Tip 2 - Register a domain name and web hosting
Domains
Once you have identified your market and product area as well as getting a product, which I will be covering in tip 3, you are going to need a website to enable you to start to sell.
To have a live website on the net there are some preparatory steps that need to be taken. The first is to chose and register a suitable domain name for your purpose. This is the part of the website address between the www and the suffix extension, as shown in the following example in italics:
www.thedomainname.com
Choosing the domain name is important and there are a number of recommended principals to adhere to normally. For example it should be fairly short, easy to remember, easy to spell and should avoid inclusion of unusual characters that can be ambiguous such hyphens and underscores.
In marketing it is also advantageous for the domain name to describe a product or a benefit of your product. For example for a product relating to losing weight www.loseweight.com would be a very good domain name.
Often now, in many areas, the best domain names will already be in use and you have to look a little harder and be more creative to get a good domain name for your needs. This usually results in having to use a longer domain name. Again using the weight loss area as an example if www.howtoloseweightfast.com was available it would be pretty good domain for that area. It does look a little unsightly however and difficult to read as it is. With domain names though case does not make a difference in most instances. So the appearance of this address could be improved when typed as www.HowToLoseWeightFast.com. This makes it much more meaningful to read and suggests very strongly what type of product you are likely to find there and would therefore be a good choice of domain name for this purpose.
By being a little more creative, as outlined above, it is usually possible to find an available domain name to suit your product or market area. There are a number of Registrars of domain name companies such as 123-reg and Go-Daddy with a whole range of domain names available. These vary in price and special deals may be offered depending on the duration of the registration period for the domain name, it's popularity and a number of other factors.
Another important area to consider in choosing a domain name is the suffix extension for example .com, .co.uk, .org etc. These have different purposes, such as to describe regional location or the purpose of the domain name and some have developed more kudos or prestige over the years. For example .com can be perceived as being more authorative than some other suffixes and for a UK market, say, a .co.uk can be reassuring to a potential buyer who is located in the UK and conversely potentially discourage a non UK based buyer.
When you buy a domain name you are also usually offered a number of other options at the same time. When you start out this can be a little bewildering, trying to decide what else you may or may not need. These options usually include a number of alternative suffix extension domains to prevent competitors getting these and potentially stealing your traffic, or confusing your customers. Email accounts are also offered but rarely necessary as this can all usually be dealt with through your hosting company for no additional cost. Hosting is also usually offered by the domain suppliers and a number of add on functions like web design tools etc. all of which, of course, escalate the cost.
These services and functions are also available from more dedicated suppliers, so are often best avoided when registering a domain name. It often makes more sense to obtain only the domain name that you require and maintain some flexibility by looking to the alternatives for the other needs that you may have.
Hosting
Website hosting is the storage of your website files on an external server hosted at a hosting company’s website. This is generally necessary as, although it is possible to host your own website, specialised companies to do so is by far the better option for most people.
A hosting company has dedicated servers which are always on, backed up, usually highly secure and generally faster for access than a domestic or business users computers. Your website goes live online when you upload your sites files to the hosting companies’ server, usually after only a short delay. Once the site is up then when changes and updates occur, and are uploaded to the servers these show almost immediately on the internet.
There are a number of hosting companies to choose from and they all offer a range of services, functions and prices. Like domain name registering this can seem a little bewildering at the start.
Important factors to consider in choosing a hosting company are listed below.
- Storage capacity ranges from 500 Mb to unlimited Gb’s
- Email accounts, forwarding and webmail
- Included software and scripts for various activities e.g. web design, blogging or forms
- My SQL databases included
- SSL security certificates
- Statistical information regarding your website
- Website backup
- Password protection
- Control panels to administer your website
I use Pushbutton Hosting and have found it to be a good balance of features, price, reliability and speed.
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