There are two parts to getting your own space on the web.  First, we’ll talk about design.  You’ll show me a few things you like or pick a kit from one of the digital designers who have approved my use of their products for use.  Then I’ll create a mockup for you to look at.  You’ll love it, I hope, but you’ll also be able to make suggestions for changes or additions or even ask for something completely different (there will be a charge, though, for more than a couple of mockups).  Once you approve a mockup, I will begin the conversion to HTML.

Next, we need somewhere to put this beautiful work of art.  If you are just upgrading an existing blog or site, the next two steps don’t apply to you, but if this is a new site, you do have to do a couple of things.  First, you have to get your domain.  I recommend www.GoDaddy.com for this. After you create your account and purchase your domain, if you will send me the account information, I can do what I need to do to tell the World Wide Web to look for your new blog in the correct place. Please see my recommendations below for hosting.

I use and recommend HostGator.

They are one of The Planet’s top resellers and have proved to be reliable, dependable and accessible, even having support agents available via chat, which is really rather uncommon for webhosts. They have several plans available. You can see them on this page. See below for more information choosing a plan for you.

For the majority of blogs, especially where you have only one domain, the Hatchling plan is sufficient. If, however, you have purchased say the .com and .net domain, you will need the Baby plan. You can see the details for both of these plans here.

HostGator promotes unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth and I have yet to find a client whose shop couldn’t be handled on either of the plans mentioned above. Again, the primary consideration is how many domains you want to host on this plan. See the details for the plans here. If you need more help deciding on a host, just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.

Once you have signed up for hosting, I will need the information you receive after signing up, including ftp access and hosting control panel access. Once I receive these two things, I can do everything I need to be able to do to set up your site as agreed upon in our communications.  If you have already approved a mockup, I can start as soon as my schedule permits.  We do not have to have a mockup approved, though, to set up the domain and hosting.  The sooner this is done, the better because as soon as the mockup is approved, I will be able to begin site construction.

For more information on what I need to get started on your project, visit this page.