Starting A New Website – Checklist

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If you’re ready to start your own website and you’d like to get started the right way with using reputable services and without too much trial and error, this checklist is for you!

There are so many choices of services out there that it can become overwhelming; we’re narrowing down these choices for you by listing services here that we’ve used ourselves and we feel will help you to a good start.

This checklist for starting a new website is for everyone wanting to start a professional website or blog, or planning on making money with their website or blog. If you’re looking to start a website just for fun, or to get your feet wet with blogging, simply sign up for a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. All others, please read on.

To start your own website you don’t have to be a pro at html, but knowing the basics are a must and will take you a long way when working with websites. So if you’re completely new to websites and html, be sure to check out this beginner tutorial for html.

1. Choose a domain name:

If you’ve already shopped for a domain, you know how frustrating it can be: most simple, common sense and short domains have already been sold. But don’t worry, the right domain for you is still out there!

The key is to find a domain that’s

- easy to remember
- makes sense
- isn’t too complicated to write
- isn’t too long

(About bad domain names…)

Just imagine yourself telling someone about your website:

“You can visit our website at lotsofwordsandcompanyname-complicated.com”
or “You can visit our website at simpleandshort.com”.

Which one would you feel more comfortable telling others about and which one would you remember?

Note: Plan to pay about $10 per domain per year. You can get domain names at GoDaddy.com for example.

If you’re a non-profit be sure to buy a .org domain. Non-profit or not, you should also consider buying at least the popular .com and .net and .org domains, to prevent others from setting up websites with your group’s or organization’s name. Also please note that you do not have to buy your domain and hosting service from the same company.

2. Sign up with a web host:

Our two favorite web hosts we’ve worked with are Hostgator and Bluehost. For more hosts with a good track record, visit our ‘find a web host’ page.

- To start, sign up for one of the smaller hosting packages; you can always upgrade later. Most web hosts also offer custom design services.

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If you need help with design and marketing, but aren’t ready to hire a web designer and marketing company, take a look at SiteSell.com. This company is known for their do-it-yourself system that helps customers build websites with easy to use design and marketing tools and lots of motivation. It will cost more than just hosting alone, but it might be worth it for you if you’re just starting out on the web and you’d like some help.

- You may have a choice of buying a Linux hosting plan or a Windows one. We recommend you sign up for a Linux plan for ease of use and better security features. (Note that this has nothing to do with the operating system you use on your computer.)

- Make sure that the web host you’re signing up with uses cPanel, which is an industry standard administration panel for your website. You can back up your site, set up e-mail addresses, administer databases, use webmail and a lot more through cPanel. Most web hosts offer a one-click install of WordPress in their cPanel. You can also download your own free WordPress software at wordpress.org.

- By the way, if you’re planning on regularly adding articles or other content to your website – and you should! – be sure to use a WordPress blog on your site. WordPress (free) is a great and continuously updated content management system that serves personal bloggers and businesses alike!

3. Get your website on the web!

You’re almost done! If you’ve bought your domain and hosting plan from different companies, then you have to connect your domain to your server at your web host in order to see your website on the web, meaning you have to change your ‘DNS’. Wait for your Welcome e-mail from your web host with the instructions on how to do that. (Make sure you save this e-mail!)

It usually requires that you replace the two ‘addresses’ of your name servers in your domain account with the ones they’ll send you in the e-mail. It looks something like this:
ns0010.hostgators.com
ns0011.hostgators.com

It may take up to 48 hours until the ‘hook-up’ is complete. Then you’ll be able type your domain address into your browser and a page will come up with your web hosts name on it and ‘website coming soon!’ or similar. Done!

Now what?

- If you’re completely new to websites and html, take a look at the excellent free html tutorial at w3schools.com.

- To establish your custom homepage, create an index.html page in your web design software or a text editor and upload it via ftp.

- If you want to plunge right into using your WordPress blog, log in to your cPanel and scroll down to Software/Services. Click on Fantastico and then on WordPress in the left sidebar. Click on New Installation.

Where it says ‘Install in Dirctory’ use the name ‘blog’ or use one of the main keywords describing your blog, for example ‘travel’. This creates a folder in your website to install your blog into.Leave it empty, if you’d like your blog to come up first as the homepage when people visit your site. Define some other variables like your username and password and you’re done.

You can now go to www.yourwebsitesname.com/yourblogname/wp-admin, log in, and start blogging! For more info on how to use WordPress go to Worpress.org, or read Famous Bloggers’ tips about what to do after installing a WordPress blog.

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