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To start a website, you'll need both a domain name and a website host to put your website on the Internet. You can obtain your domain name from a registrar and use a different company to host your site. There are hundreds of registrars who can provide you with a domain name. However, you might find it more convenient to use a single company that provides the domain and the hosting. Many times, with fierce competition, hosting companies will offer "free domain for life," which is a another compelling argument in favor of working with just that one company.
Domain name
First things first. You'll need a domain name that can be easily identified as your business or service. Select some candidate domain names that describe you or your service in a simple, memorable way. What one or two words are most recognizable to your customers or clients?
The name itself cannot include spaces, but can use a dash or underscore to separate words if necessary. I prefer to avoid the underscore because, when the domain is shown on a page, its hyperlink blends with the domain name, which could cause viewer misunderstanding.
Avoid confusion when you select a name. Because domain names are not case sensitive, you can capitalize your domain name on your business card or email. For example, my domain can be more-clearly written as WilcoxEngineering.com. However, if you must capitalize because two words might be understood incorrectly if grouped differently, you should select something else. See the slurl topic in Wikipedia. As an aside, you can always get a laugh by visiting http://slurls.com/ to see some sorry examples of poor choices.
Once you've selected a name, and verified its availability, you can then register it for a year or however long. Be sure you use a proper name, you or your company, as the domain registrant or owner. Once you have a domain, it's not easy to transfer it to another party. Be sure your contact email will be valid to receive renewal reminders; if you fail to renew your domain at the end of its term, you might not be able to get it back. Don't go there!
When you acquire your domain name, you set its DNS configuration to point to your host's server so everyone can visit your website. It sounds complex, but it's really quite simple.
Website Hosting
The web host should not be confused with your ISP, or Internet Service Provider. Your ISP (Comcast, Verizon, etc) provides access to the Internet; they probably provide some hosting package as well to ensure your continued loyalty. I've had occasion to move from one town to another, and changing all my sites and emails to a new ISP is not especially convenient. Even though my current ISP, Comcast, includes email and web hosting, I prefer to use them for one purpose: a fast pipeline to the Internet.
Your web host provides a server (usually safely shared with others) that displays your web pages. When you get your domain name, you set DNS so Internet traffic for your website reaches this server.
Selecting a website-hosting company is a daunting challenge. There are a number of factors to consider, and what might be important to me is not necessarily your top priority. Google for something like "select web host." You might find How to Choose a Web Host useful for an explanation of many issues.
Put together a list of features that you'd like your hosting company to provide. Some considerations might include:
- Tech support (24/7 by knowledgable people),
- Searchable knowledge base,
- Video tutorials (very helpful as you'll see in Build a Simple Site),
- Uptime (reliability),
- Speed of access (how long before a page gets served up),
- Bandwidth (how many MB of traffic per day/week),
- Control panel,
- FTP access,
- MySQL database support,
- Statistics program like Webalizer,
- PHP for script programs,
- Disk space,
- SSL for credit cards,
- Shopping cart available,
- Routine backups,
- Server security (hackers, fire, flood, earthquakes),
- Email features,
- Apache web server running on Unix or Linux,
- Money-back guarantee (at least 30 days so you can test the system).
When I did the above Google search, I discovered a useful hosting review site. One of many, I'm sure, but they have video reviews of the various sites that can help speed the selection process.
Two sites that I now use:
 JustHost.com, the host of this site. I'll be using JustHost in the next articles.
 GoDaddy.com (where I have some domains registered)
DomainSite.com, eNameCo.com, and ZoneEdit (domain management) are some possibilities for getting just a domain name.
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