If you need help setting up a web service, including domain registration, migrating a website and/or emails to another hosting service, installing a content management system or an SSL certificate, or setting up any other digital account, email manon@manonetc.com. We will contact you regarding your project.
What Exactly are…
Domains
A domain is a unique name that identifies an internet resource such as a website.
Most domain names end with .com or .net. Special domains may end with .org (reserved only for non-profits), .gov (government agencies only), or .edu (education organizations only).
A domain registrar is a service that manages the reservation of Internet domain names.
Having a domain name does not mean you have a website. You need to open a Web Host account to have a website for that domain.
Domain registrations are very inexpensive, and can cost anywhere from $4 – $50/year, depending on the TLD, the last part of the domain name after the period:
- gTLD (generic top-level domain): com, info, net, org, name, pro
- sTLD (sponsored top-level domain): edu, gov, int, il
- ccTLD (country-code top-level domain): us, uk, ca, il, au, de, fi, fr, jp, nl, etc.
Email Hosting & Addresses
For business purposes, it’s considered more professional to use email addresses that end with your registered domain name.
It is considered NOT PROFESSIONAL to use email addresses that come from webmail services, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc., which should be used for personal activities.
It’s also recommended that emails should be hosted separately from site servers, as web hosts are not naturally optimized to deal with emails. Emails can also use up precious storage and bandwidth. Email providers such as Google’s “G Suite,” or Microsoft’s “Office 365” are highly regarded for hosting emails.
Web Hosting Services
A web host provides space on a server for domains to create the domains’ websites that can be accessed via the World Wide Web.
In order to reserve space on the server, they must first have a registered domain name, which will act as the gateway to access the server space a/k/a the website.
SSL Certificates
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is designed to provice secure passage of information from one computer to another to a destination server via encryption. This allows sensitive information to be sent across the Internet safely into the hands of its intended recipient.
Basically, acquiring an SSL Certificate allows users to access your site via the HTTPS protocol rather than the unsafe and unprotected HTTP protocol.
Browsers are now marking sites as unsafe if they cannot be accesssed via the HTTPS protocol, and will advise users to navigate away from the site before serving the site’s content.
CMS Installations
A Content Management System (CMS) is a website’s control panel, where you can update the content of your website, including media and text. Site updates can be scheduled, or immediately live.
CMS installations can be for informational sites which is mostly copy; or they can be media-heavy, like portfolios, podcasts, or vlogs; or online shops.
Our recommendation for informational and media-focused sites is the self-hosted version of WordPress, one of the most popular CMS solutions currently running millions of sites all over the world.
Another recommendation for those who want to run their own online shop is Shopify, a user-friendly, e-commerce package that has many beautiful, stylish themes to choose.
**CMS installation includes your pre-made theme or template of choice, but does NOT include customization of the theme. For design customizations, email manon@manonetc.com.
Vendor Reports
As well as domain registrars, web and email hosts, ssl certificate authorities, and CMS, digital vendor setups can include email campaign services, forms, seo, social media, online printers, etc.
Whatever though the vendor, we will send you a handy little report of all the accounts you’ve opened, that includes vendor information, the package you’ve chosen, login credentials, and costs to you.
If you need information on other than the above, check out the FAQ page, or email manon@manonetc.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.