Now, let’s about the basics.

See, there are several things to take care of before you can set up your website:

Domain
This is your web address for your site.  The .COM is the world’s most recognized TLD extention (TLD = Top Level Domain).  Good names are being snatched up everyday so you may wish to register your desired domain name soon.

Go to http://www.wholesalerdomains.com and start searching for your desired domain name:

Web Hosting
Ever wonder why a website shows up when you type in a domain name in your browser?  That’s because every domain “points” to a web host (basically just a server that is connected to the internet whose sole job is to delivery web pages upon request).  Therefore, a web host holds the pages for your website.  Without a web host, your domain will just be a domain.

Here are a few web hosting companies that I recommend and have personally used for years:

Hostgator ($3.96/month)

WholesalerDomains ($3.99/month)

Site5 ($4.95/month)

Web Site
The terms website and webpage are often interchanged in conversations, but we’d like to think that a website comprises of webpages.  There are many different types of websites that you can build, some examples are:

• A CMS (Content Management System) website that allows you to publish local news and articles.
• A personal or business blog website where it provides you the ability to publish posts/pages, moderate comments, change the settings, etc.
• An e-Commerce website that has an online catalog, a shopping cart application, and inventory control, etc.
• A forum website that provides a platform for your visitors to post messages and for you to administer/moderate posts, etc.
• A help desk website where you provide online trouble ticket system for your customers.
• An image gallery website that allows you (or even visitors to your site) to host photos and share photos.
• A project management website for your business to manage employee or outsourcing activities such as software collaboration.

The possibility and application of a website is only bounded by your imagination.

Now, you may think that there is no way in hell you are able to learn enough HTML (in fact, HTML is not what you need to learn) to be able to set up a website like the ones aforementioned.  Well, the good news, you really don’t!

The internet has evolved in such rapid pace that web design isn’t what it used to be 10 years ago where you must know HTML or server scripting to set up your own website.

When you purchase web hosting, you should be provided with an online control panel to your account where you are able to set up your own emails@yourdomain.com, check traffic statistics, and one-click install websites with a very nifty tool called Fantastico… Yes, one-click install!  Okay, maybe 2 clicks for some websites.

Many different types of websites (including ones that we have listed earlier) are included in the Fantastico tool that makes setting up a website a snap.  You can literally buy a domain name (available for usage immediately), get web hosting (set up is instant upon purchase as well), and launch your own blog, a newsletter site, or a full-blow e-Commerce website in matter of minutes.

Let’s walk you through the steps you need to take to set up a, say, an e-Commerce website using the OS Commerce script (an open source online catalog/shopping cart script) on our test domain iWindowShop.com

First, login to your control panel (in this demostration we have a cPanel control panel interface – a very popular web hosting control panel).  Once logged in as admin, scroll all the way down or find the Fantastico icon (the blue smiley face):

Click on the Fantastico icon and you should see a list of scripts that are categorized for different applications.  Scroll down just a bit until you see E-Commerce:

There are 3 popular open-source (meaning free) scripts that you will see for your e-Commerce website.  For this demonstration let’s use OS Commerce.  Clicking on that link will take us to the 1st of the 3 steps installation process:

Here it will ask that you fill in some essential information for your online store.  Once completed, just click on “Install OS Commerce” – simple, isn’t it?

On to step 2 of the installation which is basically a confirmation before it really gets installed.  Click on “Finish Installation” button will complete the installation process and your website will be up immediately!

To see the default install of the e-Commerce site just go visit http://iwindowshop.com/oscommerce_demo

As you can see, it didn’t take very long to set up your own fully functional e-Commerce website because the solution is all there for you!  Welcome to the new era of web development!

However, you may be disappointed that it doesn’t look the way you wanted it to be – fortunately for you there are many ready-made templates for OS Commerce script (in fact there will be many ready-made templates for almost all the popular open-source scripts in Fantastico).

Here are some very affordable OS Commerce templates by:

• Template Monster
• Template World

Generally speaking, there are 2 main component to any website – the presentation (aka template, theme, or layout), and the logic (aka the infrastructure, the back-end code, or the script that provides different functionality for the website).

Although open source movement has taken great strides, website owners will need to set themselves apart by customizing the presentation or even the functionality of the website.  And this is where your website gets expensive – anytime custom design or scripting is needed.  If you just use turnkey solutions or ready-made templates, well, guess what?  Your website will be just like everybody else’s and you lose the competitive edge!

Hopefully this article will convince you to get off the fence (for those of you still on the fence thinking how much this is all going to cost) to set up your own website – to at least try out some open-source scripts to see if it fits your particular application.

For business-minded dummies or lazy-ass dummies you are of course welcome to consult with us for free and get a quotation for custom web developement work.

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