The
domain name of a website is an unique identity on the web. By domain
registration, a company or individual can host their own website and
make their presence felt on the Internet. For registering a domain
few simple steps need to be followed. First step is to figure out
whether the domain name is available. There are different extensions
available for domains. These are .com, .org and country specific
registration such as .au,in. and .uk. Once you are sure that your
preferred domain name is available you need to go ahead and book the
domain either in your name or the company's name. After you register
the domain, no other entity can stake claim to that domain unless you
decide to drop or sell it.
The
next step is to design and develop the website. You can either book
your hosting space at the time of registering your domain or at a
later date. If you think that it is important to test your website in
a live environment then it is better to book the hosting space when
you start development of the website. The web hosting company
provides the disk space with a web server necessary to launch the
site. All your website files will be hosted in this space. There are
different types of hosting that are available and you need to
understand which one suits your requirement the best. Windows
hosting, Linux hosting and JSP are some of the common hosting
packages offered by web hosting companies.
Web
hosting companies offer different kinds of hosting packages.
Depending upon your requirement you can choose the package that suits
your requirements. For a personal or small business, you just need
web space around 20MB to 100MB. The hosting package that you buy
depends on the technologies on which you are developing the website.
A website developed in ASP can be hosted with the Windows hosting
package and not with the Linux hosting package. This is
because Linux Server will not support ASP. Similarly there are
different permutations and combinations which are available. If you
are developing the site with
open source tools like PHP and MySQL, you should prefer to buy Linux
hosting.
It
is important to consider the price being paid for a domain
registration and hosting service. Nowadays hosting has become very
cheap. Resellers buy huge amounts of disk space and sell them at
cheap rates to end customers. A Linux Reseller Hosting company can
sell space of 1GB for a year at a cost, which may be equivalent to a
restaurant bill. However, it is important to check out the support
features that are available with the hosting company.
The webmaster
has to interact with the hosting company on a regular basis for
support on various issues. So, jot down your requirements before you
go ahead. Launch your website after several beta tests and I am sure
you will have a great business experience.