Are you asking yourself, "can I learn how to make a webpage?" The answer is definitely, yes!

     The world could be viewing your website a lot sooner than you thought possible. If you have the right internet web page hosting, with web page creation tools, you won't need to learn complicated programming languages.

     What exactly is internet web page hosting? In a nutshell, if you want your web page viewed around the world, it must be hosted on a web page hosting server. The Web Host buys the web server machine, configures and maintains it. The Web Page Hosting service will derive some kind of a benefit when they host your web page for you (otherwise, what's the point).

The annual cost, when you purchase internet domain names, including internet web page hosting, is usually less than maintaining an espresso habit. (Espresso calculated at $1/day).

     If you want complete control of your web site, then paying for internet web page hosting gives you more control. If your web site is hosted free, you'll have limitations (on traffic, bandwidth etc). They may also put ads on your web site that may be in direct competition with your own products. The ads could even be for products or services you'd prefer not to even be associated with.

     If some day, you outgrow or simply don't like your web page hosting service for some reason, can you just move your web site to another server? Not if your web site address includes their domain name, because your web site address must change.

     The greatest benefit of buying an internet domain name is portability. You can renew your domain name forever. You can move your business, change internet web page hosting providers, get your own equipment or grow into bigger servers. Nobody can tell from the outside because, you keep your same email and web site addresses. Internet domain names are great for commercial identities, because you have complete authority over your domain.

     Imagine when you move, keeping all your marketing efforts, including printed materials like business cards and stationary. It's possible to use your domain name for your business or personal email as well. Not only venture out to discover new opportunities, but keep your previously earned opportunities intact when you purchase domain names.

     When buying domain names from the domain registry, you must select a unique domain name. The only domain names for purchase are the domains not already registered. Only one person can own a specific domain name.

     If you want to make a personal web site, simply use your name. If you own a business, and you want to make money with your web page. Use the business name or the name of the primary product. The real question is, if the domain name is still available on the domain registry, then it could be yours.

     New domain name purchases are inexpensive, but, domain names can become as valuable as real estate (like google.com). Learn how to purchase a web domain name using the domain registry.

How To Purchase A Web Domain

     One of my favorite places for buying domain names, even has resources for internet web page hosting, web site building tools (requiring very little programming knowledge) and domain email.

	.com .net .org .us .biz .info .tv .cc .ws .ca .de .jp .co.uk .org.uk .co.nz .net.nz .org.nz .mobi .eu

     If you make your own web site for profit, I suggest taking the time to do some keyword and niche marketing strategy. In case you want to make money with your web page, this process can pay off big when registering domain names.

Improve sales when your web site becomes a one stop information source, selling your products and services 24/7

     Check our section on Niche Marketing Strategy. The process is easy to follow. If you take the time to really do it right, you may see web site traffic from people just typing in your domain name. As an example, many people think "how can I make my own web page," so they go to their favorite search engine and type "MakeMyOwnWebPage.com."

     Here is another good option for buying domain names. This option is best if you control many domain names and/or already have chosen your favorite internet web page hosting.

     Purchase internet domain names in minutes and stake your claim in the domain registry. The costs are surprisingly reasonable, especially when you compare with traditional advertising.

Purchase Internet Web Page Hosting

     After you purchase an internet domain name, if you haven't already, you need to purchase internet web page hosting. The folks at Register.com provide a good service at reasonable prices. It even includes web page creation tools to help you write a professional looking web page, even if you've never done it before.

The Internet Began As A Few Machines

     Back in the olden days (a few years ago), the first networks began to connect people and resources within a company. This way, people could look at the same document from different desks or share printers.

     Originally, this was done with mainframes. Back then, only large companies had computers. The advent of the Personal Computer (PC) really hurried things along. Today, it isn't unusual to find several computers in each home, and often a network.

     The internet began to share and communicate between various networks. In order to accomplish this, each network needed to conform to a standard. Each resource (computer, web page, server, etc) was assigned an IP address.

     IP (internet protocol) addresses take the form "###.###.###.###", where each ### represents a number between 0-255. You may see these numbers once in awhile. These numbers are carefully assigned and controlled. This adds up to more than 4 billion IP addresses (IPv4).

What is a Domain Name?

     Domain names really are the stars of the internet. People remember internet domain names much better than IP addresses. Each domain name is unique and can only be owned by one person (or company). If it's available on the domain registry, you can buy that domain name. If it isn't, but you want it bad enough, you could buy it from the current owner.

     IP addresses are tracked through DNS (domain name service). DNS servers collectively keep track of every resource on the internet through an heirarchical database system.

For instance:

Your IP address is: 38.107.191.107 DNS shows: 38.107.191.107

Humans tend to remember domain names
better than IP addresses
     Wouldn't it be great if each number was replaced with a name? Well, that's what domain names are all about. Humans remember the domain names of sites while DNS translates those domain names into the IP addresses that computer networks know and love so much.

Domain Name Structure

     The following diagram shows the structure of a domain name. The top-level domain includes .com, .net or any of the standard country top-level domains like .us (United States) or .ca (Canada).

Top-Level Domains .com Commercial .net Network etc .org Non-profit .edu Education .mil US Military .int International .gov US Government .biz Business .info Information

Resource Type

The type of page. A typical web page is HTTP, an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Could also be HTTPS (secure HTTP), FTP, GOPHER or TELNET.

Machine Name

Most web pages start with WWW. This isn't an absolute rule. We could call it MYWEBSITE instead. Historically, people have chosen WWW (after World Wide Web).

Top-Level Domain

The top level domain is a huge group of similar types of domain names. Some are restricted to only certain people, like .gov or .int.

Domain Name

The Domain Name, which includes the top-level domain name is the complete name, owned by someone.

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Reading the Domain Name

     You may occasionally see some other combined top-level domains like .co.uk or .co.jp which are actually a commercial domains in the United Kingdom or Japan.

     Spotting the domain name isn't too difficult. Following the double-slash after the resource-type (http://), look for the very next slash. The domain is the text immediately before the slash. If no slash, then just the end. Everything after the slash, is directories on the domain name.

For example:

Web site page Domain name http://www.yahoo.com = yahoo.com http://www.google.co.jp = google.co.jp http://www.bing.com/useful/stuff = bing.com http://www.google.com.greatstuff.evilscam.com/ = evilscam.com http://192.168.0.100/www.google.com/ = No Domain

     Notice in the final 2 examples, you may spot the google.com, but really these addresses are trying to fool you. The EvilScam.com domain might be a real problem instead of what you are looking for. The IP (192.168.0.100) could also be a problem, especially if it claims to be your bank. Since domain names are so cheap, your bank should be able to afford one.

     Many of the new browsers are starting to highlight the actual domain name of a web site. This is for your protection against identity theft and phishing attempts.