You are now ready to start your own website, Congratulations! I have put together a few easy steps to get started without wasting any time.
1. Where does a website work from?
In order to ensure that your website is available to anyone at any time, you need to host it on one of the web servers managed by a web hosting Company,
You will also need to register a domain name with which your visitors will be able to easily access your website online. After registering a domain name and then purchasing a hosting for the same you will be able to create and use email ids in your website name like your.name@yourdomain.com
2. What kind of web site do you want?
Websites could be classified into 2 types based on the method used to update the contents as Static and Dynamic.
- Static sites: Static sites are normally built with HTML and do not have a database to store website contents dynamically. In order to update the website you need to download the source files to your desktop/Laptop using an FTP software like FileZilla, Then edit source files using tools like Dreamweaver, Notepad ++ , Netbeans etc. Once the source code is updated you could upload the files to your hosting account using FTP. The process of updating a static website is now complete.
- Dynamic sites (Content Management System Based websites): Dynamic websites are equipped with admin login in order to easily manage and update the contents on a regular basis. In order to update a dynamic website all you need to do is login to the admin panel using the username and password. Select the page to update the content, make changes, publish and you are done.
3. What flavor of OS do I need to choose for my hosting account?
The choice of OS is purely based on the scripting language with which your website is built. Websites built on HTML and PHP can be hosted on virtually ANY web server, However ASP requires windows server and cannot be run on Linux at all.
Note: Even if you use Windows or Mac computer, you will still want to go with Linux hosting *unless* you specifically need ASP. Linux hosting is generally faster, cheaper and more flexible than Windows hosting and poses no compatibility problem at all, no matter which operating system you use at home or at work.
4. What level of hosting service do you need?
There is a whole range of service levels in web hosting products that we offer such as:
- Shared hosting (Rs.134/month): Shared Hosting is the most economic kind of web hosting in which a large server will host the websites of several clients. Each client has its own account through which he can manage the resources allocated to his websites.
- VPS (Virtual Private Servers) Rs.2300/month): Virtual Private Servers are virtual servers deployed on a high end dedicated server using virtualization technology. VPS is recommended for servers with high security constraints.
- Dedicated Servers (Rs.7000/month): Dedicated servers are standalone physical servers.
- Cloud Hosting (Billed By the hour): Cloud Hosting is an environment where your website shares an array of servers with other sites. This means that your site is not limited to the power of a single server and that the resources allocated to it can row and shrink on demand depend on how much traffic you get. Cloud Hosting is generally recommended for large websites and not for smaller websites.
You could start with shared hosting and then upgrade as and when required.
5. Choose your web hosting company
Once you have settled on Linux vs Windows and Shared vs VPS vs Dedicated you will now need to make a choice as to which Web Hosting company will you host with.
A lot of companies will offer you unlimited disk space and bandwidth to host your site. Technically you don’t need unlimited disk space or bandwidth for the smooth functioning of websites, what we really need is Performance, Up time and Great Customer service.
Also remember: you get what you pay for! Cheap prices (except for limited time trial offers) always mean you will have to compromise on the speed of your site, the availability of your site (uptime) or the quality of the technical support. So, if you’re serious about your website then never let price be the factor to decide your Host.
