by Robert Codey

Created on: July 24, 2009

If you'd like to create your own website, the first thing you'll need to do is purchase a domain name. I will use the example of the website of a New York City gold leaf artist by the name of Jerry Pagane as an example. Jerry calls his business "JPagane Signs", so he purchased the domain name http://www.jpaganesigns.com. You can purchase a domain name from numerous places on the web, such as http://www.godaddy.com and http://www.active-domain.com. Jerry chose to purchase his domain name from the Network Solutions website.

After you purchase your domain, you'll need to find a "host" or server upon which you can reside your domain name to allow other users on the internet to access your website. Jerry chose to purchase his domain from Network Solutions because they also offer a "hosting package", or servers upon which Jerry can place his domain name.

Once Jerry's domain name was purchased and active on the server, he could then go about creating his website. To create his website he needed to find web authoring software to assist him in creating his website. There are literally hundreds of web authoring options available. Some examples are Adobe's Dreamweaver and the Linux browser Seamonkey. Once again, Jerry chose to use Network Solutions because they also offer their own free web authoring software called the Image Cafe Website Creator.

HTML, or "Hypertext Markup Language" is the programming language used to create websites. It is a relatively simple language to learn and there are many great free resources on the web to help you learn how to write HTML if you are interested. But there's no need to worry if you fear learning HTML. That's why we use the web authoring software. Web authoring software provides you with a graphical user interface that will allow you to build your website easily, while the software does the work of creating the appropriate HTML pages based on the instructions you provide in the graphical user interface. It may take some getting used to the web authoring software program that you choose before you are able to create truly impressive looking websites, but with time and minimal effort your knowledge will grow as you learn to add different features and looks to your web pages.

Once you are done creating your website with the web authoring software, it is time to publish your website. In the Image Cafe Website Creator on Network Solutions, it's as easy as clicking on the "Publish" button in the upper right hand corner of the Image Cafe windows.

And that's it! Once you have published your website, type your web address into your browser and enjoy your new website.

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