Newsletter - June 17, 2009

The Jewelry Crafter

A newsletter for the home jeweler

This newsletter will be published every 2 weeks, and will include hints and tips for your jewelry business. Any feedback or comments about the topics presented here are always appreciated. Click here to e-mail us.

 Setting Up A Website (part 1)

by

Mary Harvey

So you’ve decided to jump in and set up a website. Where do you start? This week, we will go into picking a web host and how to register your name.

The first thing you need to do when beginning to set up a website is to choose a name, and see if it’s available. The easiest way to do this is to go to a registrar and type in the name. If the name is available, you are ready to move to the next step. If it’s taken, you will have to come up with either a variation of the name you want, or try a new name. 

The next step is to register your name. There are a lot of registrars out there, with prices all over the place. Some registrars are Godaddy.com, Dotster.com and Networksolutions.com. Many run specials, so you will have to check with each registrar to see what they charge to register a domain. It’s best to get a .com extension since it’s the most popular, but you may want to register the .net and .org extensions, also. 

Some hosting companies will offer to register your domain name when you sign up for hosting. Be careful with this. Some unscrupulous companies will register your domain name under their business name, making it impossible to change hosts. If you register your name yourself, you own it, and can move it at will. 

Next, you have to choose a host. There are a lot of good hosts out there, and a lot of bad hosts, too. The things to look for are how much space do they give you, is e-mail included, and what extras are included. Stay away from free hosting. These web hosts will put ads on your site, and it doesn’t look very professional. There are great hosts out there that will give you lots of features for about $60 - $80 per year. What features you need will depend on what you want to do with your website. Basic plans are great for smaller web sites, but if you are going to run a full-fledged online store, you have to make sure you have SQL databases, a secure server (for payment processing), enough e-mail accounts, etc. It’s best to check out a prospective web host thoroughly before you sign up. There are many sites that review and compare web hosts, just do a search for “web host reviews” and you will find many resources to help you research your picks.

Once you are signed up with a web host, you have to go back to your domain registrar and change your DNS settings to point to your new site. DNS stands for Domain Name Server, which is the worldwide directory of web sites.  Once the DNS is changed, it takes an average of 48 hours to propagate worldwide, so your site will be “live”, and can be seen by everyone. 

Next time, we will go into creating and uploading your website.