Steps to Getting a Website
1. Domain Name:
www. YourCompanyName.com is a domain name.
Google.com, momocha.com, Yahoo.com are all domain names that belong to someone.
You need to get your own domain.
IMPORTANT:
Domain names are purchased by people all over the world 24/7. A domain costs mere $10/year.
So everyday that goes by it gets harder and harder to find good domain names.
If you are not ready for a site yet, at least get your domain name.
Read this article on choosing a good domain name.
2. Hosting:
The owner of the corner grocery store in your neighbourhood is probably paying the owner of the building a monthly rent to use the location for his grocery business.
In the same way your website also needs a residence. Your website has physical files that occupy space on harddrive.
Hosting companies are the landlords on the internet. Hosting companies charge you a monthly or a yearly fee to let you run your website on their server.
NOTE: There are some web designers who will mention nothing to you about hosting or even tell you that the hosting fee is on them. This might look like a great idea but this is BAD for you.
Pay for and own your own domain and hosting.
Here is a detailed article on Why you should own your own domain and hosting.
3. Web Development:
This is where a web designer or a web developer comes in. By the way there is a difference between a web designer and a web developer.
Most people don't care so we will use the two interchangeably.
Your web designer/developer should be able to help you in finding the domain and the hosting as well. Preferfably, your web designer will be able to help you in marketing your website too.
Here is an article on how to choose a web designer.
Also check out the different types of websites we can build including shopping cart sites, social networking sites and simple sites.
4. Marketing:
This is probably one of the most misrepresented step in having a successful website.
You go through steps #1, #2 and #3 above and you have a website. But what you did was open a store in the middle of the Sahara Desert. No one knows about it.
"Build and they will come?"
WRONG!
You can build the most beautiful, professional, wowing website with the latest bells and wistles and your products and services could be the best and the most economical in the world.
BUT, if no one knows about your site then you won't get any visitors.
In the offline world people talk about location, location and location.
In the online world it's all about traffic, traffic and traffic.
So where can you get traffic from?
From search engines, from other sites, from Facebook and from various other sites and methods. All this is online marketing.
Here is what we can do for you in terms of online marketing.
If you are not sure when you want to get started with your site you should at least get your domain name.
You can get a domain name for $10 for the whole year.
If you have your domain name right now at least you won't need to worry about someone else snapping it before you do.
Feel free to give me a call if you have questions and are new to purchasing domain names.
Call 646-234-6253 and ask for VJ.
Also check out this article on Finding Good Domain Names.
