Now that you’re ready to start creating that website you’ve been dreaming about, you’ll need to get web hosting: a place where you can store and modify your website’s content and make it accessible online.

The choice of a web hosting provider is a very personal one. I say this because, for every person who has had a good experience with a provider, you will find one or five or ten who have utter loathing for that exact provider.

I would evaluate a potential web hosting provider based on the following considerations:

• Installing or Utilizing Blog or CMS (Content Management System) Software
  
• 3rd-party Software Installation
  
• Technical Support
  
• Disk Space and Data Transfer
• Video Streaming
• Backup and Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Server
• Transferring Away & Refunds
  

Here’s some more detail about what to consider for each one:

• Installing or Utilizing Blog or CMS (Content Management System) Software

The ease-of-use of incorporating the blogging platform with your provider is what makes the difference when going to purchase web hosting. Even if you don’t intend to open a blog, many blog/CMS software can be used for static websites as well (like WordPress, which I love). Each blog or CMS software has operating system and/or software components required to run, so check with your intended provider before buying hosting and/or the software.

Some providers will give you a “push-button” or “1-click” installation which will automate the installation of blogging platforms. Other providers will provide a hosting solution that gives you access to the more technical side of your hosting environment like executing scripts, setting up databases and modifying your file system permissions. Check to see if the hosting provider lists which blogging software can run on their servers. If you cannot find this information, I strongly suggest writing an email to their tech support with a list of your blog software’s technical requirements to get confirmation before purchasing a hosting agreement (or blogging software). Here’s WordPress’ list of requirements.

• Ease-of-installation of 3rd party software

As mentioned above, if you are not particularly tech-savvy, it’s important that you understand how much the provider can integrate blog or other 3rd-party software into your web hosting. Even if you’re not interested in hosting a blog, you may need a forum, a photo gallery, a wiki or e-commerce software for your site, and many hosting providers can offer these software integrations or at least support their installation.

Many providers will specify how much control you have over your hosting environment and how much you can put your hands on it (if you can run PHP scripts, install a database, modify the .htaccess file, etc.) but the final compatibility, installation and upkeep of the 3rd-party software will be your responsibility. Some providers will even provide a list of which popular 3rd party software is compatible or is available for push-button installation.

• Technical support: Direct Contact available? Guaranteed Response Times?
  

When I first started hosting with a certain hosting provider, they made it very difficult to contact them directly with problems, and I often had to do a down-the-rabbit-hole chase to find the support email address on their web site. Now, they provide an 800 number to talk with a real person.

Other hosting providers will not give you a direct contact, but they may give you a guaranteed response time or an option to escalate and therefore you know how long it might take to get resolution to your problem.

Before it’s really a necessity, you should identify the support methods in case of an emergency: contact email address / website / telephone, and other information needed to contact them like your username or account information. Other important limits to keep in mind are if the provider limits your technical support to a certain number of questions or if they provide a guaranteed response time or service level agreement on resolution of problems.

If you require a certain level of support, investigate first, and also be prepared to pay extra to ensure you can get it.

• Disk Space and Data Transfer

If you’ve read the Long Tail by Chris Anderson (great book!) you know that disk space is quickly becoming a commodity and most providers will now offer huge amounts of disk space for a low cost. You probably won’t come near to using all of it.

Data transfer is related to the transfer and viewing of the information on your website. When a visitor opens a page on your website, your hosting provider must deliver the text and images on that page to their computer. Multiply that for each visitor, and data transfer may become important to your site if you’re having people download a lot of content (like high resolution images, music files or large PDFs) or if you have enormous amounts of traffic.

Most providers will provide you with such a large amount of data transfer that you can monitor in case you experience a jump in traffic, or upgrade if necessary. Investigate how much is provided with each plan, and in case your website gets linked from Digg or CNN, how you can temporarily meet that demand or upgrade

• Video Streaming

Most videos embedded in blogs can be hosted externally to the blog (on YouTube or Vimeo, for example), but if you are planning on having a lot of video content and would like complete control over the delivery and look & feel of that content, check with your hosting provider if video streaming from their servers is included in the hosting plan you’re considering. This may also figure into calculating the data transfer they provide – the more videos you are streaming, the more data transfer you’ll need.

• Backup

Backup is one of the most important things to your online presence. How often does your host back up your data? Daily, hourly? How far back can you get get copies of your data and files, and with which methods can you access your files? Do you need to submit a request to the provider’s Support, or can you be autonomous and access it directly from your administration panel?

If you’re generating a lot of content and/or you have a very active community generating content and comments, you will need to be more sensitive about how often that content is backed up.

Note that with many blog/CMS software, the backup of the database may not be done by the hosting provider but must be done directly by the user and the hosting provider may provide backups of the content that is not in the database (i.e., image and downloadable files).

• Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Server

By default, most basic web hosting plans will be considered shared hosting, which means that other websites and domains will be hosted on the same server as your site. You’ll be sharing resources like the server’s disk space, processor, and RAM. For most site or blog needs, shared hosting will be sufficient, but if your site is very popular, you may need a step up from shared hosting like a virtual server or a dedicated server.

Of course, you probably won’t know you need a more robust solution when you first start your website, but it’s a good idea to see if the host has other options available and what you’d need to do to upgrade when the time comes.

• Transferring Away & Refunds

Pay close attention to the refund policy of the providers. Some offer money-back guarantees if you are interested in doing a trial of their services for a few days or weeks so you can get a feel for the service and the administration panel.

Choosing Web Hosting Providers

I don’t want to make this article about endorsement, though I use both Dreamhost and Yahoo for my hosting needs, as I mentioned above – for every person who has a good experience, there will be 10 more with a negative one. I suggest you Google “web hosting providers,”, read some ratings’ sites, ask your friends with successful sites who they use, and evaluate your own site’s needs before buying hosting.

From Lifehacker’s readers: Most Popular Reliable and Affordable Web Hosts

• DreamHost
• Blue Host
• NearlyFreeSpeech.NET
• 1&1
• GoDaddy
• HostGator
• A Small Orange

Image by Donovan Henneberg-Verity

Sounds confusing, right? It’s really not.

What you need to know about WordPress is that it’s an easy, powerful, and very flexible platform for blogs AND static websites.

What you may not know is that the WordPress community is very large, which means you’ve got a ton of information, documentation, and helpful people (like me) ready to get you started with WordPress.

Note: I am referring to an installed/self-hosted version of WordPress (available at WordPress.org), not the free, hosted sites on WordPress.com

Ready to get your hands dirty with WordPress? This is what you’ll need:

1. Web hosting selected (with needed minimum requirements) and purchased
2. A domain name selected and registered
3. A backup / export of your current blog’s content (optional)
4. A theme / design for your new blog (and pertinent files)
   
5. FTP client software and/or web FTP access to your hosting server
6. WordPress installation files and instructions
7. Bonus: Importing content from existing blog (optional)
   
8. Bonus chapter: not so quick, but very dirty: Modifying old URLs and Images for the new blog

That’s it! You’re ready to go.

Let’s break down each piece:

1. Web Hosting Selected (with needed minimum requirements) & Purchased

WordPress has some minimum requirements to run, and most hosting providers will give you this information in the FAQ area or possibly specify if they are WordPress-compliant. If you don’t see this information, don’t hesitate to email the provider before committing and purchasing your web hosting. Some providers may even offer WordPress as a “pushbutton” or “1 click” installation which means they are not only compliant, they’ll walk you through the installation! Read server requirements for Hosting WordPress so you know what requirements your web hosting provider has to have to run WordPress. {Read the WHT article about How to Choose Web Hosting for your Site}

Really quick & dirty: buy web hosting from one of WordPress’ web hosting partners

2. A Domain Name Selected and Purchased

For the purposes of this example, I’m assuming you’re moving from a free blogging platform with an existing (free) URL like myblogname.oldblogsoftware.com, and you’re interested in moving to a hosted WordPress installation on your own domain. If you don’t have a domain yet, read the {WHT article: How to Buy a Domain and What to Do With It}. In this case, as mentioned above, you want to buy web hosting for your domain.

Really quick & dirty: most domains can be purchased directly from your web hosting provider and you can do it during the setup of your web hosting account or directly after.

3. A Backup of your Current Blog’s Content (Posts and Pictures!)

WordPress can accept just about any blog’s content on the planet. Your job is to find out how to export the content of your particular blog and save it to a safe place on your computer.

Here are some shortcuts for the most popular blogging platforms – if you are given a choice, you’ll want to export in XML format:

• Export content from Blogger: Dashboard>Settings>Blog Tools >Export Blog or read How to Export on Blogger’s Help Forum
  
• Export from TypePad: Export/Import on Six Apart’s knowledge base – (they actually go into quite a bit of detail about moving from TypePad to WordPress)
• Export from Movable Type: Exporting content from Movable Type
• Export from LiveJournal: Log into LiveJournal’s Export page
  
• Export from Posterous: it has the functionality available via their API, but someone still has to write an exporter (Nov 09)
  

You’ll also need to download pictures and other content you’ve uploaded in your current blog. If you’re using Flickr for your images, and you embed the HTML code directly into your posts, you won’t need to do anything.

Really quick and dirty: Pay a friend to do this for you. Or dinner works, too. But not pizza – don’t be cheap, man!

4. A Theme / Design for your New Blog (and pertinent files)

I could write several posts about choosing a theme, but for now I will keep it simple: visit blogs (if you’re reading RSS feeds, click through!) and start noting which sites make you sit up and take notice and what you don’t like. Then start to understand what kind of design you’re looking for with your new blog (2 columns, dark, rotating header image, red, etc.) and then go here to narrow down your choices: WordPress Themes

I suggest downloading at least 2-3 blog themes that you like, so after you get your content imported and the themes uploaded, you can switch from one to the other if you find your favorite theme doesn’t suit your content. You may also consider paying someone to make you a custom design, but for now let’s just concentrate on a clean free design for the first iteration of your WordPress blog!

Really quick and dirty: Use one of the 30+ free themes that are automatically included in your WordPress basic installation, accessible via the Administration panel : Appearance > Themes.

5. FTP Client Software and/or Web FTP Access to your Hosting Server

You’ll also need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client software so that you can transfer files from your hard drive to your web hosting server, including most of the WordPress installation files (if you don’t have assisted installation through your web hosting provider) and your blog’s content like themes and photos. I suggest FileZilla FTP Client – it’s open source!

Really quick and dirty: Your web hosting may provide a web interface to upload files via web FTP, so you won’t have to install anything additionally, but you may find an FTP software to be easier and faster.

6. WordPress Installation Files and Instructions

You can always find the latest version of WordPress at: http://wordpress.org/download/ – you’ll need to save this to your computer. Then you’ll want to get started with Installing WordPress. You’ll especially want to have the detailed instructions page as well as the Famous 5-minute installation pages open.

Really quick and dirty: Use one of the WordPress hosting partners with 1-click installation for WordPress. Otherwise, you’ll definitely want a friend who’s installed WordPress before to help you with this – bribe them nicely!

7. Import Content from Existing Blog (optional)

Now you’ve got a working version of WordPress with some default content. Now to import your content. After you’re logged on as administrator, Click on Tools to expand the submenu on the WordPress administration panel. Next, scroll down if necessary and click Import to show the various import options. Next, click your previous blog’s type and follow the directions. Read more about Importing content from other blogging software into WordPress.

Geek Tip – only for the adventurous: If you have a large blog, you may get an error uploading your content as the uploader times out. MAKE A COPY/BACKUP of the original import file you downloaded from your previous blog interface. Then take the file and divide it into two or three pieces (you’ll want to make sure you cut off before the <ENTRY> or <POST> XML tag)

Really quick and dirty: It can’t get much quicker or dirtier than this. Be content.

That’s the end of the quick and dirty guide to Getting Started with WordPress. Below is a bonus chapter that has to do with cleaning up after yourself and your move.

8. (Bonus) Modifying Old Internal URLs and Images for the new blog

Chances are, if you’re a decent blogger, you’ve linked to yourself at some point, or often, within your posts. While WordPress will change the structure of your posts’ permalinks (URL) from oldblog.oldblogsoftware.com/mypostname to www.newdomainname.com/mypostname when you import your content, it will not change any internal references to your content. Oh dear, what’s a blogger to do? If you’ve got a friend who is comfortable rooting around in your database (MAKE A BACKUP FIRST BEFORE ANYONE PLAYS!), they can do a find and replace in your wp_posts table and do a partial replace (find: oldblog.oldblogsoftware.com substitute with: www.newdomainname.com).

If you don’t have any friends like that, or you prefer not to take chances, I can only say you’ll just have to go in by hand to each post, update the URL and save the post again. I suggest starting with your 10 most recent posts (more likely to be seen with random “Older posts” browsing) and your top 10-20 most popular posts and update the URLs.

Geek Tip: You’ll want to understand permalinks well when you import your blog – if your old blog post URLs were structured oldblog.oldblogstructure.com/day/month/year/postname, and your new blog’s URL structure is www.newdomainname.com/postname, you’ll have to pay attention when updating your URLs.

Anything I’m missing from the Quick and Dirty Guide? Let me know.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonoob/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In it, I explain the basics of how Google Alerts work and give you 5 quick ways to get started on Google Alerts like:

1. Do a “vanity search” for your name, nickname and/or your blog’s name
2. Track incoming links to your site
3. Track your content for possible plagarism
4. Keep your eye on your favorite topics
5. Get notified of spam links inserted in your site

Click through to the Food Blog Alliance article to read more…

Image by monoglot

You might not understand what all the fuss is about – global WordCamps, plugins, themes?

Luckily, there’s a way you can play with WordPress on your own computer, without having to buy or commit to anything!

In a few steps, you can install this software that will simulate a web server on your computer, and you’ll have WordPress up and running. You can install this software package on a Windows, Linux or Mac computer and then install WordPress.

Why should you install WordPress on your home computer? After you’ve installed WordPress, then you can:

• Practice importing your site from another source into WordPress (Blogspot/Blogger, Typepad, hosted WordPress.com site)
• Apply and modify a WordPress (free/paid) theme design and play with other design features
• Create your own custom WordPress design (theme) from scratch
• Install and practice with the thousands of WordPress plugins available online or write your own WordPress plugin
• Get to know the WordPress interface and its features
• Practice inserting your own content, managing images, and other key WordPress lessons
• and…you can install MULTIPLE instances of WordPress – so you can work on more than one blog at a time!

Setting it up on your home computer means you can experiment, make mistakes and stop work whenever you want because the site is accessible only to you on your personal computer.

Not only is it free, it’s really easy to use and install.

Since WordPress is Open Source and free, it relies on several other open source and free software components to run. So that means it’s completely free for you to try out WordPress. On a more technical note, you just have to remember that there are four main components to get WordPress working: the web server software, the database engine and the programming language engine(s).

There’s an installation package that will give you all four of them called XAMPP. XAMPP has these four components: Apache HTTPD (web server), MySQL (database engine) and PHP and Perl (programming language engines). Each of these can be downloaded and installed separately, but the XAMPP package does it all in one go so you’re sure to have the right versions.  Note: for the purposes of this article, I am assuming you will installing this for use on your personal computer, to be accessed only by you on that same computer for testing reasons. This is not an article about setting up a web server on your computer to be accessed externally.

In simple terms, Apache HTTPD is the software that turns your computer into a web server and to allow it to “serve” content in the form of web pages, images, and other content you’d find on a website when you use – it’s what happens when you insert “http://” in your web browser address bar.

MySQL is the database server. Years ago a web page consisted of actual files for each page of the site like index.html, contact.html, etc. Each of these files was sitting in your webserver’s hard drive and had be downloaded individually. Now with more modern sites, and especially with WordPress, each page is created more dynamically because the majority of the content is actually stored in a database. When someone wants to see “Sara’s Page” WordPress will put the pieces together dynamically, from the header to the footer with the blog’s theme, sidebars and formatting.

PHP and Perl are two programming languages that WordPress needs. PHP is the language that WordPress is written in and a language that was made for scripting web pages. Perl is a very succinct and powerful programming language and is often included in WordPress code (that you won’t have to worry about). You need to install these two engines so that when the PHP / Perl code is run, it can be interpreted and executed on your local computer.

In order to get WordPress running on your computer, here is the overview of the steps to do it – make sure you’re referencing the manuals for each installation to have detailed steps.

1. Download and install XAMPP. Make sure you choose an easy to remember folder to install it in (like C:xampp)
   1. http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html from Apache Friends
   2. or from SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/
2. Download the latest version of WordPress
   1. http://wordpress.org/download/
3. Unzip/copy the WordPress files into its own subdirectory in the folder that is the “web directory” on your local computer – this will be defined during the installation in #1. It will be something like “C:\yourxamppinstallationdirectory\htdocs” – in the above example: “C:\xampp\htdocs\mywordpressfolder”
4. Install WordPress following the directions on the Installing WordPress page. And you’re done!

For multiple instances of WordPress, i.e., to experiment with more than one blog at the same time, just repeat steps 3 and 4 in another subdirectory of your web directory folder.

Now you’re read to experiment with WordPress with no hassle or commitment!

If you need a more detailed explanation, here’s screenshots of all the steps for installing WordPress on Windows XP thanks to sp-arun

Installing WordPress Locally in Windows Xp Using WampServer

Photo by ericmmartin

• What is Copyright?
• What is Creative Commons?
• Types of Creative Commons Licenses
• How to Use Others’ Creative Commons Content
• A Video Introduction to Creative Commons
• Copyright and Creative Commons Resources

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a way to protect the “original works of authorship” of published and unpublished work, usually expressed in a tangible way. On a high level these types of works are protected:

• literary works
• musical works, including any accompanying words
• dramatic works, including any accompanying music
• pantomimes and choreographic works
• pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• sound recordings
• architectural works

Several of these categories are directly applicable to content made available online. When you create something truly original: a song, a photo, a story, a blog post or a video, you automatically have an all-rights reserved copyright for that work.

Note that copyright is different from a patent, which is attributed to an original method of doing something, a process or a physical invention; or a trademark, which is almost exclusively a visual combination of a logo, slogan, and/or image.

There is no “international copyright” though most countries respect and protect copyrights through international agreements such as treaties and conventions. Copyright is a delicate issue and if you are serious about protecting your rights you might want to speak to an intellectual property lawyer in your country.

But what if you’d like to make your work available for people to enjoy, share, re-use, adapt or modify?

Let’s look at something that is being used all over the world, and in fact is being translated and adapted to local countries’ legal requirements: Creative Commons.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons, while a relatively new term since its birth in 2001 is by definition is a non-profit organization, but the name is more widely associated with the concept of Creative Commons as a way to extend copyright to promote legal sharing and modification of original works. Here’s the goal of the organization:

increase  the  amount  of  creativity  (cultural,  educational,  and scientifc  content)  available  in  “the  commons”  —  the  body  of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use repurposing, and remixing.

Creative Commons is a way for you to take your intellectual property – original content like photos, writing, designs, videos and more, and assign rights to it to be shared with the community and the world. It is not an alternative to copyright: it works in parallel with copyright.

Creative Commons licensing can protect the original copyright and level of permissions the author chooses. It can also perpetuate these rights (or not, depending on the author’s choice) and encourages and facilitates re-use and sharing. Most importantly, it helps the author retain rights if they so choose, and it helps the user to know exactly what the author wants done with his content and how they can utilize it. As CC calls it, “Some Rights reserved.”

If instead you prefer to give up all rights to your work, it becomes “No Rights Reserved” and part of Public Domain in which no law restricts the way the works are used. Public domain is more commonly attributed to works whose copyright licenses have expired, usually dozens of years after the author’s death. Each country has its own laws and validity lengths for patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Here are the Creative Commons licenses. The licenses are iterations of “living licenses” that are updated frequently and the version of the license attributed to that work will be depicted with a number like 2.5. Attributing the most current form of the license available is always recommended.

Each license has three components:

• a “Commons Deed” which briefly explains the rights and rules of the license
• the “Legal Code” which should suffice as legal backing in the case you need to go to court and is available in several languages
• and the accompanying license image “button” that you can display on your site or where you’re publishing your content.

The most basic Creative Commons license chosen by authors is that of “Attribution” – being credited for the work if it’s re-used. Other attributes are then added and mixed depending on the author’s desire.

Here are those elements directly from the Creative Commons license page:

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

For example, an author combining the desire to make work available for non-commercial means but would like others to continue sharing their creations as well might offer choose the following license:

• Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Be sure to read and understand the full list of Creative Commons licenses made by combining the elements above.

Ready to choose a Creative Commons License?

• Not sure which license is best for you? Use the Creative Commons License builder to help you figure that out.
• Once you’ve decided which license you’re interested in, get that license’s image button and copy the HTML code
• and insert the code on your website or where you’re publishing the work.

How to Use Others’ Creative Commons Content

Not publishing any work to be shared through Creative Commons, but you’d like to utilize, share or build upon others’ work? Here are a few tips:

• Look for Creative Commons Licenses: Most authors that are using Creative Commons will know you know – here are a few key places to look: in the sidebar, at the bottom of the page, in the About page, or even on the Contact page. If you don’t see the information you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to write the author about the type of license they have on their work. They will appreciate your respect and effort.
• Understand the License Details: You found the license, but make sure you understand each component of the license by clicking-through and reading the details of the license so you know the work’s opportunities and limitations before you start using it.
• Re-use, Modify and/or Distribute Accordingly: The author has gone to the trouble to select and display the ways their work can be shared and modified, now respect it! Make sure to re-distribute the work with the same license that was given to the original if “Share Alike” is specified.
• Let the Author Know: Let the author know with more than just a link back or listing their name – tell them you enjoyed their work and appreciated the fact that they made the available to the community.
• Make Your Own Work Available: Now that you’ve shared or modified someone else’s work, why not contribute to the cycle by distributing some of your own work via Creative Commons?

A Video Introduction to Creative Commons

Still want to know more about Creative Commons? This video is a great introduction to it:

Copyright and Creative Commons Resources

• Wikipedia’s entry on Copyrights
• US Copyright Office : What Does Copyright Protect?
• EU Single Market Copyright
• Creative Commons Licenses on CreativeCommons.org
• Search Creative Commons content on CreativeCommons.org
• Google enables Creative Commons image search
• Flickr Creative Commons images
• Mashable’s 25+ Sources for Creative Commons Content
• Search Google using Advanced Search and filter by Usage Rights
• Follow @CreativeCommons on Twitter
• Track your online Creative Commons content with FairShare – via RWW

The three basic steps are:

1. Find an Available domain
2. Decide what to Do with the domain
3. Register your Domain

Find an Available Domain Name

For the purposes of this article, I use the term “buy a domain” interchangeably with “register a domain,” but a domain is something that can be assigned to you but is not technically your property: you must continue to pay the registration fee for as long as you want it to be registered to you.

Though people have been buying domain names for almost 20 years, there are still many names that aren’t taken. You’ll need to see if your domain name or a variation of it is available before you can start building grandiose dreams of your future site.

There are many tools you can use to find available domain names without having to buy the domain in that instance. Keep in mind that if your domain is available at the time of searching, but you decide to buy it later, it may not still be available.

The most popular domain extension (the last part of the domain after the “dot”) is .com, but it’s not a requirement or necessity  to buy a .com domain for every website. Some specific extensions may require proof of residency or tax ID for some country extensions, and some extensions are limited to certain types of organizations: for example, only accredited schools can use .edu and non-profit organizations can use .org. Here’s a list of Internet top-level domain extensions that you can consider for your domain.

Here are some tools you can use to find domain names. Note that most are linked to domain provider / buying services but I am not endorsing any of them, and you are not required to buy the domain while searching for an available name.

• www.Domize.com, Whois.net Domain Lookup, Domains.com, Domains by Yahoo, Go Daddy Domain name search, Register.com, Domai.nr, Domaintyper.com,

Decide what to Do with the Domain

Once you buy a domain, you’ll have to decide where to address or point it, and change the DNS if you desire. {Read WHT article : What is DNS? DNS in Plain English} So take a moment to think about your options before you actually start the process of buying the domain. There are several things you can do: Domain Hosting, Domain Redirecting / Forwarding, Domain Mirroring / Masking, Domain Cloaking, and Domain Parking.

Some of these terms are explained in more detail in specific articles on When You Have Time, but they are briefly explained below:

• Domain Hosting / Web Hosting
  

Hosting implies that you buy space and bandwidth from a provider to store and serve your site’s files and images. Most likely, your domain name will simply be used for a new site you have in mind and hosted. You can also buy your domain from a domain registrar but host it with a different provider altogether, or you can buy and host the domain with the same provider (i.e., Yahoo, Dreamhost).

• Domain Redirecting / Forwarding

The domain is forwarded or re-directed to another existing domain. The user will type in www.yourdomain.com and the browser will forward them to www.otherdomain.com To effectively use domain redirecting, a 301 redirect should be utilized.

• Domain Mirroring / Masking {Read WHT article : What is Domain Masking? Domain Masking in Plain English}

Domain mirroring is a way to map/point more than one domain to the same content / files hosted somewhere. www.yourdomain.com is actually showing the homepage and contents of www.otherdomain.com, for example. Make sure you read the article linked above to know why I do not recommend using domain masking.

• Domain Cloaking

Similar to domain mirroring or masking, usually domain cloaking is different in the technical method it uses to seem like another site. Cloaking uses an iframe or embedded frameset in the HTML to show the content of another website. I also do not recommend using domain cloaking.

• Domain Parking

The domain is not utilized immediately, and is “parked” which means the user usually accepts a default page furnished by the domain provider of ads or a “coming soon.” Domains are often parked by people who want to sell the domain for a higher price to an interested party or are still developing the website to be put online and don’t want to pay for hosting until they are ready to go live. To park a domain, there is usually no additional cost above the registration price of the domain.

Register Your Domain

Now that you’ve decided what to do with the domain, you can decide where to buy it and if it makes sense to buy with a certain provider rather than another.

For purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’ll want to buy web hosting, as many of the other services provided above are included in the base price of registering domain. Note: Each domain registrar offers different services, so if you’ll need a specific service, it’s best to check before registering your domain.

Now you’re ready!

• ICANN’s Accredited Registrars List

This list is the top 15 domain registrars in July 2009, according to RegistrarStats and listed on Wikipedia.

1. Go Daddy
2. eNom
3. Tucows
4. Network Solutions
5. Melbourne IT (a.k.a INWW.com)
6. 1&1 Internet AG (a.k.a. Schlund.de)
7. Wild West Domains (reseller brand of Go Daddy)
8. Register.com
9. Moniker Online Services
10. PublicDomainRegistry.com (a.k.a. ResellerClub and Directi)
11. Key-Systems GmbH (a.k.a. DomainDiscount24)
12. Xin Net Corp
13. OnlineNIC, Inc.
14. Fabulous.com Pty Ltd

Next, read about How to Choose a Web Hosting Provider for your Site or Blog!

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What is Domain Masking?

Domain Masking is sometimes called a “pointer domain.” If we are to continue our example of a postal system mentioned in DNS in Plain English, is like having your mail sent to a P.O. Box. It’s not a physical address, and the “final” destination is another location entirely. You’re hiding the final address from the sender for whatever reason.

Domain Masking is usually offered by your domain registrar as a service. [How is this different from Domain Forwarding? Read Domain Forwarding in Plain English]

If you set up Domain Masking for a blogspot blog, for example, you might consider the following:

www.domainname.com is a Domain Mask for domainname.blogspot.com

When someone types in www.domainname.com, it’s really forwarding to domainname.blogspot.com without the address changing in the address bar (the part of your browser where you see the URL beginning with “http://…”. The user continues to see www.domainname.com in the address bar although the site and its contents are really from domainname.blogspot.com.

Why Use Domain Masking?

If you have an existing site that is being hosted free (like a blog from Blogger or WordPress.com) being able to give out a short URL or address may be a benefit to you. Also, if you’re not ready to pay for hosting, it’s a quick way to utilize your domain name.

Why Should I Think Twice about Domain Masking? Does it Matter?

It definitely matters to Google. If you will rely on search engines for any traffic, then you need to seriously consider if you need to use domain masking or if you can find another solution, such as Domain Forwarding or Switching Your Web Hosting.

Google doesn’t like duplicate content, and with Domain Masking, it sees two domains with the same exact content. What will happen? Google has not released their exact policy on Domain Masking but they make it clear that duplicate content will only get indexed once, and it may not the URL or domain that you prefer.

I Still Want to Use Domain Masking. What Do I Do?

Make sure you use 301 (Permanent) Redirects if given a choice by your domain management.

It may be possible to do this in the settings when you select Domain Masking, or it may require access to the administrative console of the server, so it’s possible that this will not be available to you.

Ready for More? More Resources on Domain Masking:

• What is DNS? DNS in Plain English [When I Have Time]
• Domain Masking [Wikipedia]
• Webmaster Guidelines and Duplicate Content [Google Help]
• Will Domain Masking Impact my SEO? [Your SEO Plan]

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• Refresh Header Banner and Site Images
  

If your website has a visual banner at the top of the page, consider refreshing it monthly to keep the site looking new for visitors. Studies have shown that people will pay more attention to the site itself if they are able to perceive the site is different.

• Check Sidebar Links and Blogrolls for Dead Links, Outdated Blogs and Better Links

The sites you link to on your sidebar should stay fresh and relevant – make sure the sites you link to stay current, and still provide content that you support. If you have a blogroll on your blog, add new blogs you’ve recently discovered and remove blogs that are no longer updating or have gotten off-topic. Create a new subcategory on your sidebar if you’ve discovered a new interest or resource.

If you’re linking out to charities, blog events or news stories, make sure they are current or switch them out to rotate exposure to your favorites and keep your sidebar less cluttered.

• Track Visits and New Referrers (and Reward!)
  

If you’re not tracking visits to your website, it’s something you need to do immediately. Check your referring sites to see if any particular new site is sending you traffic, and to which page. If the traffic is significant, you may want to add a little welcome paragraph to the page welcoming readers from that particular site.

If it’s a blog that’s new to you, go comment on the post linking to you or send a note to the author thanking them for the trackback.

• Update Pages

Your “Pages” are going to be the pillars of your website and therefore should be constantly updated with new material, making them even more robust and valuable to your readers.

Is there a paragraph you can expand on, or a bullet point that you left off in a hurry? Has someone left a comment that can be expanded on and answered in the page?

• Update Popular / Best of / New To

If you’ve created a landing page for new visitors and readers to get to know your site quickly, make sure that the posts and pages you highlight reflect your current traffic numbers and interest. If your content is season-dependent, you may want to rotate some of the posts you highlight based on the time of year and/or relevance.

• Update About / Press Clips / Add a New Picture

Have you recently changed jobs, written a guest post, moved to a different country, changed email addresses, or realized you need to update your advertising policy? This is the time to do it. Make sure that your profile picture is the most current one available so that when you meet people offline, they instantly recognize you.

• Check (Webmaster Tools) for Dead Outgoing Links in your Content

Use Google Webmaster tools to check for links in your own content that are no longer valid. This is easy to do under Diagnostics – Web Crawl to see if there are any 404 or errors for your outgoing links.

If you don’t use Google Webmaster Tools, pick 2-3 of your most link-intensive posts each month and review the outgoing links. If you use Flickr or another similar service to include Creative Commons photos, make sure that all your embedded photos are still active and not missing or broken.

• Update Plugins, Widgets and Blogging Software

If you’re using installed blogging software like WordPress, make sure you’ve upgraded your version to the most current stable version. If you’re using plugins or widgets developed by someone else, first check that you are using the most recent version, and then test to make sure the widget still works correctly and adds value.

If you’ve bookmarked a few plugins you’ve seen on others’ websites, this is the time to install them and test their functionality in the new month.

• Enhance and Expand your Top 5 Posts
  

A blog is a living document. Check your traffic for the top 5 posts of that month and look for inconsistencies or outdated information, questions or suggestions from the comments that can be answered in your content, and additional resource links to include for more reading.

• Track your Ad Revenues and Blog Expenses

If you have ads or other revenue generation on your website, update your accounting spreadsheet to track any trends and your total revenue. If you’re keeping track of blog expenses for tax deductions, quickly scan through the month’s post to jog your memory for any travel, research, or other expenses you incurred for those posts.

What would you add to this Monthly Blog Maintenance Checklist?

image by jaharem

When you type www.google.com into your browser, how does it end up at the simple search interface we know and love? When you type in a web address, the part after “http://” and before the first “/” is considered to be the domain of the page.

DNS is very similar to the postal or telephone addressing system most countries have, with two main components: a name, and a more detailed, numerical address. If you’re sending a letter to someone, say, Jennifer who lives in Manhattan, you’d address it such:

Jennifer Johnson

100 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10027

With the Internet, the “name” is called a domain, and the “numeric address” part is an IP (Internet Protocol) address. But unlike sending a letter, as a regular user on the Internet, you don’t have to know the numeric address of your site, just the domain name!

Each domain (in the form of http://www.domainname.com) has a specific IP address it corresponds to. This IP address indicates the “home” or server where the image or web page being requested is being housed.

DNS: The IP Address

The IP address has the following general format:

xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx – where each ‘xxx’ is a number from 0-255.

If you have a dedicated IP address, there will be only one domain at your “house” address. Very few commercial hosting options offer dedicated IPs with their basic plans, and usually there are hundreds to thousands of domains being addressed to the same server. So your address is more likely to be an apartment building instead of a single-family house.

The format of DNS with regard to IP addresses is simple, and in this article, we’ll focus on just one type of DNS entry – for the website. In a “DNS Address Book” you’d see the following: domain name IN A IPAddress.

www.google.com IN A 209.85.129.99 (for this example, google.com’s IP Address)

DNS Name Servers: Your Global Directory Assistance

Another important player in this DNS world is the “name server” which is the equivalent of your local post office. They know where you live and that when a letter arrives with your name and address, they confirm and ensure that it reaches its final destination.

Each domain has just one name server that is in charge of keeping that domain’s information and IP addresses. Simply, when your change your IP address or “home,” your domain’s name server passes the word on the internet (with the help of routers, which we’ll talk about later) to the rest of the internet so a request directed to your website will find you.

What Happens When You Change Web Hosting

{Read WHT article: How to Buy a Domain and What to Do with It} If you were moving your physical house, you’d have to notify the local post office or city hall with your new address. With your website, since you’re moving your data from one “house” to another, you need to update your site’s address, too. Usually this will require you changing the IP address to reflect the new hosting company’s server where your information will reside. Your hosting company can provide the correct IP address for you.

• In the DNS, you’ll delete the current “address” and then insert the new IP address of your new hosting.
• The name server notices that the DNS for your domain has changed, and usually within 24-48 hours, the name server will notify the rest of its network, which in turn will propagate the information throughout the internet.
• The next time someone types in www.domainname.com, the request will be sent to your new adddress!

Advanced DNS Questions

• Can you have multiple IP addresses for a single domain? Yes, much like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, sites which are very popular often have multiple “houses” – and often this is done with sites that have a lot of traffic and are using multiple servers to meet the demand.
• Can multiple domains respond to the same (IP) address? Yes, as mentioned above, many commercial hosting solutions offer low-priced hosting because they can put hundreds or thousands of sites/domains on the same server since the traffic demands are so low. Depending on the traffic that comes to your site, you’ll probably never notice.

Ready for More? More Resources on DNS

• WHT article: How to Buy a Domain and What to Do with It
• Wikipedia: DNS
• Webopedia: DNS
• How Stuff Works: DNS

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