Archive for October, 2008
Just What is the Difference between Hosting and a Server?
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I’ve been asked recently by a few folks about just what is the difference between getting a hosting account and getting an actual server?
So I decided that there were probably others out there that probably would like to know too.
Okay, a hosting account is where you website will live, like your house that you live in. You get so much space to put your website content and you can usually get your own email address. Your hosting account space and bandwidth.
Well what is bandwidth:
- it is how much space is accessed by people going to your website
- how many times things are downloaded from your website
- and many other things as well
I suggest if you really need to know, you go a Google search to learn. I am not that techy inclined
But for the hosting verses server, most users only need a hosting account to get started. Hosting accounts are much easier to use and understand. You can get hosting packages that are unlimited domain names, bandwidth, space, etc… but keep in mind please, that nothing is unlimited!
For a server, you have a lot more to deal with, you can add your domain to the server yourself, and set up how much bandwidth and space that domain name gets. It is much more complicated for most beginners, but as time goes on, it might be something to look into.
There are benefits to having a server, which you do pay monthly for just like with a hosting account, when you purchase a new domain name and add it to your server, it is usually instant that your website will be live. While, with just a hosting account, when you purchase a new domain name and then get the hosting, it can take up to 48 hours before you website is online.
Over at Hostgator.com they have many packages available and are outstanding. They packages for the absolute newest person to the more advanced user. Their reseller package is very easy to set up and use, and you can have a lot of domain names there, once you get past the techy part of it, but the support at Hostgator will walk you through everything step by step.
Just remember one thing here, if you are pretty new to hosting and websites, and dns, and ftp things, keep to the hosting packages for now, it’s not worth the learning curve. Once your website is up and running and you’re doing good, then, and only then, would I look into getting a reseller account or as some call it, a shared server or dedicated server. Keep in mind, these are much more expensive too, so please do your research.
I hope this helps some of you understand the difference between hosting and server.
Do subscribe to my RSS as I am always updating these posts!
Have a great day
Laura
How to Register and Choose a Domain Name
Posted by: | CommentsIn this how to article I will be discussing how to register and choose the right domain name for your business or website.
The first thing you need to think about before you just go off and register any name, you need to understand some things.
1. Just what is a domain name? - To put it simply a domain name is how both prospects and search engines will find your website. The domain name can be your first and last name, your company name, or a name that has your keywords of what your website will be about. So, as you can see, this is a critical step when you register a domain name. You will have this domain name forever once you register it, so choose carefully.
2. How do you choose a domain name? – Think about what your website is about, for an example, it’s easier to use my domain name – laurasbasicstowebdesign.com I choose this name for a few reasons. 1. it has my name in it, this will make it easier for people to know who I am, 2. my keywords on what my website is about basics to web design. Yes it is a bit long and you do want to avoid this. As of this writing, I haven’t had any problems with it, but keep this in mind when choosing your domain name, you want it to be short and to the point of what your website is about, not only so your visitors can remember it but it’s better for search engines as well.
3. Some things to think about when you are thinking of a domain name is simplicity, think of words like fast, easy, guide, steps, things like this to add to your domain name.
4. Now what about registering your domain name? Now there are hundreds to thousands of websites that will register your domain name for you. You can do a search for a registrar, this is what a company is called that registers domain names. Keep in mind while you are looking for a registrar that all you need is to register a domain name, DO NOT get anything else but a domain name, I’ll explain that in a minute. To help you out though, I highly recommend and have been using Godaddy.com for over 6 years without any problems ever, their support is outstanding and they are always there to help. So do consider registering your domain name with Godaddy.com, just please only register your domain name, they will try to upsell you on everything they have, you don’t need this.
5. Why should you register a domain name at a different place than your hosting? This is pretty easy to understand if you’ve been doing anything at all online for any amount of time. Things change, and they change quickly. If you have your domain name and hosting at the same company, there is always a chance that, that company might get sold or go out of business, this would mean your entire website might be gone too. And it is hard to move your website and domain name at the same time. This is why you should have them in 2 different companies. It’s also a lot easier to manage your domain name with one company and to manage your hosting with someone else. If your hosting company disappears tomorrow, you still have access to your domain name and can easily just move your website to another hosting company without worring about your domain name.
To register your domain name, is pretty easy especially with Godaddy.com and if you need hosting that is reliable and afforadable I highly recommend and use Hostgator.I’ll be writing more about hosting in a future article.
If you need more step by step detailed information on registering a domain name grab a copy of the ebook Introduction to the Basics to Web Designing it will walk you through step by step on how to register and choose a domain name.
I will be posting more how to articles regarding website designing so you need to subscribe to my RSS so you won’t miss one. Just click the big orange button and subscribe.
Until next time Take Action and get yourself a domain name and register it!
Laura Miller
ps
Please leave any comments or questions you have regarding this article below!
Don’t know what RSS is, learn more about RSS here
How to Find the Right Hosting Company
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s talk about finding the right hosting company today. This is a critical step in web designing, as if you don’t have the right hosting then your site will suffer for it in the long run.
Too many people think about now and not about the future with hosting, it’s important to find the right hosting company that will grow with your website/business. And let me tell you, not all hosting companies are the same!
There are a few things you Must consider in your hosting company, here are just a few to look out for -
1. They Must have enough space available for your website to grow. Make sure they will upgrade your space when you need to add more to your website. Some hosting companies will either let you purchase more space on your current package, or they will let you upgrade your package to a more robust one.
2. They Must provide you with c-panel (Control Panel) access. You must be able to access your admin area of your website via a c-panel. This will give you more control and flexibility to manage your website. You can add a word press blog, forums, content manager system and much more through a c-panel, you can also be able to track your website stats and see how things are going for you.
3. They Must provide good quality support! This is a Must with any hosting company, especially if you are new to all this stuff. Support is the first thing you must look for! To see how well a company’s support is, find their support link, submit a quesiton, and see how long it takes to get an answer, and see just how well they answer the question for you. Most hosting companies should answer your question within 48 hours max! Do they have a forum you can post a question? Go ahead and post one to see what kind of response you get. Check out their FAQs how well do they explain the answers, can you understand the answer?
4. What kind of features are you getting? This is probable another important thing to look for in a hosting company, just what are you getting for your money. You want to make sure they provide enough space for your traffic and your website, to get started you should be fine with no more than 300GB and 360GB bandwidth. It’s not too important you understand this, but it is within reason to have at least this amount. Can you add more domains later on? You want to make sure the package you choose, will let you add another domain name later as you grow. So see that this is available in the package you decide.
5. The Price? Make sure your budget can handle the monthly cost of your hosting. For what I’ve described about it should not cost you any more than $5 to $10 a month. Just make sure you can upgrade later easily and most hosting companies will help you with the upgrade so you won’t have to do anything.
A good rule of thumb here is to choose at least 3 hosting companies and do a comparision on them, write down the pros and cons of all of them, then choose the one that best fits your needs and your budget!
Again, you can do a search for hosting companies on your favorite search engine, but I highly recommend Hostgator.com they meet all the above and more.
To learn more about hosting and how to set it up, grab your copy of Introduction to the Basics to Web Designing today, it will walk you through step by step on choosing a hosting company to purchasing your hosting.
I will be posting more how to articles regarding website designing so you need to subscribe to my RSS so you won’t miss one. Just click the big orange button and subscribe.
Until next time Take Action and get yourself a Hositng today!
Laura Miller
ps
Please leave any comments or questions you have regarding this article below!
Don’t know what RSS is, learn more about RSS here
What Does your website layout like?
Posted by: | CommentsYour website layout can break or make you in the online world. Your layout must be easy to navigate and look clean without a bunch of flashy things and animation.
These things probably are cool and all, but in reality with an online business, these things make your website look flashy and not professional. Most people today do not like this stuff and click away immediately when they see this.
Keeping your website layout easy to understand and follow links, is the best policy here. Remember there is a reason why so many websites today have their navigation links either across the top or on the left hand side. This is what people have accustom to, why re event the wheel, this things are there becasue that is what people expect and if your navigation is all over the place and confusing most people will leave your website and go to the next one which just might be easier for them to get around on.
Keep your links the standard blue color, and don’t make text on your site blue if it is not a link. People are use to this as well. Blue colored text and underlined means a clickable link.
Another thing I have seen which is just not good website layout, is having your background color a dark color and keeping your text a grey color or dark like this. It is very very difficult to read this kind of colors together. It is standard and expected to have a white background with the black text, it is much easier on your readers eyes and makes your message stand out better.
When it comes to your layout, plan carefully on what your website should do. Make sure if you are only collecting email addresses and names, that there are NO other links on your site, this disctracts your visitors from doing what you want them to do.
If you are selling a product on your site, make sure that is all there is on there, don’t ask them to opt in for a newsletter or something on that sales page, you can ask them for their information on the backend after they’ve made a purchase. Keep things simple and easy for visitors to understand exactly what you want them to do and why.
These are just a few tips you should think through carefully before building your website, it will make things much easier for you in the long run.
Take care,
Laura
How to get your website online
Posted by: | CommentsSo many people seem to have problems understanding just how they can get their website online. The terms that are used can be confusing and misunderstood.
If you think about how things work logically, then it really isn’t that difficult to understand.
The term FTP simply means File Transfer Protocal. And it does just what it says. It transfers files from your hard drive, desktop whatever, somewhere else you tell it to put them.
So say if you were on your desktop, and you wanted to move your folders/files from your desktop to a specific place, say your documents folder, then all you would do is highlight that folder or file and right click and tell it to copy and then go to where you want it to go and then paste it there. Tada! It’s moved!
Well the same thing happens when you want to move your website files/folders onto a server so your website becomes live on the Internet. With a special piece of software that is usually free to get and download and very user friendly, you simple highlight your folders/files and then tell the software to move them from your desktop to your server. That’s all there is to it.
Now your website will be live, instantly. No waiting around, once you have moved your files to your server your website is online!!!
So when you hear these terms such as FTP, HTML editors, and so forth, try to think of what these letters represent, not so much the technical side of it, but the logical side of it. FTP – File Transfer Protocal and HTML – HyperText Markup Language, not hard once you understand the letters and what they mean, the rest is easy to figure out if you think in simple terms.
So the next time you hear someone mention FTP don’t go running the other way, realize that they are just letters and they have a specially meaning.
I hope this has helped some of you understand some of the basics of getting your website online.
Remember to leave a comment of question below so I can help you better.
Laura Miller
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