Building a website is not rocket science. Changing the oil in my car is also not rocket science. I do not change my own oil. My efforts are better spent on things I do well—and coincidently enjoy.

—Sean Pendergast

You can do it. I can do it. Others can do it. No matter who you hire, you can expect a process not unlike the following:

Name It
Build It
Publish It
Connect It
Promote It
Maintain It

Name It

A website name is generally know as a Domain Name. It's like a phone number—ideally, much easier to remember.

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Register It

Got a name? Good, now register it. Here are a few companies who, for a small annual fee ($7 to $25), will secure your domain name: * Bookmark where you registered your domain name, as you'll need to come back here.

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Build It

You use different tools to put them together, but you'll find the materials needed for your website familiar. Logos? Copy? Images? See:

Keep it in Mind

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Publish It

An Internet Service Provider (ISP) will be the physical residence of your site—the HTML, images files, etc. ISPs provide various packages for different business needs. The basic packages are adequate for most marketing-oriented sites, and provide a few email accounts with it (your_name@your_website.com). Upgrading your package will generally get you more storage space for your files, additional email accounts, and various other add-ons (e.g. database space).

If you like to buy local

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Connect It

This is the least intuitive piece of the puzzle. (Do know that the description of the task is far more complicated than the task itself.) In essence, you are introducing your ISP to your Domain Name—"Here, you two shake hands." You give your domain name registrar the address (called an IP Address) of your ISP; and then when someone types http://www.YourWebSite.com into their browser, the internet knows from where to retrieve your files.

Specifically

In the paperwork and/or Help-website of your ISP, find Name Server Information (HoosierNet). Next, *remember where you registered your domain name? Go back to their website and look for something suggesting The domain name registrar will provide a form where you type in the appropriate numbers. In an ideal world, the names used by your registrar and ISP will be similar.

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Promote It

It takes up to 24 hours for your website's name and address to distribute across the internet, but in essence your website is now live. That is, you can hand out your business cards with your web address (URL) on it. When folks type it in to the address field of their browsers, they will find you.

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Maintain It

The outdated website is a cliche. Websites have a distinct advantage over their printed brethren—the web page can be changed; now.