The Basic Things to Know
So you've chosen to start your own web site. It's an excellent choice to make, considering how popular the internet is. Whether you're a business owner or an individual who just wants to have an online presence, you can benefit from having your own web site.

Some might assume that in order to build a web site, you must be a computer genius. Nothing could be further from the truth. All of the technology advances of the past ten years have made the majority of computer tasks incredibly simple. The same can be said for building one's web site. It's really not as difficult as it previously was.

To build a web site, you will need four things. These are a domain name, hosting (a server), a web site design and an FTP client. Not sure what these are and what they mean? That's alright. You'll learn everything there is about it in the Steps.

Before you can begin the Steps, however, you should have one thing in mind: what you want your web site to look like. Choosing the look of your future web site can be a little bit scary, but it doesn't have to be. You can choose to model your site after another web site. That may be a bit surprising, but the truth is, most web sites on the internet imitate other web sites. No, they don't look exactly the same, but the scheme is pretty similar.

Choosing to model a web site can save you a lot of design work and will allow you to get your web site up even faster.

Things to Think About When Modeling a Site

What Is Your Site? If you are planning on creating a news site, you won't want to model a guitar web site. Rather, you'll want to model something like CNN.com or foxnews.com When you determine what you want your site to do, you must then look at sites that are similar to yours and try to model after those.

What Functionality? You might not want the fancy scrolling news bar that one site has. Rather, you might want something much more simpler. That's why thinking about what functionality you want is so important.

While it is a good idea to model another web site, it is not a good idea to completely copy it. Therefore, you should set out to create a web site that is not the exact same looking as the site you're modeling. It should have some big differences that set it apart.

Step 1. Domain Registration - Selecting Your Domain Name

  1. How to select a domain name – Domain name best practices

Selecting a domain name isn't exactly as cut and dry as you might expect it to be. First of all, how you choose a domain name will depend on what type of web site you are creating and what is available to you. What will also factor into your decision is what domain names are truly the best. To this end, knowing the best domain name practices will be quite helpful.

First Things First: Domain Types

Before we go over the best domain practices, it's important to consider the domain types that are possibilities for you. These are:

.Com – The most common domain name extension that there is, and also the cheapest. .Com's are useful for commercial, non-profit and non-commercial sites alike. They are generally considered to be the preferred type of domain because of how common they are. If you can get your domain name in a .Com, that is better than getting it in a .Net or .Org.

.Org – Generally speaking, .Org is used mainly for organizations and non-profits. Most commercial and personal web sites are not .Org for one reason: .Org gives off the impression that the web site in question is for an organization of some sort. Therefore, unless you are creating a web site that is for an organization, you should avoid .Org.

.Net – Next to .Com, this is the most common type of domain. It is recognized as being a legitimate type of domain and has nearly the same good appeal as does a .Com. Obviously, if you cannot reserve the domain name you want in .Com, .Net isn't a bad option at all.

.TV – A new type of domain name, .TV is rather expensive to register, but because of its uniqueness, can be worth the extra amount of money paid. The biggest advantage to .TV is that you will have more of a chance to get the domain name you want. However, the disadvantage is that .TV is still rather unknown to most internet users, meaning it may make it a little bit harder for your site to be recognized.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is an address at which your web site can be accessed. It essentially works like this:

  1. Someone types in the address of your web site (www.yahoo.com)
  2. The domain takes the user to your web site

The files, which are accessed every time the user goes to your web site, are physically stored by something called a host. This is a topic that will be addressed later on in the guide, but for now, just realize that when you register a domain name, all it does is direct people to the physical location of your web site files.

The Best Practices

There are 5 best practices for domain name selection and these are:

  1. The Shorter the Better. Having a domain name that is easy to remember is really a key thing here, and when it is a bunch of letters long, it's not going to be so easy to remember. People are more likely to remember a name like eBay.com rather than something like websitesaregreat.com. Obviously, there will be some circumstances where it is necessary to have a longer domain, but for the most part, it's best to get it as short as possible.
  1. Be Descriptive. Now wait, you may be saying. We said in the last practice that it was best to be as short as possible. But now we're saying you need to  be descriptive. So which is it? Well, it's both. You need to be both descriptive and as short as possible. In other words, instead of registering a domain name that is mft.com for a music site, why not describe the domain by registering musicfans.com instead? It tells perspective visitors what your site is about, while also being short and easy to remember. While you won't be able to register that domain name, as it's taken, you should be able to find a short, descriptive domain name for your site.
  1. Avoid Copyright Names. Have you ever visited a site with a domain name that contains the word “myspace” but isn't at all a part of MySpace? Unfortunately, these domain names are commonly the target of lawsuits by the copyright holder, which is why you should avoid using a copyrighted word within your domain name. For instance, a domain name like googlerocksalot.com could get you in trouble because the word “Google” is copyrighted. 

 

  1. Go with a .Com First—Unless You are an Organization. As we previously mentioned, .Com's are the most recognized type of domain name, and are thus preferable. If you can register a .Com with your desired name, rather than a .Net, you should do this. If, however, you are an organization—particularly a non-profit—then .Org might be a better choice.
  1. Don't Be Afraid of .Net. You might be thinking that .Net domain names should be avoided. That couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, .Net domain names have only continued to gain in popularity over the past decade and are now almost as popular and recognizable as .Com's. If you have picked out a name and can find it in .Net, but not .Com, take it. It should work out as well as if you registered a .Com, as long as you give it time to grow in popularity.

    .TV – A new type of domain name, .TV is rather expensive to register, but because of its uniqueness, can be worth the extra amount of money paid. The biggest advantage to .TV is that you will have more of a chance to get the domain name you want. However, the disadvantage is that .TV is still rather unknown to most internet users, meaning it may make it a little bit harder for your site to be recognized.

    Next Page