Domain Name and Hosting
In order to publish a website you need two things:
– a domain name
– and a web hosting service
Domain Name
A domain name is a unique name that identifies a website. For example, the domain name of this site is "uicdesign.com." Each website has a domain name that serves as an address, which is used to access the website.
Whenever you visit a website, the domain name appears in the address bar of the web browser. Some domain names are preceded by "www" (which is not part of the domain name), while others omit the "www" prefix. All domain names have a domain suffix, such as .com, .net, or .org. The domain suffix helps identify the type of website the domain name represents. For example, ".com" domain names are typically used by commercial website, while ".org" websites are often used by non-profit organizations. Some domain names end with a country code, such as ".dk" (Denmark) or ".se" (Sweden), which helps identify the location and audience of the website.
Domain names are relatively cheap to register, though they must be renewed every year or every few years depending on your contract. Lots of domain names have already been registered. Therefore, if you want to register a custom domain name, you may need to think of a unique combination of words. Like for example your name with the addition of "design". The more unique the more likely it'll still be available. Once you decide on a domain name and register it, the name is yours until you stop renewing it. When the renewal period expires, the domain name becomes available for others to purchase.
NOTE: When you access a website, the domain name is actually translated to an IP address, which defines the server where the website located. This translation is performed dynamically by a service called DNS.
Registration period / payment is commonly for 1 year. A simple, straight forward domain only service is "Hover". The offer the .design domain for %5 a year.
https://www.hover.comHosting
In order to publish a website online, you need a Web host. The Web host stores all the pages of your website and makes them available to computers connected to the Internet. The domain name, such as "sony.com," is actually linked to an IP address that points to a specific computer. When somebody enters your domain name into their browser's address field, the IP address is located and Web site is loaded from your Web host.
A Web host can have anywhere from one to several thousand computers that run Web hosting software, such as Apache, OS X Server, or Windows Server. Most websites you see on the Web are accessed from a "shared host," which is a single computer that can host several hundred Web sites. Larger websites often use a "dedicated host," which is a single machine that hosts only one website. Sites with extremely high amounts of traffic, such as apple.com or microsoft.com, use several computers to host one site.
If you want to publish your own website, you'll need to sign up for a "Web hosting service." Finding a good Web host shouldn't be too hard, since their are thousands available. Just make sure the Web host you choose offers good technical support and ensures little or no downtime. You'll usually have to pay a monthly fee that varies depending on how much disk space and bandwidth your site will use. So it's a good idea to estimate how big your site will be and how much traffic you expect before signing up for a Web hosting service.
Usually payed on a monthly or yearly basis. From the examples below, Dreamhost is the only one that currently offers monthly payments ($5/month).
Hosting services often offer domain name registration as well but I would advise against it. If hoting and domain registration are separate you can MUCH easier switch hosts, or cancel the hosting and keep the domain name etc. Maybe you decide to use a web site builder such as Squarespace or Wix one day. If the domain is separate, you can just point/link the domain name to the other hosting service (or Squarespace, Wix etc.).
There are many offers out there. A lot of them also offer free domain names with the hosting services. That's a good deal but when you register domain name together with the hosting contract it'll be much more difficult to switch the host, if it ever becomes necessary.
https://www.bluehost.comhttps://www.dreamhost.com
http://www.hostgator.com
https://www.greengeeks.com
Publishing a Website
FTP
After you signed up for a hosting plan you'll receive "FTP" (File Transfer Protocol) login information from the host. The login is a combination of FTP address, username and password. In order to connect to the hosting server you need a so-called "FTP client". There are free FTP clients available for MAC and PC, for example:
Mac: https://cyberduck.io/PC: https://filezilla-project.org/
Download and install a client, open it and create a new connection. Use the FTP address, username and password combo you received from the web host to connect to the server. Then open the HTML directory (this differs a bit between the hosts. Sometime it's called "public HTML" or something similar). Once you find this directory upload all the files you have in your site folder. Don't upload the site folder itself, just the contents of it.
"Point"/link the domain name to the hosting server
In the Email from your web host you also find the so-called "Nameservers". You need to login were you registered your domain (they'll also send you a login similar to the hosting service). There you need to add the Nameserves which basically will link the domain name to the hosting service.
The process of establishing this link can take up to 24 hours but is happening usually much faster.
And that's it. Your website is published. Make sure your home page is called "index.html" which shows up automatically when you type your domain into a browser.
Updating your website
In order to make changes or additions to your site, make these additions first to the version on your hard drive and then upload the new and/or changed files to the webserver using FTP.