Getting Started With Your Website

You know you should have a web site but you don’t know where to begin. Or perhaps you have a web site but you know that it looks like a kid built it — well, maybe it looks like an adult did it who didn’t know what they were doing. Lots of today’s kids would do much better. You know what your web site should look like and even what should be on each page. The first thing you need to decide is where your web pages are going to be hosted. While it is possible to host your web site on your PC, it is definitely not something I would recommend. For one thing, when your computer is turned off, no one could get to your web site. There are also security and performance issues. What you need is a web hosting provider. You will also need a web address so people can find you. While you could use something like www.comcast.net/~mcmahon-4/, it is much easier for people to remember www.mcmahon4.com. The first address is an example of what you might get from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). To get the latter you need to register (and pay) with a licensed registrar. (We recommend GoDaddy.com.) Once you have the web site name and a place to put it, you’ll need the tools to create the web site. We’ll compare a variety of web design programs.

• Web hosting
• Web hosting packages
• Finding and registering a domain name
• HTML editors and web site builder tools
• How to build a web site in 30 minutes
• Web design software