If you haven’t figured it out yet, the Internet is pretty big. In fact, that is probably the understatement of the century. The reason it is so big is because a whole lot of people are launching their own websites. If you have had an interest in doing so but haven’t the slightest idea how to get started, then this article is for you.

The Basics

The reason the thought of putting up a website seems overly complicated to some is due simply to the words not being understood. The process is actually incredibly simple and my aim is to make it seem that way. Essentially, what we’re going to do here is:

1. Buy a domain name.
2. Choose a web host.
3. Set up your account with your chosen web host.
4. Make the domain point to your web host.
5. Start the website.

The domain name is simply the web address people will type to arrive at your website. The web host is a company who has a bunch of servers designed to hold websites and make them accessible via the Internet. See, all websites consist of files (no different than the files on your hard drive). Those files have to BE somewhere. The computer that those files sit on is called a server. That computer is called a server because it serves files to people who request them. When somebody types a web address, that request goes out across the Internet, contacts the server that website sits on, and the server serves the files to the requestor, allowing you to see the website in your web browser.

Most web hosts have hundreds of servers all in the same facility. When you set up an account with a web host, you are simply renting space on one of the servers.

Your Domain Name

I generally recommend that anybody starting a website buy their own domain name. The domain is just that web address typed into the browser to pull up the website. You will buy the domain from a registrar and it is going to run you somewhere around $10/year to own it. I recommend GoDaddy as the site to buy your domains. They are very well known, trustworthy, and affordable.

When you arrive at GoDaddy, you will need to search for the domain you want. Only one person can own a particular domain, so you’re going to need to see if the domain name you want has already been registered by somebody else. If it has, GoDaddy will tell you and you can search for another name until you find one that is available. Once you find an available domain, go through their shopping cart and buy it.

In general, you want to use a domain which reflects what you intend to do with it. It is best not to have it too long. It is best to choose a domain which you can say to a person and not have to spell it out for them. It is best to avoid dashes in your domain.

Once you purchase a domain name, that domain will begin to point to a placeholder page at GoDaddy. It will remain that way until you re-route the domain to another server. But, first, you need a web host.

Your Web Host

There are a LOT of different hosting companies available. People often ask which host I prefer out of the mix. My answer is Pair Networks. I have been using Pair Networks for years and they have always been solid. While I am renting two dedicated servers just for myself, they have cheap accounts starting at only a few dollars per month. They also now have PairLite which offers extremely affordable plans.

Generally, though, you are looking for a web host which has decent uptime, enough hard drive space, and a decent allotment of bandwidth (the amount of data which can travel out to your visitors per month). Most web hosts will throw very large numbers at you to make you think you’re getting a lot for your money. For example, they’ll say you can have 5,000 email accounts. They know you’ll probably only use one, but that big number makes the company seem bigger.

Choosing a web host is perhaps the most perplexing part of starting a website for the newbie, but it doesn’t have to be. It is a utility, essentially. You’ll rent some server space.

One choice you’ll be asked to make is Linux/Unix hosting versus Windows hosting. This is just the operating system being used on the server. I really only recommend Windows hosting to people who wish to use Microsoft Frontpage or other Windows programming language. Otherwise, I say go with Linux hosting because it seems to be more stable in my experience.

Linking Them Up

Now that you have a web hosting account, you will have a set of user names and passwords for your account. This is for your FTP login so  you can upload files to your website. FTP stands for file transfer protocol and that is all it does - transfer files from your computer to your web server. This same login is probably going to be used to log into any web-based control panel your web host provides in order to control your hosting account options.

Before we get into uploading files, however, let’s get your domain hooked up. What you will need to do is have your host set up what is called a nameserver for your domain. A nameserver is simply a go-between for your domain name. The domain name points to the name server, which then says “go over here to find this website”. Your host will need to set up an entry for your domain. They will then provide you a pair of name server addresses. With that information, go to your domain name administration and set up your new nameservers. If you used GoDaddy, then you would simply replace GoDaddy’s nameservers with your own.

Once you have done this, there will be a delay until your domain name actually points at your web hosting account. This is because your change has to spread around the entire Internet. Sometimes I’ve seen this take 20-30 minutes. Other times I’ve seen it take a few hours.

Create Your Site

With your domain name pointing at your new hosting account, you are either going to be seeing a landing page from your web host or a 404 error (which means no file could be found). Your first step is to create a file called index.html and upload it to your server.

I am not going to get into HTML in this article, but I will describe how to get files to your server. Again, we will make use of FTP. The easiest way to do this is to go to the Internet and download an FTP client. A quick Google search for “FTP client” will yield you many options for FTP programs for your computer. They all essentially do the same thing, so download and install one that looks OK to you. To connect to your server, then, you would enter your server name for your web host, your username and password (provided by your web host when you signed up). If the info is correct, the FTP program should be able to connect with no issue.

From there, look for a folder called “public_html”. Anything inside this folder will be accessible via the Internet. So, what you will do is simply upload files from your computer to this folder on your server. Uploading is usually as easy as drag-and-drop from the left side of your screen (the local file system) to the right side of your screen (the server’s hard drive).

Wrap It Up

This article was intended for the newbie and is indeed a 101-level article. We all started out somewhere, though, and I hope that I have ironed out some confusions for those new to it.