If you've created a few pages and you want to get them published on the internet for everyone to see you'll have to think about getting a web host. The host is someone who provides you with a place to upload your files. The service may come free if you want to use something like myspace or blogger. If you want your site to be unique to you and you want to create it with a web editing program then you will have to pay a small amount.
How to find a web host
The best way to find a good web host is by word of mouth. If you know someone who has their own site they may be able to recommend a host. Alternatively you can ask on any of the webmaster forums such as Digital Point. The web host that I use is Orchard Hostings. They are UK based and they give good value for money. To give you an idea of how much they charge a small website will only cost you £9.99 a year. (I don't have shares but I wish I had!)
What to look for
If you are creating your first website and you're just feeling your way the first thing you want to be sure of is good customer support. Check the site to see if there's a support forum as other customers can be extremely helpful. Also see if the site has a support area. If you see something like "We will answer your enquiry within three days," forget it. If you've got problems you want the answer as quickly as possible.
Now have a look at the other features on offer. If you're new to all this the chances are you won't understand all of it, but nevertheless you should be able to glean enough information to compare packages that cost a similar amount of money. Some web hosts offer lots of features such as a webmail address and statistics on your site plus free search engine submission. There may be free scripts that will run programs for you such as a guestbook or a survey and these features can be very useful. You may find a lot more features apart from these but you will have to pay a bit more to get the best package.
Where your website will reside
The computer that you copy your files to is called a server and it runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There are different types of server and the one you want to use should be capable of running different scripting languages. If you are using FrontPage it should have something called FrontPage extensions installed. Don't worry about what all this means right now. When you have a look at some of the hosting websites you should see a list of the features on offer and it should say something like "Scripting languages, Perl and CGI, PHP etc."
Before you can put your new website on your host's server you will need to choose a domain name but this will be covered in the next article on Beginners Websites.
Good luck and happy hunting.
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