Great! So you have registered your domain, and signed up for hosting with a company. Now what? Well before we go any further, we should cover the details/options you have with these services. We will pretend you just signed up for hosting through Blue City Hosts, through this is not important as one usually fits all. — So here it goes:

Now that you have space on your Hosting Provider’s server, you have several ways to communicate with their server; each communication method is used to accomplish unique tasks. Here they are:

1) FTP - used for sending your webpages to their server
2) Website - used for setting various hosting options

FTP: The only purpose FTP has is to transfer files. “File Transfer Protocol”. This is used to send pictures and html/php webpage files to your web host. They will give you a username and password, and an address to connect to. You really should get a good FTP client vs. using Internet Explorers default. I recommend getting FireFTP extension for Mozilla Firefox or WS_FTP as a standalone. Once logged in, you can upload your entire site as well as see what is actually on your website. In the website section (in the next paragraph) you can manage the FTP username and accounts. You could for example give a friend access to only a particular sub-directory on your website for him to work on without comprimising your entire website. ex. http://webpuffs.com/randomuserfolder/. You will have to play with FTP, there are a lot of features.

Website: These are always unique, depending on the hosting provider, and many offer a lot of options. To access this area, they will give you a webaddress to type into your browser (eg. www.webpuffs.com/administration). There are options, usually, for passwording directories, managing FTP accounts, managing e-mail accounts, and many other administration settings. Blue City Hosts even offer Fantastico which manages default installations of forum software, shopping cart software, managing databases, and more.

Coming Up Next: Database websites: Getting Started.

So you’ve found a product to sell. Now what? With the already large list of dropshippers and affiliate programs on webpuffs, finding a product was probably easy (lol). So where do you go from here?

Pick a domain name: A domain name is the address people will type in to access your website (eg. www.jpauls.net). Usually you pay a yearly fee for a website name on the internet to… well eventually ICANN (http://www.icann.org/). ICANN is responsible for managing the names on the internet to make sure nobody else takes your same name. They assign registrars like Network Solutions and Godaddy to sell names so they don’t have to bother with actual sales. Network solutions is $30.00/yr, whereas Godaddy is ~7.00/yr. I would highly recommend Godaddy. Information to know: Your name, Business Name, Desired website name, hosting information.

Whoah! Wait Hosting Information? You also have to pay monthly fee’s ($3/mo) to have your website ‘hosted.’ You see, buying a domain name is not enough, somebody has to hold your website you create and send it to people when they type in your website name, which in turn loads your webpage onto their screen. The company has to have a large connection to the internet to handle the millions of users who will access your website every minute (lol). The hosting company usually lets you send your website to them through something known as ‘FTP’ (file transfer protocol). To use ftp, open internet explorer and type in “ftp://username:password@website.com” to view your files on their server. The hosting company you choose will give you a username and password when you sign up. They will also tell you one other piece of important information: their dns servers. These are the numbers (ip address) or name (ns.hostingcompany.com) you will need to put into GoDaddy, so that when people ask for your website, it points to your hosting company. I recommend Blue City Hosts because they have great service and amazing pricing. For a new business, start out with the lite package.

So you’ve now got a name and a host for your website… what is left? Website design. Chances are if you are reading this article, you will need to hire someone to design your website. In my experience, web designers are nothing like mechanics: when we charge a price, its because it will take that long to design. Websites do not just magically become designed. You will have to find a committed**** web designer who will complete the webpage and is open to comments. I prefer working at an hourly rate, this way I do not have to worry about design changes. This allows the owner to decide how many changes or how much content he wants on the website.

Either email or post questions you have, and I will gladly answer.

I just installed Suse 10.1 for my desktop.

Pro’s: I can accomplish so much on the networking side. Most of the installation worked; found all my drivers; and even my printer; a slew of applications were installed by default to take care of my multimedia, websurfing, etc. I like the GUI.

Cons: I am missing Dreamweaver, Google Chat, TrueCrypt, AVG (I’m sure I could find an alterative for this), Picasa, iTunes… well the list goes on. I get only 24bit color with correct video driver installed. Online Updater was not finding their server even though internet was working fine. Slower in general. I don’t like the GUI (more dislike than like).

The Pro’s are something I can get by without… a few of the Cons are irreplaceable. I cannot use linux for my desktop, only servers. It was fun though, I always like to see what progress they have made in the desktop world.

I cannot believe how many developers are still developing OS specific applications instead of web-based apps.

Certain applications need to be developed to to run on the machine — games, word processors, etc. However, there are many applications out there, that could be developed just as effectively in a web-based solution vs. an actual OS application. A Benefit to web-based applications: Can be run remotely on any OS. I have seen numerous custom small business applications which have been developed to run only on Windoze machines, the data cannot be viewed remotely, and modifying the application is almost impossible due to them being compiled onto the machine. Web based applications with all the scripting done on the server-side are the most portable and dynamic.

If you are considering getting a program made for your small business to keep track of customers/sales/etc. Web-based applications is most likely the best solution for you.

Enough about Windows Vs. Linux, how about advertising. Jon Lewis has apparently got a knack for advertising in the digital world; but what about out there on planet earth?

I currently am working on a website for my school to simply list books to sell [jpauls.net]. I have been posting advertisements around school for a couple weeks, and am now up to 30 books on my website and 7 users. I know this sounds pathetically low, but considering it is the middle of the semester perhaps this is to be expected. I am hoping once the end of the semester rolls around, I can gather the masses to post their books online. What are some suggestions for advertising at a Community College in the real world to direct them towards my website. Should I take any previous action to my website to ensure it is ready and appealing to students? If so, what? I am hoping this will give all my readers some ideas for real world advertising we maybe haven’t thought of yet.

My thoughts were: Hand out flyers as students walk by. This is a little close for comfort for me, since I am a introverted online nerd. I was hoping to put up something that people say ‘wow!’ I can’t believe they did that!