Building a Website Part 1: Domain Names

A simple guide to build a personal website that will make your techy friends proud.

Introduction

A personal website is a powerful tool when looking for jobs, developing an online identity, or simply documenting your professional experience. This guide will walk you through the simple process that I used to create this page, and pages like it for other professionals. There is a little bit of tech involved here, but don’t be afraid, individuals of all skill levels should be able to complete this process.

This design is perfect for those who love being in control. We will be purchasing a domain name, standing up a hosted web server, and utilizing high-quality templates to showcase your content. This build takes about 60 minutes from start to finish and will cost you about $25 dollars now and $5 a month for hosting. The upfront cost is entirely dependent on the name you pick, and the monthly fee could go up depending on the content you putting on your website, but we will talk about all that later.

The entire process will be broken down into 4 steps:

1. Pick your domain name
2. Build your Server
3. Configure the Server
4. Set up your Content

Some may choose to go with a simple single page with contact details, while others might build elaborate menus or galleries. The options in this configuration are nearly limitless. For some, you may choose to have someone design and build your page for you, these steps will even work for those individuals, in fact, following this guide first will ensure you are never at the mercy of a company or individual for your web content, as you will own all the critical elements of your page.

Part 1: Picking a Domain Name

In this article, I will use some technical terms and explain what those terms mean. The first term that we will encounter is Domain Name. A Domain Name is what comes before the .com for your website. That name is what you would share with others, and often becomes a vital identification point for your self or your business. This name can be used for email addresses as well. In our approach to building a website, we will be buying a name. This means that you will have complete control over where it goes, and how it is used. You could buy your name months or weeks before you build your website if you want, as you will see below, sometimes finding the right name is half the battle.

For many, myself included, this step will be the most challenging, because it requires you to make a difficult choice. Most personal websites are some variation of an individual’s name, which makes your options straight forward if your name is relatively unique, but far more challenging if your name is more common.

No matter how common your name or desired web address maybe, your starting place is the same. A domain name registration web site. This is a good time to mention that I will be naming some specific websites and services in this guide, but they are by no means your only options, I am simply sharing the steps that I took. I am not endorsed, sponsored, or any other way linked to these companies, I simply use their services. While there are many options out there, domains.google.com, domain.com, bluehost.com, netcheap.com and so more, I used GoDaddy.com. I made this choice because the only thing I needed in this process was a domain registration and I wanted to purchase it at a competitive price point, with no added nonsense from a vendor I was familiar with. That is exactly what I got from Godaddy. Many domain registration companies will try to pull you in with hosting services, email, and security, which in the right situation are great. This is not one of those situations. We are looking for a no frill’s domain registration.

In my case, I navigated to GoDaddy.com and began typing in names I might like. With Josh Anderson, I quickly realized that I was going to have to get creative or compromise. This is the list I came up with and the price points I was presented with for each:

JoshAnderson.com (this was my #1 choice) Open for bids starting at $500
- Note: Bidding: many times, the owner of the domain will indicate that they are open to bids. This means that you can offer them money to sell you their domain name. If you have your heart set on a particular domain name, and it is taken, this may be an option for you, but be cautious as this process can be slow, and costly. Most domain purchasing websites will facilitate the bidding and transfer process, for an additional fee. I was not looking for that headache and crossed this one off my list.
JoshuaAnderson.com (not a bad 2^nd choice) Available for $5,720 + 17.99/year
- Note: Annual registrations Domain names are renewed every year. When purchasing a domain name, you can often choose whether you want to purchase, 1, 2, 5, or even 10 years of registration. Purchasing more time at once will lower the price per year, and ensure no one is able to purchase the domain if you accidentally let it expire. When you purchase your domain set a reminder on your calendar for one month before the date it will expire to make sure you do not lose your registration. If your domain name does expire and is purchased by someone else, the new owner can set a price for the domain or choose not to sell it all. At that point, they may publish any content they choose to that address. This happens all the time, don’t let it happen to you!
- Note 2: $5,720?! Are you kidding me? Nope, that number is not a type-o. In this case, the owner of JoshuaAnderson.com has indicated that they are willing to sell the domain name for that amount of money. If you would like a good laugh, go ahead and take look a at the most expensive domain name sales (Google Search). At the time this article was written, it looks like Buisness.com has the title with a massive $345 million dollars for a sale in 2007.
- Either way, with this price tag, I crossed JoshuaAnderson.com off my list too.
JoshuaPaulAnderson.com- Available right now for $.09 a month.
- You can’t really beat that price, but This name is long, and not really what I was looking for. I saved this one but kept searching.
JoshAndersonConsulting- unavailable, bids start at $500
- No bidding for me, off the list.
JoshAndersonSolutions- Available right now for $.09 a month.
- This one seems to fit!

Truth be told, I think I tried 100 different options with recommendations from friends, colleagues, and others, but settled with JoshAndersonSolutions.com. I chose to purchase a five-year registration and paid about $50 dollars in total for the registration. If you looking to keep your up-front cost as low as possible, then just get a year. If you would prefer to set it and forget, go with 10. This decision is truly up to you.

Follow up: While writing this article I did a follow-up search on JoshAndersonConsulting.com and found the same domain name that had been unavailable just a few days prior was now available for $10.00/year! Even though I already owned, JoshAndersonSolutions, I jumped on the opportunity and bought this too.

What if you cannot find a domain name you like? Not having a domain name does not prevent you from performing the next few steps, but it is really recommended. When you finish this process you are going to want to share your content and get feedback. Sending an IP address instead of a name will probably look a bit unprofessional and earn you a sideways glance from your friends. That said here are some things to keep in mind when trying to settle on something less than optimal.

You can always change it!
- Your domain name is not permanent. As you see later, you can make multiple name point to the same website, and updating where things go is easy. There is nothing wrong with picking a short-term fix and setting up some alerts to let you know when something more appealing becomes available.
You can try a non-standard extension.
- Many choose to create their website with an alternative extension. By that I mean they pick something other than .com. There are many alternatives available now and you may find one that fits your needs well, .biz, .org, .net, .me, and .tech are some that may designate well with your audience.
- A word of caution: If you do decide to use a non-standard address, remember that you run the risk of a user navigating to the .com version of your page accidentally. In my case, JoshAnderson.com seems to be a get-rich-quick scheme, so using JoshAnderson.net, biz, me, or tech, would probably not a great choice. This problem is compounded if you are going to use your domain for email. While a visitor could quickly identify that they have navigated to the wrong website, the emails could be lost forever. If you ask someone to send a message to theperfectdomainname.net, and they send it theperfectdomainname.com instead, you would simply never know. Additionally, the person who owns that other website, could receive their message and respond. If you do go down this path, do your homework and understand where your users may end up.

Once you have your domain name in hand, you are ready to get a server!

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Navigate to Godaddy.com
Search for the name you would like for your website (Repeat until you find one you want)
Add the Chosen name to your cart
Decide how many years you would like to register for
Turn off all the extra charges, you don’t need that stuff
Click Check out
Follow the prompts to create an account, take care of payment, and finalize your purchase
All done, time to go Build your Server