| It can seem as though everyone has a website | | | | a lot of choice available, and consequently a lot of |
| these days, but the prospect of building a website of | | | | scope to go seriously wrong in your choice. |
| your own can be a daunting one when you are not | | | | You cannot just go on price, and you cannot just go |
| sure what is involved or how to go about it. Getting | | | | on what the web host says on their own website. |
| a little insight into how much there is that you don't | | | | What you need to know is what existing customers |
| know can be rather off-putting, and it is a vast area, | | | | think of the host and use this feedback in |
| but making a website does not need to be | | | | conjunction with what the host provides and how |
| complicated or expensive. | | | | much is costs. There are plenty of excellent value |
| It is worth bearing in mind that although there is an | | | | hosting companies out there, but there is also no |
| enormous amount of knowledge and information | | | | shortage of ones that will drive you up the wall |
| about website design, hosting and development that | | | | through hopeless support and unacceptable down |
| you will not know about, you do not need to know | | | | time. |
| most of that stuff to get started. Even quite | | | | Once you have a domain name and a web host, you |
| advanced webmasters may not know much about | | | | just need to create your site and upload it. Sounds |
| certain areas, but there are tools that can help you | | | | simple doesn't it, and it can be. Website design does |
| achieve things without too much detailed knowledge. | | | | involve a whole new language (html), but you can |
| Breaking down the essential requirements for building | | | | actually get started quite well without any knowledge |
| and hosting a website, the only things you really need | | | | of this at all. They way to do this is by using a web |
| are a domain name, a web host and a tool to help | | | | design tool that allows you to create a site in a |
| you create your site. You can't have your own | | | | simple and familiar environment, and which translates |
| website unless you register a domain name, which will | | | | what you do into html without you needing to get |
| become the URL (uniform resource locator) of your | | | | involved in that process. Such tools are known as |
| website. This is the address on the internet where | | | | wysiwyg editors. This acronym stands for 'what you |
| this resource (your site) is located. | | | | see is what you get', and that is exactly what |
| Getting a domain name could not be easier. You need | | | | happens. You will be working in an environment that |
| to use a domain name registrar to find a free domain | | | | looks similar to a word processing package, but |
| and register it in your own name. There are | | | | behind the scenes everything you do is translated |
| thousands of domain name registrars out there, but | | | | into the language of a web site. |
| you will usually get a free domain thrown in if you | | | | A word of warning about wysiwyg design tools. |
| choose the right web hosting company. | | | | There are quite a lot out there and some are frankly |
| Which brings us on to web hosting. A web host | | | | not going to help you build a decent site. There are |
| basically gives your website somewhere to 'live'. | | | | one of two free ones, and these in particular create |
| These companies provide servers that you can store | | | | extremely messy and superfluous code, which can |
| all the pages of your website on, and from where | | | | create problems for you further down the line. There |
| visitors to your site can download pages and | | | | are other well known web design tools available, but |
| information when they view your site. Providing such | | | | these can be very expensive, and perhaps not ideal |
| a service obviously costs money, so web hosting is | | | | if this is your first website. |
| an on-going cost. It is a competitive field so there is | | | | |