Domain name and Web hosting – What is it?
Don’t know the difference between a domain and a hosting provider? You’re not alone…
Do you smile and nod when you talk to your website people? Have you just paid another website hosting bill and realised you still have no idea what you paid for? Are you afraid to ask questions about these things for fear of sounding silly? Whether you are:
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An established dance studio owner who is still a little confused on all things internet.
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A new studio owner looking to start their first website and get your company email addresses.
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Anywhere in between
This blog will help you understand the basics of your central online presence. Your website!
Getting your domain name – Owning your piece of the internet!
Having your own domain name is crucial to establishing your Dance Studio as a credible, professional business.
If you own ‘Dee Dee’s Dance Studio’ you need your website to be something like www.deedeesdancestudio.com. This also means that your email address can be jane@deedeesdancestudio.com. Purchasing the domain ‘deedeesdancestudio.com’ allows you to do this. You can’t operate a business today without a domain name. It gives you credibility and makes you look like you’re part of the digital age. Which of the two below look more professional and credible?
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deedeesdancestudio.com (purchased domain name)
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wordpress.deedeesdancestudio.com (free domain name)
If you’ve got these things then you already own your domain name (and you might not have even known it!)
The next paragraph helps outline what a domain name actually is so feel free to scroll on down. If you need to purchase your domain name then head to one of the below sites to buy your sparkly new domain name…or just Google ‘how to buy a domain name’ (Google solves everything right??). Before you buy, make sure you put some time into doing some reading and research on choosing the best domain name for your dance studio. A domain name will generally set you back $10-20 per year and can be purchased from places like:
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Crazy Domains (for Australian businesses)
Alright I have a domain name…but still don’t understand it
Think of your domain name as a Caravan (strange analogy but stick with me here). Obviously, our caravan would be one of those new trendy ones that people take around to market stalls and serve wine on tap out of. Because, who doesn’t need wine in their lives?
Anyways…back on track, our domain name is like a caravan because:
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It belongs to us, and will always do so as long as we keep it registered.
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It can be moved around to different web hosts (more on that later)
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If we want to, we can park it in the same place, pay the fees and add things to it as we go.
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You can also sell it (if anyone wants to buy it)
So now we have our caravan…and wine…don’t forget the wine. We now go looking for somewhere to park our caravan and drink our wine.
Web Hosting – Where the action happens
So if your domain name is your ‘Caravan’ then your Web Hosting is your caravan park, it is where you park your domain name. The most important part of your web hosting is your server. Your server is a big online or ‘cloud’ storage container where all your website and email files are kept. So when someone types in www.deedeesdancestudio.com you are giving them access to your server to view your website files from your server.
So what do you look for in a Web Hosting company? This is where you can often get caught up paying for a whole range of things that you don’t need. It is important for you as the Dance Studio owner to understand the key attributes.
The amount of server space that you have allocated
Your server is a cloud based hard drive that stores all your website and email files. For your website and all your email addresses you will probably not need anymore that 100GB. Most companies basic packages offer more than this anyway so you should be all good, but make sure you check.
The number of email accounts you can use
You might not think it’s necessary at the start, to be able to have multiple email addresses. (yourname@deedeesdancestudio.com, admin@deedeesdancestudio.com etc). But, it is invaluable to have as your studio grows. Most web hosting packages will come with at least 100 email addresses that you can add so you should be covered. It is worthwhile checking, as you’d hate to get caught short here.
Can you have subdomain names as part of your hosting package
This is a bit beyond the beginners course here…but it is an important option to have down the track. Make sure that it is included.
How easy to access and talk to is the support
It’s the night before your ticket sales launch on your website and BOOM…your website goes down. Your website developer is unreachable…what do you do (besides panic). Most of the time these are issues that are solved with a quick 5-10 minute phone call to your hosting company. Most big hosting companies have 24 hour support, so make sure that you go with one of them. The ability to be able to call and troubleshoot yourself will save you time and money.
Conclusion
So now you’re a little more educated on what your domain name is, and how it fits into the overall scheme of things. You also are more clued up on what to look for in a webhosting company, or how the one you already have works. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.
Be Sure to stay tuned to the Azagi blogs for more insights into technology in your Dance Studio. Please feel free to check out our other blog posts in this category such as Choosing your Studio Software Package.
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