Entrepreneurship: Domain Hosting

Entrepreneurship

Domain Hosting

Where will you store your web pages after you graduate from college? If you are serious about having a persistent web presence that transcends your affiliation with a particular educational institution or corporation, you will need to purchase your own domain name and subscribe to a web hosting service. Often, you can do both things at the same time.

To earn the badge, you will research different possibilities, taking notes on the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Once you have chosen the best provider(s), you will purchase a domain name and configure your new web server account. Finally, you will create a miniature web presence for yourself on this server. Eventually, this miniature web presence will evolve into the entry page for your own business and/or personal online portfolio.

BADGE DELIVERABLES

  1. Start by researching the hosting landscape. The readings listed in the "Useful Resources" section below are a good place to start, but you might want to conduct additional research online. If you prefer to work with video, you should consult James Williamson's segment on Lynda.Com titled "Choosing a web host." During this phase of the research process, you should be focusing on the conceptual landscape rather than the offerings of different hosting providers. What exactly is the meaning of terms such as domain registrar, web hosting service, and Internet service provider? Once you have a basic understanding of the landscape, move on to the next step.
  2. Choose an original domain name. Please do not try to save money by using a .biz or .net suffix instead of a .com suffix. The relentless hegemonic tyranny of global capitalism has made .com the default suffix for domain names. If you want people to find your site, you will need to use a .com suffix.
  3. Locate a good hosting service. Most services will cover the cost of registering your domain name when you set up a new account. Competition between hosting providers is fierce, and you should not have to pay more than $10 per month for basic service. In fact, you can find reliable hosting providers for much less.
  4. Figure out how your new service works. Most services have fairly extensive tutorials for new users, and they will also have a control panel that makes it possible for you to modify all sorts of settings. Devote an hour or two to playing around with the control panel and skimming the documentation.
  5. Create several e-mail addresses for yourself. For example, if your name is Ada and your site is adalovelace.com, you might create info@adalovelace.com, ada@adalovelace.com, spam@adalovelace.com. Use the control panel to forward mail sent to one of these addresses to your Trinity e-mail account.
  6. Create a very basic personal site. For the purposes of this badge, the site does not need to be very complicated, but it should provide some basic details about you. If you are eager to post something more complicated you should go for it. To earn the badge, all you need is a very simple placeholder site.
  7. Blog about your findings. In a short (4 to 6 paragraph) posting on your personal Wordpress blog, explain what you learned. What sort of factors did you consider when researching hosting services? What ultimately affected your purchase decision? How difficult was it to configure your new site, and what did you think about the service provider's control panel and online tutorials? Include a screenshot of your personal page and, of course, a hyperlink to your personal site.
  8. Remember to complete the badge assignment by e-mailing Dr. Delwiche with the subject line "Pending: Entrepreneur Domain Hosting" and be sure to link to your blog posting in that message.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Last Revised: December 29, 2016
Please report problems with this page.