Now that you know about getting a domain name, Arian walks us through the next step ...
Web hosting:
Now you need to set up Web hosting, which creates a space to put your site. Hosting is where the actual files that make up your Web site are stored. The domain name is just a way to point to that location. You can register domains and Web hosting through the same company, but it’s not necessary.
Hosting options vary in space measured in megabytes. It’s kind of an abstract concept. Think of your Web hosting space as your home. Each piece of furniture takes up several square feet. You can either fit 10 chairs or one big couch and a table in your living room. Files on your site are like the furniture. You can fit 100 straight-text pages (the chairs) or 20 pages and a couple photos (couch and table). Then, once you outgrow your place, you move to a bigger more expensive abode. The same deal applies to hosting space.
Free hosting service with Geocities (as mentioned in yesterday's post) offers 15 megabytes, enough room for about 100 straight-text pages (or fewer pages with a few photos). This can still be useful just to get you familiar with the process. But once you start incorporating high-quality images, audio and/or video, you’ll need to look into more space. The step beyond free services would be to buy about 100 megabytes. Most hosting services offer a way to track how much space you’ve used and how much you have left in the Control Panel or File Manager, and in most cases you can easily upgrade to bigger packages as your site grows.
If you really want to, you can pay for hosting services right off the bat. But if you don’t mind the occasional ad, there’s no need. It’s pretty easy to find free hosting services. Leanne mentioned in one of the previous entries that some cell phone plans offer hosting space. You could also go here for a list of free services for 20 megabyte sites: http://personalweb.about.com/od/freehostingover25mb/Free_Web_Hosting_for_Your_Personal_Web_Pages_20mb_.htm
Domain registration and Web hosting are the first two things you need to go live with a site. All that’s left is to design the Web site.
We’ll look into that next time.
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