Overview

Now that you know how to code basic HTML, the next step in this tutorial would be to acquire your own domain name. The internet works with addresses. These addesses are usually call IP address or Internet Protocol address. They are represented as a series of numbers just like a phone number. If i’d like to get in touch with someone from a company, I can dial the company’s phone number and ask for that person. On the internet, if I would like more information about a company, I can type the IP address of the company’s website to accomplish what I need. An example of an IP address, which is made up of four segments, would be 127.0.0.1. These number segments can have up to three digits each and would be hard to memorize. And this is the reason why the domain name cam into the picture. With a domain name, it is much easier to remember what the website’s address is rather than memorizing a series of numbers.

It’s also important to note in this tutorial that before you can set up your web host, you would need a domain name first because most web hosting set up requires you to have a domain name. Some web hosting sites, provide domain name registration as part of their service and thus will take you to this step first. We strongly recommend though to register your domain name from another service and your web host to a different service. It comes in line with the principle: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You may be able to save money this way as some services provide cheap domain name registation services but offer expensive webhosting services.

Registering a domain name is easy as it can be. The example tutorial here is taken from a commercial Australian website – Domainpages. This is to illustrate the concept of setting up a web host and is not intended to be an instructional manual for Domainpage’s services.

Choosing A Domain Name

In this tutorial you will learn how to come up with a good domain for your website. Choosing a domain name is important as it can make or break your website – even your business! One thing to avoid is registering a domain name that can have some legal repercussions. Domain names that contain trademark names are to be avoided. Be sure to check the national trademark register if you are unsure prior to registering your domain name.

Domain names that are short and whose description matches the product or service that the website describes are ususally favoured by the search engines. If you are selling or blogging about cameras, including the word camera in your domain name would be an advantage to your website. If your domain name is short then it is easy for your visitors to remember. And if they like the contents of your website then there’s a big chance that they would visit it again. Domain names with twleve or less characters would be very ideal.

Domain extensions, i.e. .com, .net, .org also are favoured by the search engines. Local country code extensions i.e. .us, .com.au, .de are also favoured. There’s also a secondary market for such domain names where businesses buy and sell and even auction domain names. Dot com domain names can fetch high price tags. If you are planning to sell your website in the future then going for a dot com may increase its value.

Register A Domain Name

In this tutorial you will learn how to register for a domain name by way of an example. As mentioned earlier, it’s best to have your domain name registered from a different domain name service. Most web hosting services also provide domain name registration and with some of them, their promotional price may become invalid if you do not register your domain name with them. Be sure to check their terms and conditions before making your decision.

It’s good practice to have your domain name registered elsewhere so that you do not put all your eggs in one basket. Your website is an investment if you plan to monetize it. And like any investments, it would be foolish to put all your eggs in one basket.

For registering a domain, I’ved used domainpages.com.au for this tutorial. I have used this company website and so far I have no problem with it. Like most domain registration website, this comes with a wizard that makes it easier to register a domain.

To start, click on the Check Domain Availability link.

By clicking the Check Domain Availability link on the home page, the Step 1 – Search for Domains page will appear.

Once on this page you have the option to search for a domain name from a single domain by filling in the Quick search text box and choosing the preferred extension OR you can search for the existence of multiple domain names from multiple extensions on the Advance / Bulk Search text box. Just enter the names and click on the domain extensions you are searching for. In this example we are searching for htmlpress on the extensions .info and .org. To proceed, click either the Quick search button (if you’re doing a single search) or the Advanced / Bulk search button. In this case the latter applies. The next screen will appear.

On this screen, Step 2 – Select Domains to Register, the name is open for registration on both extension. Otherwise, it would say it is taken. On this page, you can select which one to proceed with by checking on the check box on the far right. You can also specify how long you would like to have the domain by changing the Period / Price. Once you are satisfied with what you have chosen clicking the Next button will take you to the next page.

Step3 – Enter Contact Details for {domain name} should be easy to fill up. Just fill in the fields in the section Owner Contact Details and then in the Copy From combo box select Owner Contact Details. This will copy the information you have entered in this section and populate the fields for the other section. You can modify the other fields as needed. The information you supply here will go in to the WhoIs database of the relevant domain name extension. This means that certain information can be accessed by the public in order to find out who the owner of the domain is.

Clicking the Next button will take you to this next screen – which is Step 5. You’d wonder what happened to step 4. Step four is actually the Eligibility Criteria screen which is for .au domains. To register this domain, the user must provide certain information to demonstrate that the user is eligible to register for this domain (i.e. provide an ABN. Only users who have local presence in Australia can register for a .au domain). In this example, we are registering for a .org domain.

Step 5 – Enter Access Details for {domain name} is quite self explanatory. Provide a user id and a password for you to access the details of this domain later on. Clicking the Next button will show the next page.

Step 6 – Enter Delegation for {domain name} is the information that will connect your domain name to your web host. By providing the primary name server and the secondary webserver of your webhost, the link to your domain name and your web host is made. It may take more thatn 24-48 hours to take into effect. But since the web host is non existent at this stage, just leave the default. If blank, just leave it as blank. You can go back to this later on when you login using the user id and password you have provided earlier.

And this last step will seal the ownership of the domain name once payment has been made. However, if someone ordered the same domain and paid before you did, then the owner ship belongs to that user. Completing this last step will take you to the next page. The next step from here would be to get your web hosting.

A domain name can be your best investment so choose wisely. Domain names can be sold at amazing prices it would be hard for your to believe how much some businesses would spend to pay for a domain name – as long as you have the right one. It’s good to do your homework because in the event that you want to sell your website, having a good domain name appreciates the value of your site.

If you want a more comprehensive tutorial on domain names, visit our Domain Name Tutorial section.

Setup Your Webhosting

In this tutorial you will learn how to set up a web host. It will only take you a matter of minutes in order to get your web hosting. To keep it simple, when you sign up for web hosting, the company providing this service allocates a web server where you can put your web pages in. This web server is connected to the internet and can be accessed by its IP address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL can be a named URL and not a numeric one. The named URL is a temporary name that is attached to your website for you to access easily rather than entering numbers.

Once you start applying for a web host, you will be asked to provide certain information. The main information it needs is the domain name. Most services would ask if you already have a domain name or not. Choose the first option if you already registered a domain name and then provide the name fo the domain. Other information that the service may ask for are: contact details, username and password that you would use. Once you have provided your contact information details, you will be required to enter a username and password. This will be the login credentials you will use when you would want to set up your website.

The next section is the payment process where you have to provide your credit card or paypal details. Once payment has been made you will be issued a primary and secondary named servers. Take note of this and write them down. Because these are the named servers that you will have to configure your domain name to so that when someone types your domain name on a browser, it knows what web server to go to.

Now that you have a web hosting service running, log in to the domain name registration service where you have acquired your domain and enter the primary and secondary named servers. Then save.

See The Top 5 Web Hosting Services

Setup Your Website

In this short tutorial, you will learn how to setup you first website. The assumption at this stage is that you already have a web host and a domain name pointing to the web host. To start this tutorial, log in to your web host account and check if the domain name is now pointing to your web host’s name servers. One way to check this is to upload a simple HTML file to your web host, then open another browser and type your domain name. If the setup was successful you should be able to see your HTML file.

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