How To Choose A Domain Name
I don't need to tell you that the priority here is choosing a domain name which will get you the most hits. Forget thinking up a company name and choosing that as your domain name. It may be true that the name (for instance) has more to do with rivers yet comes up on all book searches, but that's because they are a massive site. You can't afford to follow this example! Choose a name that will help Google associate your site with what you are selling. So for example if you're selling toy cars for kids, that's what your domain name should be. By the way, Google prefers hyphenation, that is to say toy-cars-for-kids[dot]com rather than toycardsforkids[dot]com.
Get A PayPal Account
At this point I would strongly recommend that if you don't already have a PayPal account, you get one as soon as possible. I use PayPal whenever I can on the internet. It's also the best way for a small new business to receive payments from customers. A PayPal account allows you to buy the software and services you need for your internet business without giving everybody your credit card details. It's best of all for giving you control when you make subscription payments. To stop a subscription you just go to the PayPal site to cancel it and it will stop straight away.Is Your Domain Name Available?
Almost everybody buys their domains from Go Daddy because of the good prices. , and sites rank best on Google, but if the most common extensions are not available for your niche, use some of the alternative suggestions or try searching for some more exotic extensions at . Once you've bought your domain name, the next step is to get your web hosting. Web hosts provide a server (hard drive) on which all the files for your website get stored and can be accessed by visitors' browsers.
Free Or Paid Hosting?
I started on the internet in 1993 and used free hosting for several years due to a shortage of funds. What a nightmare it was. Free hosting services would disappear overnight, taking my site down with them. Servers were constantly going down for hours (or days) at a time. If you absolutely have to have free hosting, the most reliable service is from Awardspace. This one is not going to close down, and although they may have occasional outages, they are pretty good. The only drawback is that free hosting is never as feature-rich as paid hosting, and you don't want to suddenly have all the hassle of changing your host because you need to run some great new software and your free host doesn't have Ioncube or Zlib, or an up-to-date version of PHP.
To be on the safe side I get my hosting from Hostgator. They usually have a good discount for new customers. Hostgator are green, very reliable and their technical support is first class. See the link at the end of this article.
Design Software
Nowadays when you're creating a website you're expected to come up with a really slick, professional design. These designs can be created with programs like Dreamweaver for instance. However Dreamweaver is expensive and complicated, and you also need a gift for graphic design. Why bother when you can use a free program called WordPress and ready-made free templates to create a great-looking site? WordPress is the software used by bloggers and saves you hours and hours of time and effort. You just type in your site content as if you're using a word processor, and upload your images. Just visit the WordPress site to download the program completely free.
WordPress works in tandem with a database which you have to set up yourself in your Hostgator cPanel. Hostgator provide a video to show you how to do it. Make a careful note of the database name (including prefix and underscore), username (ditto) and user password. Enter these in as explained in the WordPress instructions. For Hostname put 'localhost'. If you have any difficulties a search on Google will usually help sort them out.
If you don't want to use WordPress, try to check out the Coffee Cup HTML editor. It's not free but is fun and easy to use.
Adding Your Content
Explore all the WordPress menus and get to know the program really well, especially the difference between Posts and Pages, before you start adding your content. Careful planning will pay off later. Personally I would use Pages for your sales, and Posts to update your customers with new products or new information. Then just type your content or paste it in plain text format.