Making sense of Domains, Hosting and Websites
Making sense of Domains, Hosting and Websites
Internet Business 101
AN INTRODUCTION FOR NEWCOMERS TAKING A BUSINESS TO THE WEB
For some, getting a domain name and a hosting account for your website is easy. For others, it’s as mysterious and hard to understand as Ozzy Osbourne. It’s this second group which I would like to address today.
When I am describing the process of starting up a web business I like to use the analogy of a brick and mortar business that is being ran out of a real store front. Maybe a store front that is in a strip mall. That’s something we can all relate to and understand. And I like to point out that having an internet business is just the same as having a store in the real world. Here’s the analogy
1. EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS AN ADDRESS
A brick and mortar business
If you want to go to buy something, and it’s at a business you’ve never been to before, you are going to need to know where to go. For this, you will look up the address of the business. Let’s say that what you need is an organic widget and that the business that sells them is called Organic Widgets, Inc.
You do your homework and look up the location to learn that it’s located at 1234 Main St. Super! Now you know the name of the business and where it is! You can finally get that organic widget you’ve had your eyes on!!! You go there and a big sign over the building says “Organic Widgets”. Yes! You are in the right place.
An internet business
If you would like to go to a website and look for something, you will also need an address. An address on the Internet is called either a URL, or a Domain. And the domain name for that same widget company is WeSellOrganicWidgets.com. Now you know where to go.
You see, the brick and mortar store has somewhere to put all of there stuff (a building) and a big sign over the building that says their name. This way their customers can find them and come shop… a website is no different. But rather than keeping their stuff in a “building”, they keep it in a “website”. And instead of a big sign over the website, they have a domain name. One of the first things you should do is to purchase a domain name and a good rule is to name it something that is directly related to your product or service.
So, the store in the real world has a building. The store on the Internet has a website like the one to the right. It’s that simple.
You are going to want to hire a website design and development company that can design and “build” your website for you.
2. EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS TO “BE” SOMEWHERE
A brick and mortar business
When you are driving up to the Organic Widgets store you see that it is in a building. Well that’s no surprise, after all, they have to keep all of those wonderful widgets somewhere. So a piece of real estate was used to build the store on.
An Internet business
An Internet business does not need a plot of land since it is just a bunch of computer files, so it is kept in what is called a Hosting account. Think of a hosting account as a piece of virtual real estate. This hosting account is where the files are stored that will tell people’s computers what to show when the website is viewed on their computers.
SUMMARY
I hope this helps to understand how companies are put on the Internet. Once you understand the general mechanics of having a website on the Internet, you can focus on the concept of marketing on the Internet so that people will FIND your site!
EverDream Sites is our NEW business site. We not only offer custom web design and SEO (search engine optimization) programs, but also Domain Names, Hosting Accounts, Carts, Email and everything else a company could ever need to build a successful business on the web!
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