Hosting your Website
When you and I get to the point where your website is ready to go "live", you will need to choose between contracting your own hosting with a third party vender, or having me host your site.
When I provide the hosting, your site will be served from my account with MediaTemple, and I will provide the administration of your site. This is actually very economical for you; a year of hosting at MediaTemple costs a minimum of $180 and I'm charging $199 (not including the applicable sales and use tax of 6%), so for only $19 a year I'm relieving you of an added hassle you probably don't need. You have enough to do running your own business affairs. By providing the hosting for your site, I take care of all the geek details. This includes email setup if you don't want to use an address you already have, ongoing maintenance, and minor updates and tweaks. While you would not have access to the administration area or any of the site files, I can set up access to a specific folder for you. This could be used, for example, to update a PDF document of a price list or menu. You would simply access the folder and replace the old file with the new, and it would be instantly available to your site visitors.
The other alternative is to do it yourself. You may already be doing this if you currently have a website, and I'm doing a make-over. You may want to go this route for a new site if you already know how to handle this stuff, or just prefer to do it yourself for whatever reason. Every hosting provider has their own way of accomplishing the same tasks through a control panel. I have looked at many, tried several, and settled on Dreamhost, which I use for developing new sites, and MediaTemple for live sites. They both have excellent, well structured documentation, and easy to use administration/control panels. They both have demonstrators of their control panels so you can check them out to see if this is something you want to deal with yourself.
Register a Domain Name for your Website
You will need to get a domain name (the www.yoursite.com) for your website if it is a new site. This short article at “Smashing Magazine” has some useful tips for picking a domain name for your new website.
Check to see if your ideas for your desired domain name are available. DomainTyper is a dedicated domain name search tool, and GoDaddy has a domain name search tool on their home page.If you decide to register your domain name with GoDaddy I can be of more help to you since I use them myself.
I would advise using a domain name registrar. Most web hosting firms will register your chosen domain name as well as host your site, but if you keep the hosting of your site separate from the registrar of your domain name, it will simplify making changes in the future. With this arrangement all you have to do is “point” to the host you are using for your site. Then if you move your site to a different hosting provider it’s a simple matter to log into your GoDaddy account and “point” to your new host provider. It’s like moving across town, the phone company flips a switch somewhere and your incoming calls are seamlessly routed from your old residence to your new.
I have all my domain names registered at GoDaddy. They usually have the best prices as well as many additional options you may be interested in. It has been my experience that they have excellent customer service, and you can talk to a real human being if need be.
Tip: While there could theoretically be a "Joe's Diner" in every town in the world, there can only be one "joesdiner.com", so even if you don't think you want a website right now, it might be a good idea to register a domain name anyway, while you can still get one that you like.
