There was a time when only diligent and determined geeks could become webmasters. Nowadays, just about anyone with a computer, internet access, and a basic IT knowledge base can create, develop, and host their own dynamic website.
As software and freeware become more accessible and user friendly, fundamental coding skills such as HTML and PHP are becoming less and less necessary to know. Such knowledge certainly is an asset if one plans to manage any website, but certainly not a requirement.
And yet there are still the laggards who are asking the question: Why would anyone want to have their own website? In the recent past, having your own website was a privilege limited to businesses and agencies who wished to market their products or company to the then limited group of trend setters.
In the age of Information Technology, circumstances have drastically changed; Most of the world has gone online—a manifested trend which quickly gave way for new channels taking over our flow of communication.
Put simply, products and services became only a small part of what could be mass marketed on the World Wide Web; What started out as a medium for military communications overtaken by commercial demands, soon budded into the prime carrier of all mass communications and information. Thoughts and Ideas erupted into reciprocal streams of free-flowing, unlimited and unbounded access and exchange among a network of millions, multiplying in size by the minute.
One of the key products of this technological revolution was the Web Log, or as it is widely known, the BLOG. The blog became a gateway for opinionated individuals to express and propagate their knowledge, opinions, ideas, complaints, dreams, and thoughts to the world. Sure there were/are web boards and forums for this kind of outlet, yet a blog allowed an even greater freedom for writers, providing a sense of responsibility and leadership that could never be experienced as in inferior member of someone else’s website. After all, who wouldn’t rather be the owner of a website, rather than a simple user—simply nobody.
Still haven’t got your website, or better yet your own blog?? It’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon. There are meta-sites that will host your blog and thoughts for free, but that’s not much different than using a forum or web board, is it? You write content, they place advertisements, and they get paid. Besides, if you plan to generate any revenue, whether through advertisements or referrals, than the bottom line is you’ll need to host your own domain name and website. Hosting your own domain and website has its benefits: You get to choose your own domain name (if it’s not already registered), and you own all the rights and reap any/all income that may arise from your intellectual property.
So how much does it cost to host your own domain name and website?
Registering a domain name is actually separate from renting server (large hard disk that’s always online) space—known as web hosting, though many companies will offer packages covering both services (web hosting and domain registration), combining the fees into one. Some people will suggest for you to use two different companies for each service, but it’s convenient and less of a hassle to just use one.
These days, competition is high meaning web hosting and domain registration is ever cheap. Domain registration will cost anywhere from 6 to 12 USD per year, depending on company, while decent web hosting can cost as little as 3 USD per month. The more server space rented and options/services provided, the more expensive it gets.
If you haven’t any idea of where to start, the Siamerican suggests 1and1 company for both domain registration and web hosting, as the value for money is top notch
Most of their packages include free domain registration, and the hosting space and bandwidth allowed is more than enough to run dozens of web sites on the same package. Note that many companies only allow one to host one web site per package for the low cost packages, while 1and1 does not limit the amount of sites that can share hosting space. This is pretty reasonable considering you’re only paying a few bucks per month for hosting.
Once, you’ve picked out your domain name and hosting package, now all is left is to create and launch a site. As stated earlier, having extensive coding knowledge is not necessary at all. Stay tuned for the next post: Launching your blog – website.
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