The first thing you will need is your FTP login information.  FTP just stands for File Transfer Protocol.  It’s just how files are transferred over the internet.  You don’t need to know any more than that.  You may not know what your FTP login is.  Most of the time, you can find this if you login to your web host.  You will probably find that under your hosting information.  If not, give them a call and ask what your ftp info will be.  It is usually tied to your hosting login somehow.  Okay, once you have your FTP login it’s time to get a FTP client.  The FTP client program will allow you to connect to the FTP server on your web hosting account.  Let me suggest some great, free FTP clients:

SmartFTP – I love this program and use it constantly.  It’s free and easy to use.  It has a familiar file and folder look.  I highly recommend this FTP client.

FileZilla – A great program with a great name.  I know many people using this FTP program.  It’s easy to use, but powerful.

Now, all you have to do is enter your site name and your FTP login information into one of these programs.  This will connect you to where you can upload your files.  If you are on a shared web host, then it should connect you straight into your web server file structure.  Just remember, if you are on windows, you will need an index.html file.  If you are on linux, you will need an index.php file if you are utilizing a php environment.  That’s about it.

If you are opening a storefront or ecommerce you probably already have an ecommerce solution for business. You usually start with having an online store in mind when you go that route. But, if your business is a typical brick and mortar business, you probably haven’t considered an online presence as much. The first thing you are going to need to figure out is what you want to do with your online presence.

Online Brochure

This has been the typical approach to having a presence online. It is a static page or pages and it usually only conveys basic information. This could be things like contact information, bios, history, etc. This has some value.

Information Dispersal

This kind of site typically has static information but with a twist. It also offers industry information pertinent to the company. This keeps the site dynamic, the search engines coming back, and maybe customers as well.

Dynamic Customer Portal

This kind of site gives your customers a piece of the action. It offers them a login to a portal where they can view inventory, check pricing, and get support. This one is much harder to implement, but can bring some real value to current and potential customers.

And here are the basic pieces that you will need to get started:

1. Buy a domain name or website address. Think of this as buying your online real estate. Now, you will soon learn that a lot of domain names are taken. Just search through a bunch to find what you can. We’ll discuss some ideas about domain names later.
2. Buy your business web hosting. If you are building a simple site, then you could easily go with the economy hosting package. This is for light traffic sites with little space requirements (under 5GB). It also comes with 500 email accounts. Check out the hosting page above for details on our other packages.
3. Build a web site. You can also opt to look at our website tonight package. This is an easy to use web site builder that can get your site on the internet very quickly. Or you can opt to pay a designer to make a site for you.

That’s the quick and short of getting your business site online. If you are going to do ecommerce, we also have packages for that if you haven’t decided on one yet.