If you have never set up a website before, but are wondering how you go about doing it, this article is meant for you. If you are familiar with setting up sites, you may want to move on otherwise you will be bored. Take a look at the following page that has content related to youth hockey equipment. This site was set up using the steps I’ve outlined below. While I do have experience with computers, this was the first time that I’ve established a website, and it took me all of 10 min to get it set up. This doesn’t include the time that it took me to create the content for the website, but it does include getting the site registered and hosted.
Let’s get started:
Establish your domain name. Come up with a clever name for the site that follows the purpose of what you are trying to do. This could be your name, a project or product that you have in mind, or any random words. I would come up with at least 2 – 3 alternatives for a name in case the one you’ve selected has already been taken.
Understand if your domain name is already in use. You can do this on the website of any domain register or most web hosting services. Enter the domain name you have selected from the previous step One and the system will tell you if this available. Some examples of sites you can use for this include: register.com, godaddy.com, or whois.com.
Register your domain. If you know you will be signing up for a hosting service right away, don’t register your domain through this process, instead jump to the next step. You can register your domain right after you’ve checked to see if it’s available (from the previous step). A .com domain name can typically be registered for under $20/year following this process. Important note, registering a domain name simply means that no one else can use this name, it does not give you a presence on the web. In order to set up a website, you will need to sign up for a hosting service (see the next step).
Purchase a hosting plan. Most hosting services, will register your domain at no additional cost if you sign up for one of their hosting plans. You can use any hosting service, but some of the easier ones to use would be HostGator.Com or GoDaddy.Com (I’m sure you’ve seen their adds). Both of these companies have affordable plans and will not charge you for registering the domain you’ve selected. Each company has a number of hosting plans that they offer, so be sure to read the fine print to understand what you are getting for your money. Chances are, you will only need what is included in their cheapest plan unless you are planning to establish a high-traffic site. Typically this will cost about $3/month (assuming you sign up for 2 – 3 years of hosting).
Finally, create your website. How you go about creating your sites content is outside the scope of this article, but there are numerous options available for you to do this. Chances are, the hosting service you have signed up with offers web design software with numerous templates to use to get you started.
If you’ve completed everything outlined above, you now have a live website. Keep updating your content, continue to market your new site by notifying your friends, posting on blog’s and register your site with the numerous search engines that exist.
About the Author
I’ve established a youth hockey site using the steps outlined in this article, and can verify the ease in doing this.