This post is a tutorial on how to start your web site/blog. I am explaining it from the basics, so that it helps everyone.
This tutorial has two tracks - one is for the people who are willing to spend money for their web space and the other track is for the people who wants it FREE (Yes! for Free. 
) So, here it goes.
I can spend money for my web identity!
- As you are ready to spend some bucks, you have hundreds of options out there. First thing you need to decide is what you are going to start - is it a blog or web site. Nowadays most of the people have both blog and web sites in a single domain. So, its good to go with both.
- Now choose a domain name for your web site. Its very important that choosing a good name for your domain. If you are planning for a personal web site, you could name it as your name (eg, veerasundar.com). If you are planning to make money from your web site, then the domain should match your web content! This step is very important in getting traffic (I mean the people!) for your web site. Once you decided on the domain name, you could use web service like to check the availability of the name. This service also tells you who owns a domain name if it has already taken.
- Now **buy the domain. **There are numerous providers out there, selling domain names. For example, Godaddy is a very famous one. A .com domain usually costs about 250 RS and a .in domain costs around 500 RS. (.in was one of the dead cheap domains three months back, but now its costlier than .com domain. Economy kills the web business also!
) I am using eWebGuru for my domain names. ( I own three domains! ) - Next step is to buy the web hosting service. Again, numerous providers and multiple plans out there. Choosing a hosting plan is depends on what you want to put on your web site. All the hosting companies must have their plans listed on their web site. Go through it and choose accordingly. Below are the specifications for my web site. (its from eWebGuru)
- Web space : 20 MB
- Monthly Transfer bandwidth : 1 GB
- Number of Database allowed : 2
- Price : 1000 RS/Year
- While buying the web hosting, you can either buy a Domain name at that time or you can use your own domain name, if you have already bought one. In my experience its good to buy both the domain name and web space from the same provider, so that you will get good support for any problem.
- Once you bought the hosting service, you will be receiving the web site address (ie. the domain name) and IP address, FTP user name and password. Most of the providers using CPanel for managing the web sites. You will be given access to CPanel through which you can manage your web space. (Adding databases, creating sub domains, viewing logs are done through CPanel)
- Now you got web site name and space for your web site. Its time to put some thing on your web site. You can check out this site Open Source Web Design to get templates for your web site. Or just google for the word Web templates and you will be flooded with results.
- Now you need to FTP the design to your web space. There are commercial FTP clients are available, but I use WinSCP which is free, open source and reliable. Use the FTP address given by your provider to connect to your web space and transfer your design/data.
- That's it about creating your own web site/blog.
I want it free! (I am a poor guy, you know! )
- As you are not willing to spend money for your web identity, below steps will explain you how to use free hosting services for your blog. This post mainly focused on Blogs rather than web sites.
- The popular Free blogging services are Blogger, WordPress and Livejournal. You need to open a account in the blogging service you want.
- Once you opened your account, then creating a blog is a child's play. Just follow the instructions, then you are done.
- One point here is, your domain name will include the blogging service provider name. For example, my blogger blog is www.veerasundar.blogspot.com and my wordpress blog is www.veerasusndar.wordpress.com. This is not the case if you buy the domain.
- In my personal opinion, Blogger is a very good service for starters. It allows lots of customization to be added in your blog. And it is from the Google GOD, so it rocks!
- Consider WordPress.org for running your blog on your own web space.