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Setting up Your Own Web Site

1. Register a Domain Name
You’ll seem more professional as www.lincolnrealty.com than www.webhost.net/site~1234. It’s okay to register a domain name before you actually need a web site, especially if you think someone else might want the same name. It’s easy to register a domain. Just go to the home page of your ISP (such as Mindspring) and look for something like “register a domain name.” You’ll type in the domain name you want, and in a few seconds, you’ll know whether or not it’s still available. If it is, you’ll pay a yearly fee (about $100) and a monthly usage charge (about $5) for the domain name.

2. Create Your Site
You can either build your own site, or look for a prefab web template that allows you to fill in your text. Web templates sometimes come bundled with software programs, and are also available through web sites that want you to buy web hosting. Some of these prefab sites accept online orders. Check out the details to make sure you aren’t paying too much for their web hosting; in many cases their "free" site will come with a very high web hosting fee.

For do-it-yourselfers, there are several easy-to-use software programs for creating basic web sites. My favorite was Adobe® PageMill®, but they don't sell it anymore. Bummer. You'll have to try one of the others. In most cases you just type your text on the page, then add borders, backgrounds, graphics and photos if you like. The software does all the HTML coding and manages the site for you. By the way, I do all my web design with a program called Adobe GoLive. It's not cheap and it's rather overwhelming, so it might not be the best choice for a beginner.

I also suggest a fantastic, fun book for beginning web designers: The Non-Designer’s Web Book by Williams & Tollet, Peachpit Press. For more information about web design software and resources, check out our Resources page.

3. Set up Hosting & Upload the Site
Once your site is ready, you’ll need a web hosting account with your ISP or a web hosting company. They will give you passwords and tell you how to load your web site files onto their server (it’s easy!). You can also use your web hosting account to create profesional email addresses (called “domain email aliases”) such as johnsmith@lincolnrealty.com.