When You Want Your Own Website

Setting it up

Okay, so now you know what you want to call your website. You'll need to register your domain name and find a host, so here's a list of things to think about before you choose one:

1. Decide if you are going to maintain you website yourself or contract with a internet service provider to update it regularly for you? (This depends a great deal on what your site is about. If you have the time, it's kinda fun to update your site yourself, if you have a large company, it might be worth the cost to have someone else do it.)
   
   
2. Does you server have features in order to keep your website running twenty four hours a day?
   
   
3. Do you want to accept credit cards?
   
   
4. Will you or someone else be handling response to e-mails?
   
   
5. How many categories and links will you need?
   
   
6. Look up similar sites and see what they are doing, what their layouts look like, and what seems to work.
   
   
7. How often will your site need to be updated?
   
   
8. Will you need a graphics designer?

Once you have the answer to these questions, it will be easier to discuss your needs with your Internet Service Provider and web designer. There are a multitude of design-it -yourself websites on the internet, so it will be important for you to make an informed decision as to whether or not and how much of the website design you want to do yourself. Good Luck and have fun!

L. Robyn O'Hara

Getting Started
What's in a name?
> Setting it up