#1: Purchase Domain Name & Hosting

In this step, I'll walk you through purchasing your domain name & website hosting. The domain name is what people will type into the internet browser to find your site (ex. www.YourSite.com). Hosting is a service that stores the files that make up your website and handles Web requests so that people can visit your site on the World Wide Web. Your domain name will point to this hosting.

Get Your Domain Name

1. First, you'll need to find an available domain name that matches either your business name or focus. Brainstorm and put together a list of acceptable domain names. Then, go to 1&1 and in the top-right box, check to see if your domain name is available.
   
2. If the domain name is unavailable, try the next one on your list and keep track of all the domain names that are available. Most of the domain names that you come up with will already be taken but you should have a few that'll work for you. As you check domain names, 1&1 will give you other suggestions--some that'll work for you. Make sure that as you do this, you just look for .com domain names. Although .net or .info domain names may be available, .com domain names are definitely preferred by visitors.

   Years ago, when I started my first business, I came up with a great name but there was only a .net domain available. The .com version of my domain name was a hosting company and my company was a web design company. Although my email, business cards, and brochures all showed the .net address, people visited the .com domain which was some company in California! It wasn't too much of a problem at first but after this other company kept getting 'my customers' they decided to start offering web design as well! I ended up having to change my domain name, and that meant reprinting everything and spending a lot of extra time.

   
3. Once you find the perfect domain name(s), click on the 'Select this domain' button. Don't proceed to checkout yet though! If you continue to the next section and purchase hosting through 1&1 too, you'll get 2 domain names free! Even if you don't purchase the hosting through them though, the domain names at 1&1 are still a really good price.
   

Purchase Website Hosting

What are you planning to have on your Website?

• Do you need ColdFusion, .NET, or SharePoint? (If you don't know what these are, then your answer is No)
• Do you need to install a specific non-PHP shopping cart?
• Are you going to have ton of web traffic starting out?
• Are you going to be hosting a lot of video?

If you answered 'YES' to any of these questions, you won't be able to follow the step-by-step instructions for hosting in this section. Instead you should take a look at the recommendations that I have on my hosting page and choose a more robust hosting plan.

In this section, I will show how to purchase and set up the 1&1 Home Web Hosting Package. This package offers 120GB of Web Storage and has a lot of features. It's got more space, speed, and features than most people ever need!

Ok, so continuing from where we left off, you should already have a domain name picked out and in your shopping cart. If not, follow the steps above FIRST.

1. At the package selection screen, select the 1&1 Home package.
   
2. You should see the package added to your shopping cart. Click on 'Go to cart'
   
3. Make sure that you have your domain name(s) and 1&1 Home Package in your Shopping Cart and press the 'Continue' button.
   
4. You may get a product offer. You don't need any of these so click on the 'No thanks' button to continue.
   
5. Select your country and click on the 'Continue' button.
   
6. Enter in all your user information and click on the 'Continue' button.
   
7. Enter in your desired password. This will be for the admin login and the main FTP account. Also, chose '' from the dropdown list for how you heard about 1&1. Then, click on 'Continue'.
   
8. Enter in all your billing information. You can either enter your credit card information or pay through Paypal. Click on the 'Continue' button.
   
9. Just finish up the checkout process now. You'll see a confirmation page that you can print off and you'll receive a confirmation email as well. Keep this email in a safe spot. You'll need the information in it for the next step: Setting Up Your Email.