First Steps
You will want to obtain an internet account - you probably already have one, likely a "dial-up" account. When you purchase an account, it nearly always includes server space, whether you were looking for that or not. What this means is that there is already a place, out there in cyber space, for your website to reside.

There are two types of addresses for your site:

One type comes as part of your dial-up package. When you park your website there, your URL (the address to your site) will contain the server's name. For example, let's say you have an account at a company called Goodspace.com. You contract with them for a simple dial-up account, costing you about $ 20 every month. You are John Smith, and set up your email account to be JSmith@Goodspace.com.

This account includes server space you can use. When you put some pages up in that space, they are accessed by a URL which is something like: http://www.goodspace.com/~JSmith/index.html, the "index.html" being the main or lead page in your site.

This site will not cost you more than the cost of your initial modest monthly fee. If your commercial site is fairly small, and the traffic limited - meaning never several hundred hits a day or more - this is probably adequate for you.

The second type of space comes with the purchase of a "commercial" or business account with your server, which you would purchase specifically because you want to build a powerful business presence. Chances are if you already have your Goodspace.com account, you can simply upgrade it to a business account. Or of course, you can opt to set up another all new account, in addition to the one you may have. Depending upon your server's offerings, such an account might be from $ 25 to $ 60 a month, on average.

With your business account you may want your URL to be something like: www.John'sPlace.com. So you will need to register your business name - John'sPlace.com - on the internet, so that the name can't be used by someone else. When you " register your domain name " in this fashion, you pave the way to create a space where you can park your website, and it will be accessed through a URL with your domain name, instead of a URL containing the domain of a server, and your name - ~JSmith - as an afterthought. Registration of your account will run about $ 35 per year.

We can help from the first steps. . .

We can help you set up these services, and others you may want, prior to building your website for you. For further information contact us.