Domain name registration, Web site design, Hosting service
If you intend to have a web site one of the first things you should do is registering a domain name. A Domain Name is a unique name for your web site just like google.com or hostinglair.com. When domain names are registered they are added to a large domain name register, and information about your site - including your internet IP address - is stored on a DNS server.
A DNS server is responsible for informing all other computers on the Internet about your domain name and your site address. Domains can be registered from domain name registration companies like GoDaddy.com or Dotster.com. There are different domain extensions such as .biz .info and .us. The most popular is .com. We suggest to allways register a ".com" name first. That's because everyone remembers ".com" before ".net" and all others. If you want to protect your site from loosing visitors to the sites which may choose the same name you might consider registering other top-level domains like ".net" and".org"
Couple of tips when choosing a domain name:
make it short
make it relevant to the content of your future web site
avoid selecting a name that is difficult to spell or pronounce
make your domain name as similar as possible to the terms relevant to your site's content that people search for online. This way your site will get better exposure in search engines' result pages.
What are subdomains? Let me show you by example. The famous "www" of the World Wide Web is the most common example of a sub domain. Another examle of subdomain is http://support.microsoft.com.
If you intend to have any kind of a serious web site we strongly recommend you to always register your own domain name and avoid all other options regarding the domain name for your site. You should avoid letting others register your domain because they might register the domain in their own name which would make them the real web site owner.
When you're ready, go to one of the domain name registrars' web site and register a domain. In order to do this you must have a debit or credit card so you could pay for your domain by entering credit card information online. Don't worry your information will be protected and save with security protocols registrars use. Remember you don't need to have your web site files ready at this moment nor the web hosting provider. Your site will be parked untill you design your site and find a host.
Once you complete domain name registration the next step in going online is web site design. You have two choices: either you'll design the site yourself or you're gonna hire someone to do it for you. We recommend doing it by yourself. This way you'll have complete control over your site. With HTML editors we have today, designing a web site has never been easier. The best web design tool is Dreamweawer which is also the most expensive solution. If the money is relevant than we think CoffeeCup will do the job for far less money. Free solution is NVU.
How to transfer domain from registrar to web host
The last step in publishing your site but at the same time the most important part is hosting service. For learning why finding the right web hosting service is crucial and more on web hosting check our main Web Hosting Page. Hosting providers we recommend are listed on the HostingLair's best rated web hosting page. Once you found the right host you'll need to point your domain name to the servers of your host. In order to do this you need to go to the site where you registered your domain, log into your account and then change the name servers information with the information provided by your host, probably in a welcome message. Enter the name server information you got from your host, save and exit. Now your site is pointed to the servers of your hosting service. Note that approximately 48 hours will pass before this information is updated on the net. This is so called propagation period. Once the period has expired all you need to do is to upload your web site files to your hosting service servers. More on uploading your site: Uploading your site to your web hosting account
