Decide at what Web location your site will be reachable. Web-hosting companies typically offer you one or more of the following choices for the start of a URL:

1. A special path at the hosting company from a domain they control: This is common because it requires the least effort by the hosting company. The pattern is usually http://www.example.com/username/ or http://www.example.com/~username/.

2. A subdomain at the hosting company: A subdomain prepends a name to the front of a domain name; for instance, I host Web sites on my Podbus.com hosting service with URLs like http://mytestsite.podbus.com/.

   If you go with either of the above two options, skip to Step 5.

3. Your own domain: Many hosting companies are happy to create a virtual Web server for you at a domain name you choose and register through them or a third party. A virtual Web server resides on the same computer as dozens or even tens of thousands of other Web sites, but only responds when its name is “called” by a browser. For example, my Podbus.com servers also host a popular Web site whose URL is http://irunningradio.com/. This type of hosting is usually slightly more expensive than using a path or a subdomain.

Check if your desired domain name is available by searching for it on a domain name registrar’s Web site or a hosting company’s own site, if they also handle domain registration. I suggest you search at GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com/) and easyDNS (http://www.easydns.com/), two well-regarded domain registrars. (It’s becoming more and more difficult to find domain names that someone else doesn’t already own. I tried to register stevensande.com a while back, only to find that someone else with my name already owned it.)

Enter your proposed domain name in one of the domain search fields to see if it’s available. If your primary choice is already taken, GoDaddy.com provides you with a truly baroque list of alternatives. Some of the alternatives include variations of your proposed name and different TLDs (top-level domains, or the far-right part of a domain name), such as .org, .net, and .biz, as well as country codes like .cn or .nu. It’s often better to get a .com name to ensure that someone typing the name in a Web browser doesn’t forget the TLD and wind up at the wrong location.

Now that you’ve decided on a domain name, it’s time to put three pieces together: your domain name registration, domain server, and Web host. Some services can sell you all three pieces in one package, meaning you can avoid thinking about these parts as different steps, but it’s also common to end up working with two services in order to get all three pieces:

1. Register your domain name: Expect to spend anywhere from $1.95 to $35.00 per year for a domain registration, with the lower pricing going to bulk buyers. I prefer GoDaddy for the speed of registration and control they offer of my domain.

2. Serve your domain: Registering a domain gives you a lease on that name, but it doesn’t tell other computers on the Internet how to find your Web site or deliver email. For that, you need a domain host, technically called a DNS (domain name system) server. DNS maps human-readable names to machine-friendly Internet protocol addresses, like takecontrolbooks.com to 216.168.61.78. Your Web host typically provides details so that you can either host your DNS at your registrar (entering one set of information) or at the Web host itself (entering a different set of information at the registrar).

3. Sign up for a Web-hosting account: You’ll need the ability to upload your completed Web site files to the Web server via FTP.

Using information provided by your Web host, configure your domain depending on one of three scenarios:

1. Your registrar, DNS host, and Web host are the same company: You should be able to use one dashboard or control interface to set everything up. Or, simply by paying for the accounts, you may already be active.

2. Your registrar hosts your DNS, and your Web host is separate: Set your domain name’s main address and www plus dot address to IP address values provided by your Web host. For instance, you would use the DNS host settings to have example.com and www.example.com point to 192.168.1.1 if that’s the value provided by your Web host.

3. Your registrar is separate from your combined DNS and Web host: Your Web host will provide the details on how to delegate DNS hosting by entering values at your registrar for their nameservers, which handle DNS requests.

Determine where to upload your files. This information usually comes from your Web host in the form of an FTP address, a user name used to log in to the FTP server, and a password for the FTP server. Your provider may tell you to upload files directly in to your FTP directory or may give you a different path to the directory.

Upload your files as outlined in Publish to Other Servers. If your first attempt at viewing your Web site results in a “404: File Not Found” error, contact your Web host and make sure that they have set your directory index to index.html. The directory index is a pointer that sends visitors to the home page without requiring them to type the index.html part of the URL. All they need to type is www.whateveryourdomainis.com, not www.whateveryourdomainis.com/index.html.