Learn/Getting-a-Website-for-the-First-Time
Revision as of 17:17, 12 July 2010 by MarkDilley (talk | contribs)
Let's start this off clearly. You can't buy a website - you lease it. This is a different message from the Internet authorities - but you can lose your website if you don't pay your yearly fee of ~$10 bucks. See [Virtual Property]
Ok, now that we have that off the table, here is what you will need to consider. You rent your website name (commonly called a domain name) from a Registrar and then you will need to Host and actual website somewhere. Think of your website name as a pointer to your content which is the website. Two steps. Some companies will do both for you.
Websites name generally cost ~$10 a year - sometimes more, sometimes less. The cost for hosting a website is pretty much the wildcard expense here. It really depends on what you want the website to do. I personally have many websites where I only lease the website name and point it to a free page, like on AboutUs.org or a free weblog, like Blogger.com or posterous.com.
Do you want a website as an online business card? Do you want to try and host a community on your website? Are you selling goods or services?