Registering a Domain name & Finding Website Hosting – Website 101

Launching a website and not sure where to start, overwhelmed with the three billion-plus Google results that you get when typing, start a website.

I’ve titled this one website 101, and it’s going to break down all that you need nothing that you don’t. So let’s jump into it.

This doesn’t need to be overwhelming or complicated, which is fantastic news.

But basically, we want to think about your website being your online home. Now, I find this analogy works best to explain absolutely everything that you need. Really, really simple. So let’s get started.

If your website is your online home, obviously you need a building. I’m recording this in my home right now, and basically, that would be my website. So all of the pages, landing pages, things like that, or built into the actual foundation there. That being said, though, my house needs to be built on a plot of land. Now, that plot of land is generally your website hosting. So if you’re using something like WordPress, you’ll be actually looking for your own website hosting.

A lot of people get caught up here and I don’t want that to happen to you.

Couple of options right off the bat. Both site ground or venture. The venture I pay it is their portal is actually VentraIP. They’re an Australian based company. They are phenomenal.

Their support is off the charts and that is perfect when you are a beginner.

So the plans are really affordable. You can jump on in there. What you’re looking at though, is actually needing something to land that on.

Now a lot of people will actually go to something like Squarespace a weeks where the hosting is built in. Unfortunately, though, you have to take what they’re giving you. So that comes with a few restrictions and a few things that don’t really sit too well with me.

Basically, I like to have WordPress because it’s an option that I can grow. It’s an option that I can customize and it’s an option that I can tweak to fit my needs rather than fitting my business into a box. So that’s where I sit on WordPress in a future video. I will break down that more thoroughly.

But yeah, you will need your website on your hosting and then to actually direct your mail to your home, you will need a domain name. So a domain name is anything you can possibly think of. There is literally every combination available, but you’ll want to check both.

If you are Australian based serving on the Australian customers, you will want to see if there’s a dot com at you.

If you are internationally based, you will want to stick to a dot com as well.

If you serve both Australian markets as well as international markets, looking at the option and making sure that both the dot com and the dot com are you are available is essential.

You really want to make sure that if someone thinks maybe it’s it should be a dot com dot, and they accidentally go to someone else’s website. You don’t want that.

Generally, if it is a name or something like that, you will end up being in the same field as that other person. So you really don’t want to get any confusion there.

What I like to think of is actually going through both your business name. So what is it that people are actually searching for you when they know who you are? So that would be, in my case, Morris Bear Designs. Com. I also have Morris Bear Designs dot com donate you, which directs to dot com because I serve both Australian and international clients, so I have both of those wrapped up.

Another option when you’re looking at domain names, because sometimes your business name isn’t available. If it isn’t. Definitely think about where you’re at. If you’re new to the process, definitely think about what options you have from there. You don’t really want to be stepping on someone’s toes, getting found six months later and getting a cease and desist order for someone having the same name as you.

So check that out first. Make sure you aren’t stepping on any toes and really get that clarity.

If your business name isn’t available or your own name isn’t available. My sister’s name is actually taken by another person who’s got the same name, so that’s pretty common. So you can look at options that include what you do when you do it.

So something like Sydney website designer dot com probably not available, but it’s a great option to say I’m located in Sydney and I’m a website designer. So really think about that power because this is what people are going to be finding for and it’s really going to help with your search engine optimization when you get to it as well.

So you want to go through and have a look at those domain names, really think about what stands out for you, what covers your business, what will be searchable and make sure that you’ve got that covered.

Now, realistically, there are thousands of options and places where you can buy your domain name. But really, it doesn’t matter. You just won’t be able to make sure that they can send you your renewal notices.

So you’re always up to date on your payments and your website stays up and make sure that it’s quite reputable. So for international, GoDaddy is great. If you’re Australian based, you can’t beat Crazy Domains.

Domain’s you can buy it with your hosting as well. But honestly, Crazy Domain’s has such an epic buying power at the moment that they are by far the cheapest place to get it.

So you can really shop around on price on that one and really compare the market so you don’t need to have anything too fancy when it comes to your domain name. You just need to reserve it. And that can be done with any multitude of registrars. Register as being who sells domain names.

So when it comes to your hosting, you want to be a little bit pickier. You want to make sure that it is fast, it is secure, it is quite regularly up ninety-nine point nine, nine per cent UPTIMES times are standard across the board. You also want to make sure that you have easy access to every piece of your website.

So this is a big one when it comes to comparing WordPress and something like Squarespace.

So, for example, Squarespace is just the hosting and platform where WordPress is the platform on separate hosting.

With your separate hosting, though, you are able to host your email addresses so you can actually have them come straight into your phone using your domain name. So hello (AT) morrisbear.com, you can have that go straight through your website hosting.

You can also then really modify what you need to do so you can optimize that hosting based on your set up as well, which down the track right now seem scary.

Don’t worry, down the track it actually becomes quite interesting to actually play with that and make sure that you’re getting the most out of your website.

So there you have it. Basically, to start off with, you will need your domain name website hosting and then a platform. I definitely recommend checking out WordPress dot org. There is an easy option to install that. And if you have any questions about those options, I have a free checklist on my website that is https://morrisbear.com/roadmap where you can actually check out the full step by step guide. It has options for theme’s, it has options for plugins.

It has options for setting it up. It walks you through the whole process step by step. You can get a hold of that ad on my website for free. It is a quick download, but it will actually show you exactly what you need to start your website. So the other thing that you can do is actually jump on into my free masterclass

We launched this a couple of weeks ago and it’s how to launch a site that sells.

So it covers all of the steps as well in a bit more detail where you can actually hear me walk through the whole process step by step. It breaks down absolutely everything and it is a phenomenal resource. So be sure to check that out at https://morrisbear.com/webinar

You can jump on in and watch that at any time. It’s fully recorded and on-demand.

So there you have it. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. If you like this video, stay tuned for more updates.

This video does go live on Facebook as well as on to my YouTube channel and across all of my platforms.

Congratulations on taking the leap to launch your website.