The first step to making a website is to decide on a domain name (i.e. yahoo.com, techtroupe.com, etc…). It can be anything you want, assuming the name is available. Go over to 1 and 1 and search for domain names that you might be interested in. We also offer an easy domain name checker below, as well. Check it out! Don’t be discouraged if the names you want are all gone, you may just need to be creative in finding the right name; instead of flowersforyou.com maybe try flowers4you.com or flowers4u.com or even flowers-for-you.com, because all three say the same thing just with different domain names. Good luck and happy searching.

The next step in making a website is to have it hosted somewhere. Personally I like 1and1.combecause they have never, ever given me any problems! They are also one of the cheapest hosting companies out there, plus you get free domain names if you register with them.  So, basically they can register your domain, and host it for you, which makes it very easy for anyone just starting out. Also note that you will be able to have your own email address based on your domain name such as yourname@yourdomain.com. This, of course, will make any business card or company header seem much more professional than using a free email account at yahoo, gmail or hotmail. In fact, you don’t even need to put up a website; simply register your domain and sign up for an email service instead so that you get the great email without having to deal with running a website.

Once you decide on a company you will need to know which plan to select because most hosting companies offer many different plans. If you’re thinking of running a blog like this one then you won’t need much in terms of bandwidth or disk space. ANY plan at 1and1.com will be able to host a blog or small website like this one. Of course if you’re looking to sell items in a webstore then you would need to select and ecommerce-type plan that offers the programs and scripts built-in like item listing and credit card billing. Don’t worry if you select the wrong plan as you can always upgrade, or downgrade, by contacting customer service (and, yes, they have great customer service!).

Once you have a domain name and a hosting plan then the next step is figuring out what you want to do witht site. 1and1.com offers easy to use templates to get your website up and running quickly. You can use those templates or search the web for free ready-made templates to use as your design. You can also create your own design by using a WYSIWYG html editor such as Microsoft Front Page or use a free html editor like Nvu. If you want to run a blog then I would suggest using WordPress as it’s the easiest to install and use.

If you go with a blog, template from the web or you just want to create your own you will need to upload it to the site via FTP. When you signed up for a hosting account they will send you an email message that contains important information and passwords including your FTP account info. You will need to use that info in order to access your website and upload files. Internet Explorer has FTP built-in or you can always download an FTP client from download.com.

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If you ever run into trouble, like your hard drive crashing or OS failure, you can simply run the handy Ghost diskette or CD and copy your backed up image file onto a new hard drive. It doesn’t take that long, and when you’re done you have a working operating system and all your files are back again (at least the ones that were there when you created the image file)!!

Norton Ghost can also be used for data recovery from a bad hard drive. Simply go into the options menu and check to ignore errors while imaging. The result might not be all the data you need to run the operating system, but it should give you at least some readable data.

Has anyone checked on the price of Microsoft Office these days? Let me just tell you it’s high, very high! Granted, Microsoft Office is a great product and has become the standard worldwide for office programs but, the price is somewhat elevated for my taste.

Behold, Open Office! A cheap (FREE!) alternative for office applications and boasts a word processer, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program (basically everything MS Office has).

With a little tinkering you can use Open Office just like Microsoft’s version, with the same file extensions and program options. Open Office is also compatible with all Word, Excel, Access and Power Point files, which means you can bring files home from work and edit them without worrying about being unable to open them again with one of Microsoft’s programs.

If you’re into free, like me, then you should really check out this multi-platform office productivity suite.

My favorite happens to be AVG anti virus. The free basic protection offers automatic virus scans and it completely updates itself. I am currently using it myself at home and I love it!

Another free program is caled Avira Antivir. It too scans and updates just like AVG, except it has a self-serving (self-advertising) popup window every time it updates. It’s not really a big deal (nor is it spyware-related in any way!) but it is kind of annoying. It’s just a small window that opens up advertising their premium upgrade.

Both Avira Antivir and AVG are resource friendly; as in they won’t bog down your computer like OTHER anti virus programs do! I’ve been using AVG for years now and I really like it a lot.  I have NEVER had a problem with AVG or Avira the whole time I have used them. Both are great alternatives to the other spendy and sometimes complicated anti virus programs out there.