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Tools: How To Create A Church Website
Creating a website can, at first, be a very daunting task. There are many considerations to start the process. Planning each step can help limit confusion and frustration down the road. Starting considerations should include the Domain Name, Website type and Hosting Provider.
The Domain Name is what is seen in the address bar; this should be descriptive or title like. It is best not to use abbreviations unless they are concise and commonly used. Another pattern to avoid is the use of numbers, these are commonly used in sales tactics on the web. When choosing a name, try to utilize the name of your organization. Including the fully spelled name can make it easier to recognize the site:
Enter the name you are considering and it will check the availability of your choice. This is a free tool and can be used as much as you desire.
It is typically not advised to use a free web host for presenting a Professional Appearance. And sometimes the advertising, which you have no control of, can be controversial.
If you expect to expand your site eventually, you will need to anticipate future expansion. Most sites use minimal amounts of web space. Your needs will vary, depending on the number of pictures, soundfiles, video clips, etc.
Some free hosts limit the size of each file you upload. Other sites restrict the file types you can upload, commonly only HTML and GIF/JPG files. If your needs are different you will need to look elsewhere.
This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and attempts to visit only to find it is offline they will lose the experience you are trying to provide to them. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors.
Unlimited Bandwidth and disk space are a huge incentive to entice you to a specific host. Be aware, unlimited is not entirely true. Hosting Providers regularly run customer bandwidth and disk space utilization through a series of statistical analyses and use the results of these studies to define normal. Although the actual results of these analyses vary from month to month, one thing remains constant: 99.95% of web sites fall into "normal" range. Typical websites that fall outside the normal range are using their accounts for file storage and sharing rather than hosting.
Technical Support is another consideration. You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times. Also note that many hosts advertises 24/7 support this does not mean that all are live support 24/7. The standard is live support during most extended business hours and email or online chat support suring off hours. The Technical support from a paid host is typically willing to step you through any questions or problems you have. Free Website Hosting sites typically offer no Support.
With your own site, you will want to have email addresses at your own domain. Some standards are; allow a catch-all email account that causes any email address at your domain to be routed to you, Set an email address autoresponder to automatically reply to the sender with a preset message, Retrieve mail with your email software, Automatically forwarded to your current email address.
Price is always a factor, you should realize that you often get what you pay for. Most Pay For Web hosts allow a Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly, somtimes a two or three year plan, as well. If you are unsure about making a commitment to a Hosting Provider you can utilize the monthly plan. However, you can realize a greater saving by going with a longer commitment, which is paid up front.
Follow the Powerpoint tutorials and the FatCow tutorial on how to utilize WhoIs.net, Sign up with a provider and to setup Word Press using the cPanel control center.
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