Companies these days are expected to have e-mail availability and a website.
That includes one- or two-person shops such as yours. In this two-part
series, I’ll explain how to get your company’s internet presence off the
ground. In the first article, I explain how to choose a domain name and a
hosting provider. The second article will cover more technical details,
such as setting up your e-mail addresses and website.
E-mail addresses @yahoo or @SomeISP have their place, but
they look dodgy in a business setting. The same goes for websites that
include http://SomeISP/~user. Providing a company website and
e-mail addresses makes you look more professional. It’s cheaper and easier
than ever to do this, so why hesitate?
The key to a corporate internet presence is the domain name, or
domain for short. To own a domain you must first choose a unique
name, register it with a domain registrar, and find a web
host to provide the domain’s web and e-mail services. After that,
it’s up to you to produce the actual website.
Picking the Name
Picking a business domain name is straightforward: it should somehow be
related to the name of the business. (We offer
some tips on naming your company,
if you haven’t already.)
It’s a little tougher for companies that already exist. Most company names
must be unique only in the state in which they are registered. By
comparison, domain names must be unique throughout the world. You may find
yourself adding a hyphen, taking a .net over .com, or
otherwise altering the set of letters to make it unique. Be careful to not
pick a name that is too close to another. You don’t want to confuse your
customers and have them go to the wrong website. Nor do you want to face
legal action when the owners of an existing site claim you made your choice
on purpose. The legalities on this front are still being established, but
a judge will likely rule in favor of the person who had the name first.
There are several ways to check whether a name is taken. Loading up the
name in a web browser isn’t foolproof, because it only tells you whether
there’s a website established at that domain. Some people might suggest
checking whois or DNS records. Based on my own experience, don’t
look up a name and think it over; get four or five names and take the first
that’s available. While I have no hard-core evidence to back up this
claim, I know of a few domains that were “coincidentally” snapped up the
days after people first checked their availability. (Some of those names
were inside jokes, which diminishes the chance of random land-grabs.)
Stake Your Claim: Register the Name
Register the domain to stake your claim. In the beginning there were very
few registrars and they were quite expensive for the individual. Recent
years have seen growth in the registrar market, and the semi-saturation
works to your advantage: if you don’t already have a registrar in mind, do
a web search for “domain registrar” and compare prices. (It helps to know
the business is legit, which is one reason you may feel more comfortable
going with the Big Boys.)
Domain ownership is simply a record of a person having filed for a
particular name on some date. Above and beyond that, there’s not much else
a registrar can offer. (Some registars offer hosting, but we’ll get to
that in a minute.) The one value-add service I’ve found useful involves
privacy.
When you register a domain, your contact info is published in the public
whois database. This permits anyone who knows your domain name to
contact you. Likely this is a throwback from the days when only business
owned domains; nonetheless, this beast lives on today. To protect their
customers from unsolicited e-mail, phone calls, and letters to “domain
owner,” some registrars offer to file their information with whois
instead.
Finally, note that domain registrations are valid only for some number of
years. (You’ll get a choice of time spans when you register.) Don’t
forget to renew that domain when the time comes. Some people make their
money snapping up just-expired domains, and if that happens to yours you
face a hassle to get it back.
Get Setup with a Host
Owning the domain isn’t quite enough; you have to host the domain
to really do anything. Hosting is the process by which someone
(preferably, someone with lots of equipment and good internet connectivity)
makes that domain name available to the rest of the world. That means
being able to send mail to some address @ThatDomain and seeing a
website when http://ThatDomain is entered in a browser. You can
host at home, take the service offered by your registrar, or find a
separate hosting service.
If you’re technically astute and have the right type of broadband
connectivity (hint: static IP address), hosting the domain at home may seem
tempting. Please reconsider, keeping in mind that you can
to worry about power, connectivity, and machine upkeep.
Your registrar likely offered you a hosting service when you bought the
domain. The benefit of going with your registrar is that you get a single
point of contact for All Things Internet. Then again, it may behoove you
to do some comparison shopping. A company whose flagship product is
hosting services is likely to have more offerings than a registrar.
The internet boom has brought a lot of competition to the hosting world,
which means the customers win out. You can shop around for the features
you want and pick the lowest price of the bunch.
Key features for a web host include ease of use and
access. Does the host have a web-based “control panel” that lets
you manage e-mail setup and other sundries? Does the host support the
“one-button” content publishing common in website editing tools? For the
old-school technologists, does the host provide direct shell connectivity
over web-based access?
E-mail is another concern. Ask your host whether they support web-based
access to your e-mail. (This is a must when you’re working at a “sensitive”
client site). Also find out how many e-mail accounts and aliases you’re
permitted; these are key in keeping e-mail sorted and making your company
look all the more professional.
Whatever the case, don’t be fooled by special “business” plans just because
you’re a business. Most basic plans provide the web and e-mail services
you’ll need to get started, and they run as low as $10-$20 per month if
you’re willing to pay in advance. Finally, note any references from
colleagues (or, at least, from random websites about freelancing). They
can give you the inside scoop on where that host shines or fades.
That should be enough to get you started. In the
I’ll offer some tips on setting up your corporate website and e-mail.