eu - However, always be aware of the potential impact on future search results (read the section on SEO)
- Think Creatively around what else you might use examples could include merely putting 'my' in front of your required name or 'new' something similar as it may still be available. Alternatively, stand back and think about who you are trying to attract - as an example the Hardware Retailer B & Q uses the address DIY.com this clearly offered them a method of keeping it simple and helping to mitigate the problems associated with those companies who have an Ampersand in heir company name.
I have now chosen my domain name do I do next ?
Once you have determined that your required domain is available, you are now ready to look for a company to Host your website.
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies out there, all vying for your business. Asking a few simple questions at this stage will help to narrow down your selection substantially.
Every company is different and has a different reason for starting up their own website. It is therefore impossible to give one simple answer.
We thought that it may be useful to outline a couple of ficticious Case Study examples of different types of businesses and some typical solutions to their requirements. - See Below
How do I manage Manage My new server ?
For most Website Owners, many day to days tasks such as managing Emails, File uploads and downloads, creating databases and installing software packages etc. can be complex tasks.
In reponse to this, most shared Hosting Companies make life easier for the 'Webmaster' (ie. you or your company) by providing some form of Control Pabel to help you manage the day to day tasks of keeping your website running and updated.
Are there different types of Control Panel ?
Yes, many Shared Hosting companies offer their own versions of control panels which include the functions necessary to maintain their websites. In some cases they also provide the ability to install their own scripts through what are often called One-Click installers. One of the longest established companies which provides a dedicated 'Control Panel' is a company called 'Control Panel' or 'CP' for short. This offers a complete top to bottom management system to enable you to manage your website (including email, ftp, web stats, databases, logs, and many other tasks.) For maximum effectiveness be sure to check that the CP Control Panel has the 'Fantastico Deluxe' script installer, as this will provide you with a myriad of different single click installs of a massive range of Opens Source or Free software.
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
This section covers the type of questions based on what requirements you need and what some of the terms quoted actually mean !
How much Disk space do I need ?
That depends on the nature of your website. Many of the shared hosting companies offer an UNLIMITED amount of disk space. They are able to do this because the majority of the sites which we have come across use only a few hundred Megabytes of disc space maximum.
As a rule an average size page of text takes up just a few kilobytes, which means that even on heavily text based sites you can have several hundred web pages and will still take up less than 1 megabyte of disk space.
People often get confused between their Kilobytes / Megabytes and Gigabytes. FYI and to give you an idea of relative sizes, a page of plain text 'above the fold' can take up as little as 5 kilobytes in disk space. On this basis you can get around 200 pages of a similar size for 1 megabyte or a staggering 200,000 for 1 Gigabyte of storage.
In reality there aren't many websites with 200,000 pages of text and even the most frugal of SHared Hosting Plans offer in excess of 50 gigabytes of storage space (enough for way over 1 million pages of text !) - it is the Images, Video clips and other 'Rich Media' which can take up the majority of space on most websites, but with say 50 Gigabytes of storage space. It is enough space for what we would class as more than the average.
Some websites do have some small print in their T & C's which place 'Fair Use' limits and 'Percentage Multimedia limits' but these rarely get reached.
What is Bandwith and how much do I need ?
Bandwidth and Traffic are sometimes referred to as the same thing. Thay are not, but in terms of hosting it has generally been accepted to mean the total amount of data passing to and from your Shared hosting account.
Once again, it depends on what type of website you are planning, what type media you are planning on serving and how popular your site is. As you will see from many of our research findings, many hosting plans offer Unlimited Bandwidth even for their 'modest' starter style Shared Hosting Plans.
What other Technical server hardware details do I need to look out for ?
Although there are a number of Technical Variations, such as the amount of Memory, the speed of the Hard discs etc. - many shared Server Hosting accounts come pre-configured. It is only when we start to look more at VPS (Virtual Private Servers), Dedicated Servers, Co-Lo (co-location) and Large Configurable Cloud Servers that we will address these technical matters in more detail.
How do I get my data to and from my shared server ?
As mentioned earlier, most Control Panels will have some form of FTP server built into it. This often involves a simple 'drag and drop' approach to moving files between your computer and the server. For the more adventurous, there a number of very good pieces of FTP (file transport protocol) software available which normally resides on your own computer which is capable of doing much more than merely transferring files (such as as backing up your information, comparing data etc.)
Do I need to be able to create Databases which I can use on my server.
Over the past 5 or so years, there has been a huge increase in the number of Applications (programs) which require that your server has the ability to create databases. This has been fuelled by the number of free and open source CMS Content Management Systems. You may have come across some of the more popular names including Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal Mambo and several others. They each require a database to run on.
What are CMS and do I need one ?
CMS or Content Management systems enable non computer programmers to create quite complex websites using a series of pre-written scripts. In addition, there are thousands of both free and paid-for add-ons or extensions which use pre written scripts to extend your CMS (such as pre-written scripts).
You may have already heard of the concept of CMS and experienced through the use of Wordpress based sites or Joomla or Drupal sites, all which are based on Database systems.
If you are planning on building your own site and have no experience of building but feel like you wish to try it yourself, you must ensure that your Hosting Account allows for at least one 'MYSQL ' database as a part of your hosting package. We will talk in grater depth about the benefits, and pitfalls of building CMS databases in our Internmediate instruction sessions later in this series of advice tutorials.
Shared Hosting and Email
If you are planning to operate your own email system, check to make sure that your hosting provider offers you a sufficient number of Email Boxes and Email storage to cater for your needs.
What other Hosting Services might I need ?
Most major hosting companies offering shared hosting normally include tools for creating your own Chat/Live help Tools, Image Galleries, Ecommerce Solutions. Plus a range of other usefull free software.
How much should I be paying for my shared hosting account ?
There is no simple answer to this, we have experience of both 'cheap' shared hosting companies and 'expensive' shared hosting companies ourselves and the results are not always as obvious as you might think.
We have come across several Hosting companies offering their Hosting Packages for less than GBP1 per month, and at the other end of the scale we have come across Hosting packages which offer all of the bells and whistles for as much as GBP20 per month.
Ultimately it is you who must decide but from our research most companies now offer you the chance to try their srvice and offer a moneyback guarantee service if you are not satisfied.
If you decide to do this always read any small print to ensure that you know how to cancel if necessary, plus any other 'incidental costs' such as admin charges, or domain charges are applicable.
AND FINALLY......
This introductory chapter is now at an end. we hope that we have given you a flavour for what to look out for when trying to start your first website. It is always our aim to bring you details of any special offers which we come across and feel that our readers ought to know about, so please bookmark us and visit often.
