What Are Hosting & Domain Names and How Do I Get Them?

A Hosting Account is the physical space on a server connected to the internet, where your website is stored. A Domain Name is the address assigned to that space (such as ”www.worldsbydesign.com”). They are often purchased separately, although many times they are sold by the same company.

We do not provide these services, so you will need to purchase them from a third party. We recommend you purchase them from www.Godaddy.com because they are reliable, inexpensive, and have been around for a while. For most customers, the Economy Plan is sufficient, but if you plan to host multiple websites in the same hosting account, or plan to store an extensive collection of photos, videos or other media files, then you may want one of the more expensive accounts. We recommend you sign up for one year, with a Windows-based, rather than Linux-based account.

Domain names are purchased (or leased, actually) by the year. The best domain names are usually the business name of your company. However, a good domain name may include your primary service or location in the name. This being said, a domain name should generally be as short as possible and easy to remember (and spell). The most desirable domain name extension is .com, followed by .net and .biz. Non-profit organizations normally use .org.

Once you sign up for a domain name and hosting, you should make sure that they are configured to work together. This often means changing the name servers associated with the domain name (which point the domain name to the hosting account). Godaddy may do this automatically when you sign up. If you sign up for the domain name and hosting separately, then you may need to follow these directions to change the name servers:

• Log into your Account at www.godaddy.com.
• Select DOMAINS > MY DOMAIN NAMES >then click on the domain name of choice.
• Click on either of the 2 name server addresses listed.
• On the next screen, change both name server addresses to the ones provided to you by Godaddy, via email.
• Click OK
• The change usually takes effect within 15 minutes.

You also must turn on FTP Access, and send us the associated username and password for FTP access. To do this:

• Log into your Account at www.godaddy.com.
• Select HOSTING & SERVERS > MY HOSTING ACCOUNT
• Follow the direction to set up FTP and choose your username and password
• Send us the username and password

If you are unable or do not wish to change the name servers and set up FTP access, we can do this for you, but we may need to charge an additional $25 set-up fee.