Domain Names & Websites

In my last blog tips post on watermarking images, two people commented they would like some information on how to set up a domain name (like www.nebento.com) for their blogs.

Now keep in mind my general disclaimer: The information you are about to receive is in no way expert information. The information you are about to receive is from my own, non-techie experience. It’s real life, baby. With this in mind, take this information with a grain of salt, and be sure to do your own research. What works in my life, might not work in yours.

Now that I feel I have sufficiently warned you, let me explain a bit about the inner workings of Not Exactly Bento for those of you who wish to know.

For any blog, there are two things you need in order to be up and running: a domain name and a host.

Domain Names
Domain Names: Your domain name is of course the www.yoursite.com address you’ve chosen.
If you’re running your blog from Blogger, you know that yourname.blogspot.com is your domain for that blog. However, since I’m a creature who needs more control than that, I wanted my own doman name.

Domain names can be purchased from a variety of places. GoDaddy is a popular choice, and the one I’ve used for years (I’ve had other websites before this blog). For a list of other places, Blogger has a nice list on their site for those individuals that are interested in a “custom domain name” as they call it. Or in other words, you want to be called by your blog’s name and not yourname.blogspot.com.

Domain names are sold to you for a minimum license of 1 year. If you choose to just pay for 1 year, you will need to renew your domain name after that year (and every year after that until you or your blog decides it can go no more).

Hosting Your Blog
Once you have a domain name, it is now time to decide where to host your blog. You’re going to have to choose a webhost (the horror!).

Now for a quick definition of a webhost…in storybook format (hehehehe, can you tell I’m a children’s librarian?).

A webhost is the company
that owns the servers
that store the code
that runs the blog software
that features the content
that you write about
on the blog that you’ve built.

Or something like that. Choosing a webhost is what I view as the most difficult part of the task. I’m always looking for a company that has low fees, good service, and lots of bandwith. This sounds like the proverbial needle in a haystack. But with what seems like the big competition of the Internet hosting market, it can sometimes be quite easily found.

If you’re a fan of Blogger and don’t want to switch, you can purchase your own domain name and continue to host your blog with Blogger. Blogger has a great help section on just this.

However if you’re that creature of control (read that as Type A personality) like I am, then you’re looking for more control over your blog. You might dream of a snappy layout, great blog header, and cool features for your readers. This means choosing a host and robust blogging software. There are lots of blogging platforms out there. I’m only going to talk about Wordpress. It’s the one I like. It’s the one I use. It’s the one I recommend. It is highly customizable and has loads of templates (or skins). There is an extremely active and knowledgable community of WordPress developers that help the newbie WordPress inductees.

Now, you can go out on the big, bad World Wide Web, choose a host, upload the Wordpress software, configure it yourself, update it each time an update comes out, etc. etc. And that is all before your upload the template, and configure the look and feel of your blog.

Me, I don’t want to do that first part. So, I looked for a web host that had Wordpress built into their hosting package. GoDaddy again saved my bacon on that one. However, GoDaddy might not appeal to you. With that in mind, Wordpress has a list of recommended hosts: http://wordpress.org/hosting/. I highly recommend choosing any of these hosts. And it all has to do with the upgrade process. For example, WordPress just came out with a new upgrade to their software. My host, GoDaddy, makes that really super simple. They make the upgrade available and with a click of a button, their server upgrades the software for me. YAY!

What happens when you host your blog outside of Wordpress or Blogger’s free hosting? Control, baby, control. You get lots and lots of control. More control than you or I might be able to handle.

We won’t get into all of that control. That’s many a blog post to come. For the time being, just sit back on this Friday, have a piece of chocolate, and contemplate:

To host or not to host? That is the question.

P.S. We won’t ask the question about whether or not to have a domain name. It’s $9.99 a year at GoDaddy. Skip today’s super grand tall latte from your favorite coffee shop, don’t eat out one night this week, or whatever. Purchase the domain name and then bask in the realm of your individuality and hang your welcome sign on your new corner of the web.

Have a great Friday everyone, and be the bento.