So that a website can appear on the World Wide Web, you will need a domain name and hosting account. So what is the problem then? Isn’t it straight forward? The answer to this one is it all depends.

If you bought your domain name at the same company you use for your hosting there is no problem. No need to do anything, after a short length of time you can start uploading files to your website. However if your domain registrar is different to your hosting company there is the issue of looking at Name Servers (DNS).

• Overview - You’ve got a domain name which you bought which is a completely separate company to where your hosting account is. The problem arises when your visitor goes to your domain address (URL) but there is nothing there. Even though you have a hosting account, why?

• Name Servers - If you have a separate domain registrar to your hosting, you will need to look at DNS. There is no correlation between your domain registrar and the hosting account you use, they in plain English don’t know each other. When you set up an account with your hosting company they will send you an email with the DNS details.

• Pointing - From the details given in your email, all you do is change the Name Servers of your domain registrar to the ones given by your hosting company. What you are trying to do is point your domain to your hosting company and that is it!

A lot of marketers choose to use the cheapest domain name and choose a reliable hosting company. This will a lot of the time lead to separate companies and where the problem lays. Once you know how to do this, a key skill to develop is being able to create a simple website.