The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Start Your Own Website

To set up a website, there are three steps you will need to take:

Get Your Domain Name

A domain name is a name you want to call your website. For example, the domain name of the website you're reading now is “threehosts.com”. To obtain a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. Take into consideration that you cannot buy a domain for life. You get it for a period of one to ten years. If you fail to renew the domain name at the end of its term, the registration of the domain will be revoked and the domain name may be acquired by another party.

Choose a Web Host and Sign Up For an Account

A web hosting service provides you with online space. This enables you to get your web pages online at your registered domain name.

Design Your Web Pages and Get Them Online

There are four ways to create and get your website online:

1- Most web hosts offer Easy-To-Use Site Builder that helps you build your web pages without difficulty, even if you are not skilled in using any website creating software. Their web builder is a WYSIWYG program (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get. This means that the finished page will display exactly the way it was designed. These site builders must be used online.

2- You can create the pages offline with your favorite program (DreamWeaver, FrontPage, iWeb, MS Publisher, RapidWeaver, Expressions Web, NVU, Kompozer, Web Easy Professional 7, CoffeeCup HTML Editor, Adobe Lightroom, FirstPage, Web Weaver EZ,  etc), and then upload them to your web host.

3- Frontpage Extensions allow you to publish your site directly from the FrontPage application. Microsoft FrontPage is a popular WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft. This application must be used online.

4- Content Management Systems are used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. CMS applications are easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable. Some web hosts give you access to all SimpleScripts features for free. SimpleScripts provides easy one-click installation and management of all popular applications, including Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, and more.


How to Choose a Reliable Web Host?

Four points to consider when choosing a web hosting service:

Reliability and uptime
Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space
Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don't know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month's time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don't know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel
It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

Where Can I Get Started? How Much Does It Cost?

First, take into consideration that web hosting is a global service. It does not matter what country you are located in. It is good to note that the cost of hosting services in most countries is generally a little more expensive in comparison to the same services in Canada and the United States. Specifically, American web hosts offer a much better value for money than any local hosting.

If you want to start your website, we recommend getting your domain and web hosting plan from the same company. This way, it is often possible to get your domain for free, due to some web hosting services offering a domain as a free gift today. Moreover, these web hosts usually offer a free “Site Builder”' to create your website without paying any additional fees. By taking advantage of all of the aforementioned services, everything you need for setting up your website is provided just in one hosting package.

Whether you're looking for a place to park your personal home page, or a professional internet presence for your business, our recommended web hosts have been exceeding their customers' expectations for years. These companies offer full-featured services that can fulfill all of your requirements. You can purchase these web hosting packages to start any type of website, including blog, forum, multimedia, social network, photography, wiki, and more.

Our recommended web hosts are rated based on reliability/uptime, speed, technical support, ease of use,  and price (value for money).

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