If you want to create a website or blog you will need to sign-up with a website hosting service. Through this service you will get space on a server, with a high speed internet connection, where you can host your site.
In addition to a hosting service you will also need a domain name. You may be able to register a domain name through your website hosting service or they may include one in the package (but you don’t have to use this if you really want, for example, a .com or .org). However, although this is the easiest way to get started, it will probably not be the cheapest. It is surprising how prices for domain names vary, even for the top extensions, so it is worthwhile looking at several domain registration sites. To link a domain name to your hosting account you simply have to enter your hosting company’s nameservers on the domain registration site.
Your website hosting service will provide a control panel through which you will be able to set-up ftp accounts to access their server, create/manage email accounts, manage databases, view statistics and much more.
The difficult bit is selecting the right website hosting service as there are a great many on offer. You can look at website hosting reviews but there are also a lot of these and many are of dubious quality. It is, however, worth looking at independent forums like hostjury.com and webhostingtalk.com.
When selecting a web host your aim should be to find a service that meets your needs at the best price. It would be a mistake to simply go for the cheapest service, on the other hand there is no point in going for an expensive service that delivers more than you need. The key factors to consider are:
Speed – It is essential that your pages load quickly otherwise users will get frustrated and probably go elsewhere.
Availability – Downtime is always bad as users will not be able to find your site and may give up on you permanently. Your website hosting service should offer an guarantee of 99.9% uptime.
Support – Good technical support will give you the comfort of knowing that in the event of problems you can get help promptly. A good website hosting service will provide support 24/7 by email and phone (ideally toll free).
Disk space and bandwidth should not be an issue if you are just starting your site but do not be swayed by offers of an “unlimited” amount of these resources as this is meaningless. Most hosting accounts are “shared” which means that server and bandwidth are shared by multiple users. This is fine for most people but if your site might become very busy in the future look for an upgrade path to VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting and then to Dedicated Server hosting.