If you're like many people, you probably have no idea how to build a website. If you do, then we suggest you skip this entire section. Before you can build a website, you will first need a way to host it. Every website in the world is stored on a server, which is basically a type of computer which many other computers can access. The simplest way to get your website hosted is to open an account with a hosting company. A hosting company is a company that has a server, or group of servers, which is dedicated to hosting the websites of their clients. These companies will charge you either an annual or monthly fee in order to host your site, and the fees will generally be low.
While there are also some hosting companies that allow you to host your site for free, we recommend avoiding these companies at all cost. They tend to be unreliable and the websites tend to load slowly, and many of these companies advertise either their products or services or the products of others in exchange for giving you free hosting. As a freelancer, the last thing you want is to build a site which has ads all over it, this looks unprofessional and it can easily drive away potential clients.
We recommend getting paid hosting from a “reliable” company. We emphasized reliable in the last sentence because there are many crappy hosting companies on the web. When you are contacting a hosting company to decide whether or not you want to pay for their services, ask them whether or not you actually own the website and domain you are paying for. Some hosting companies stipulate that it is they, not the customer, that owns the domain and website, and this is something you have to be cautious with. The reason for this is because if you decide to sell the site later, or move it to a new host or server, if you are not the true owner of the site, then you won't be able to move it. Imagine wasting a bunch of money on a site you don't even own! A very frustrating scenario indeed.
I also want to note the difference between a “domain” and a “website.” A domain is the URL, or Uniform Resource Locater. For instance, www.google.com is a domain. The website is the actual pages where information is listed. When you build your site with a hosting company, be sure you own the domain and the website. It is also important to make sure the website has nothing less than a 99.9% uptime. When we say uptime, we mean that the website should be online at all times, and people should be able to access it. If you go to a website, and you get a message saying “address not found,” or something of this nature, this means that your site is not available.
If your site is not available, this means that potential clients can't contact you about your services. You cannot afford to use the services of a hosting company that doesn't have your site available 99.9 percent of the time. Before using the services of any hosting company, do your research to see what other people have to say about it. There are many websites on the web that review hosting companies. Take the time to look over these reviews before hiring the services of any hosting company, because the company you choose can mean the difference between the success and failure of your website over the long term. I don't recommend using the services of any hosting company which has less than 4 stars, and even then I would inquire as to why it isn't rated higher than this. I taking the quality of hosting companies very seriously, and so should you.
Avoid paying for a hosting company which doesn't have 24 hour customer service. The Internet never sleeps, and if you have a problem with your website late in the evening or early in the morning, you can't wait for the doors of the company to open so that you can get it solved. If the company doesn't offer 24 hour technical support, don't hire them. Another thing that you will want to pay close attention to is the quality of the software used by the hosting company. Many hosting companies come with software programs that customers can use to build their websites.
Most of us aren't programmers, and even if you are, you may find it tedious to program a site from scratch. Hosting companies know this, and this is why they have created site building software which can make it easier to build a site without programming knowledge. However, every site building software on the Internet has a learning curve, and some are steeper and less user friendly than others. Again, you will want to take the time to read the reviews of others in order to determine what company you will choose. In general, if you can use the Windows OS or Microsoft Word, you should not have a problem with the software.
Many hosting companies also offer a thirty day trial in order to see if you're comfortable with their service. If you try the software within thirty days and find that you don't like it, you can simply cancel, and many hosting companies will refund your money with no questions ask. When you look for a reliable hosting company, look for companies that offer this feature. If you're not technically or artistically oriented, or you're simply short on time, we also recommend having someone build you a website.
There are good website designers out there, but as with anything else, do your research carefully to make sure you're hiring someone who is reputable. We recommend Godaddy, www.godaddy.com. You can purchase your domain name through Godaddy and Godaddy also has cheap hosting packages and email packages. You will also want to keep in mind that having someone build a site for you will be a lot more expensive than doing it yourself, however Godaddy has numerous templates and many templates can be found online as well. For templates please see www.templatemonster.com.