One of the first things you will need to start your life on line is a blog. Sounds easy enough and it will be when you follow these steps.

The best way to start is with a domain name. This is unique to you and you own it, like having your own house or shop front on the world wide web. There are other options such as Blogger which is free through gmail. However, you run the risk of being effect of someone else’s decisions and changes in ways that can’t happen if you own your own space.

There are a number of different places where you can check to see if the domain name you want is already registered or if the name you have chosen is available. Then you can register for your use.  D9 has a good domain checking service. On this site,  you can quickly check out your proposed domain name. They also are a very reliable hosting company with great back up service.

D9 is a company I am happy to recommend because they want to help new users find their feet and be successful. Having been there and done that themselves, they know what it’s like, both the good and the bad. They offer a lot of support to help newcomers to the internet world. I can certainly say that with confidence as I found their support very useful.

So, what to choose for your domain name? The best domain name you can choose to get started is your own name. There is a very simple reason for this. You can bet that as soon as someone starts to become successful, if they haven’t got their name registered, someone else will register that name as a domain name. You don’t want to be facing a struggle or extra expense to be able to get the use of your own name at some point of time in the future. It’s best to keep the domain name as short as possible, something that is easy for people to remember and easy to spell if your name is a bit exotic. A jeweller friend raises another important consideration. There’s another reason to use your name, and that is that people are more likely to remember your name than the name of your website. 

There’s no limit to how many domains you own, so you can always set up other domains relating to a particular subject, interest or activity any time you want. With hosting at D9, you get unlimited hosting for as many domains as you want.

The easiest way to get a website up and running is to use WordPress to start off with. You can get yourself set up within minutes. I’ll go over that in another blog soon.

Hope this helps,

Aileen

I started John Thornhill’s Partnership to Success Program a few months ago. The program is meaty and takes you through a lot of ground from setting up on line towards creating and marketing your own product, as well as other activities.

I decided I’d go back to the beginning and review what we’d covered so far. It’s always a good idea when learning something new to make sure you get plenty of hands-on experience of whatever it is you are dealing with, especially when it’s something practical. So, I am going to set up a second website along side the one I am doing with John’s program. That will give me a good opportunity to review what we covered so far, while also making use of the time to get another project moving.

The first lesson with John covers buying a domain name and setting up a blog. If you have never done this before, they are quite simple steps to take once someone has shown you what to do. That, of course, opens the door to a whole new world. For the old hand, these steps are quick and simple to do. So first, I am going to head over to D9 Hosting to see if the website name I want is available.

Now that I have some experience, I am looking forward to rounding it out with some additional activity and examples while exploring some new, interesting areas.

One of the things I find useful about my D9 Hosting is the facility to host unlimited domains on my account. It presents an opportunity to set up a number of minisites for flipping later. It also makes it easier to work on more than one income stream and area of interest knowing that all my hosting needs are taken care of in one location at one time, with one billing and with a company that I can rely on and trust.

Let’s say you have an interest in the health field, or cooking, and weight loss. Very popular subjects but not quite the same as Internet Marketing. To put it on your main domain risks confusion and inconsistency. Some skinny, city-living, geeky internet marketer happy with pizza take away and a soft drink at every meal won’t be inspired by your favourite low calorie recipe or a rave about 10 health benefits of raw honey from the local bee farm.  Another person with a passion for photography and mega expertise about cameras can go full blast in great detail about the fine differences between special features of different ranges and give real advice and useful insight to others, while enjoying their passion– and gain affiliate income at the same time.

Being able to set up a number domains and blogs is one way of testing different income streams to find those that deliver something that people need and want and are interesting, satisfying and remunerative to work on. Tweaking them as you go, without having to make a big outlay each time you set up a new one, is definitely the way to go and opens the door to more opportunities for success.

What do you think? What other areas interest you?

Look forward to hearing from you.

Aileen

It seemed like a simple thing to do. Such a small change to make. The instructions were straightforward enough. I pressed “click.”. A quick flash. All done.

Suddenly my website couldn’t be accessed. I tried everything I knew. I looked everywhere I could for ways to undo it. But whatever I did, I could find no way to restore it to the way it had been just a minute before. I’ve really done it this time I thought. . Wait, what about the back up I did not long ago.

It appears there was no back up to be found.

This was turning into my worst nightmare. And now the afternoon was nearly over. This can’t go over until tomorrow, I thought. What to do now?

D9 Support came to the rescue, quickly and effectively and calmly. And shortly, all was back to normal in working operation again.

I have to say, D9 are looking after me well.

There are a lot of different hosting sites, offering different degrees of service. Ease of use and assistance to the new website owner venturing out like an old time pioneer into the wild west of the internet may not be the top priority of a large hosting company. So, I was pleased to be introduced to D9 Hosting.

Started by Dan Thompson and Paula Brett in 2007, D9 Hosting offers a wide range of services to people all over the globe. They have a well-thought-out range of packages and rates to cater to different types of users. In particular, D9 has a special interest in helping new people to get started smoothly online and pass through all the complexities the old hand can deal with comfortably. Using their own personal experience to draw on, they give additional suuport to the needs of beginners with on-line videos and other services which are easily accessed. 

Personally I have used their service and found D9 to be very helpful. For example, Paula responded instantly to a chat request and the issue I had was fixed within minutes. I found they have many satisfied users with good word of mouth.

So, I can definitely recommend D9 Hosting with confidence.