| After planning the design and content of your | | | | business, it is recommended to sign up for a proper |
| website, it's time to actually physically set up your | | | | webhosting service. We recommend HostGator, |
| website. This is the step where you put all your | | | | which provides different levels of webhosting |
| designs and plans into action, creating a website that | | | | depending on your requirements and budget, with |
| will attract visitors and earn income.a) WEBHOSTING | | | | various useful tools as well. In any case, you shouldn't |
| A webhost is a company that stores the pages and | | | | be paying more than $10 a month per domain for |
| pictures and other files of your website. When a | | | | basic webhosting services.b) PROGRAMMING |
| person visits your website, they will request these | | | | Some people with sufficient HTML knowledge use |
| files from your webhost's server so they can view | | | | word processing programs to directly code the HTML |
| the website. When choosing a webhost, be careful to | | | | for their websites. For the rest of us who don't have |
| choose one that is reliable. After all, if your webhost | | | | such skill, we recommend one of the popular graphical |
| has problems for any reason, people won't be able to | | | | programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft |
| visit your website, and you won't be earning any | | | | Frontpage. These programs allow you to create your |
| money. | | | | webpages with mouse clicks with little need for |
| In addition, different webhosts have varying services | | | | knowledge in HTML. |
| and tools that they offer. Some of the more | | | | If you want to make your website look like another |
| important points to consider when choosing a | | | | website, you can "copy" their HTML and modify it to |
| webhost are as follows: | | | | fit your website. In Internet Explorer, click the "View" |
| * SPACE AND BANDWIDTH - Space refers to how | | | | menu, then click the "Source" option. This will show |
| much file storage space is available for your website. | | | | you the HTML code for the website. You will need |
| For a standard website with about 20 pages with | | | | some HTML knowledge to make sense of this and |
| graphics, 30MB is plenty. Online stores might require | | | | use it on your website. |
| more space depending on how many products and | | | | If you need more information and examples on the |
| pictures you have. Bandwidth refers to how many | | | | many things that HTML can do, you can visit the |
| files can be downloaded and viewed by visitors per | | | | online tutorial at W3Schools.c) FILE ORGANIZATION |
| month. A normal website with reasonable traffic (200 | | | | AND TRANSFER |
| visitors a day) will need about 2GB bandwidth. Again, | | | | Once you have your webhosting set up and your |
| if you own a business with lots of products and | | | | webpages completed, you need to transfer the |
| webpages, you might need more bandwidth. | | | | completed pages to your webhosting server. If you |
| * DOMAINS AND SUBDOMAINS - Usually, webhosting | | | | are using a graphical program like Dreamweaver to |
| accounts are charged per domain, with $10 per | | | | work on your webpages, you can configure |
| domain being a reasonable price. However, you can | | | | Dreamweaver to transfer the files for you. |
| buy larger hosting packages that allow you to host | | | | If you are doing it manually, you need to transfer the |
| multiple domains and websites on the same account. | | | | files via FTP. Your webhost will provide you with an |
| Subdomains are just different sections of your | | | | FTP server, with a user id and password for you to |
| website's domain, with 5 subdomains the rough | | | | access your account on the webhost. Once you |
| standard. You will need to make sure how many | | | | connect to the account via FTP, you will be able to |
| domains your account entitles you for, in order to | | | | upload (transfer files from your computer to the |
| calculate which is the better webhosting package. | | | | server) or download (transfer files from the server |
| * EMAILS AND AUTORESPONDERS - Emails are the | | | | to your computer) or modify files as required. |
| various email addresses that visitors can write to you. | | | | You can FTP to the server using your computer's |
| Most websites will use about 2 or 3 emails (maybe a | | | | Windows Explorer, by entering the FTP server's |
| webmaster email and a support email). | | | | address in your explorer's Address Toolbar. Or you |
| Autoresponders are email addresses that will reply | | | | can use specialized FTP programs such as AceFTP.d) |
| someone with an automatic email. You will only need | | | | ADDITIONAL SCRIPTS |
| autoresponders if you are on vacation and wish to | | | | If you want to add extra functionality to your |
| leave an automated reply in case anybody emails | | | | website, such as polls, newsletter subscription forms |
| you. | | | | and other interactive programs, you will need to |
| * SCRIPTS - If you want to add extra functionality | | | | install scripts onto your website. |
| (such as forums or polls), you will need to be able to | | | | If you are looking for scripts to create a newsletter |
| run scripts. Make sure your webhost allows you to | | | | mailing list, do note that some webhosting services |
| run scripts for your website. The more common | | | | also provide mailing list scripts. If your webhost |
| scripts are Java, PHP, Perl and CGI. | | | | doesn't provide it, BigNoseBird has a good email list |
| There are a number of companies out there that | | | | management software. |
| offer free webhosting, but they usually have severe | | | | For other scripts and functionality, you can check out |
| limitations, and might place their own ads on your | | | | the popular scripts at websites such as BigNoseBird |
| website. If you are serious in building your internet | | | | and HotScripts. |