Domain Names
The first stage in creating a professional web presence is to register your own domain name - this is simply the name you want to see on your web site and use for your email addresses. The domain name of this site is aqstyle.com. Things you need to consider include:
- What domain name is best for my business?
- Should I use .com, .co.uk, or some other form?
- How many email addresses do I want? How should I manage them?
I can guide you through these choices and manage the registration process and the creation of email addresses. There are many web sites around offering virtually free registration - they are popular but they can be a false economy. I use two of the best - Verio and 1&1. They both offer a reliable service which is good value for money:
"Verio, an NTT Communications (NTT Com) group company, is the world's leading web hosting company, with the hosting expertise, network and financial stability to meet all your hosting requirements"
"Future UK Internet Awards 2001 & 2002: 1&1 has just been voted Best Business Web Host and Best Consumer Web Host for the 2nd year running by over 25,000 participating readers of PC Format, .net, Internet Works, Windows XP Magazine, Internet Advisor and Mac Format"
I have provided links to these companies at the bottom of this page - take a look.
Registering your own domain name is the key to having email addresses which are easy to use, look professional, and can be kept as long as you want - the best way to lose customers is to change your email address. Having registered a domain name, your email addresses are simply your name added on to the domain name, eg my domain name is aqstyle.com, my email address is markhall@aqstyle.com. Sounds better than something like mahall999.aqstyle@freebits.uk.net doesn't it!
Having sorted out the basics, email offers endless possibilities - you can have as many email addresses based on your domain name as you want, you can let people email you from your web site, you can target customers with attractive email newsletters, and you can retreive and reply to your emails from any PC with Internet access, anywhere in the world.
Web Site
OK - you have a domain name, you've sorted out your email addresses. Some people stop there. If I get an email from joebloggs@bloggsco.co.uk, the first thing I do is to look for www.bloggsco.co.uk on the Internet, and you would be surprised how many times there is nothing there. Joe Bloggs hasn't got a web site yet. This doesn't look good and is a missed opportunity. Working with a professional web site designer Joe can improve his company's image, and more importantly, do more business.
A web site is nothing more than a series of electronic files which are created by a designer using standard programming languages. On the Internet these files appear as the web site you want people to see. Where do these files to go to appear on the Internet? They have to be hosted.
Hosting
Once the web site has been designed and the files created, the files sit in the programmer's PC (like any other file) and can be emailed and copied onto floppy disks, CDs and so on. In order for the web site to be visible on the Internet, the files have to be transferred to a host computer which is accessible by people on the Internet. This computer is usually owned and run by a hosting company, and again I use Verio and 1&1, both of which provide a range of hosting packages. These packages offer different numbers of email addresses, varying amounts of storage space (complex web sites need more storage), and some offer the facility to create on-line shops, chat rooms and provide programmes required by more sophisiticated web sites.
Web site files are transferred to the host computer over telephone lines, so changes to the web site can be made very quickly and can appear on the Internet literally minutes after the decision to make those changes has been made.
There are other types of host computer - many large companies own and run their own host computers, but this is represents an overhead and responsibility which most medium and small companies do not need.
Take a look at 1&1:
Take a look at Verio:
