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A lot of web hosting providers offer free domain names as a lure to draw in customers. This can be an enticing proposition to the novice website owner. There are some circumstances where this kind of arrangement may be worthwhile. However, before you leap at such a deal, consider the pros and cons of a “free” domain name. As with anything, you get what you pay for.  Read the rest of this article »

If you are considering starting a blog or a website, you should buy a domain name and hosting package before you begin. Like most bloggers, I learned this lesson the hard way. I started an experimental blog on Blogspot.com to “test the blogging waters”. It didn’t take long before I started getting visitors and I discovered the limitations of using someone else’s resources. I knew I needed my own domain and hosting but kept putting it off because of the uncertainty and inconvenience of moving. This hesitation simply delayed the inevitable and just made the problem worse. After 9 months of lollygagging, I finally got my blog moved and though it was inconvenient the payoff was worth it. In the years since, I have started several new blogs the right way and seen much success. I only wish I had seen this list before I started the first one. Read the rest of this article »

Website hosting is the service that gives your website a safe place to live and be seen (and sometimes heard).  More specifically it is when a computer is configured to store the data and files that make up a website and allows them to be downloaded over a network when requested.  Computers configured for web hosting are called web servers. If you want your website to appear on the internet you must host it on server that is accessible to the internet. Read the rest of this article »