Joomla!® 24-Hour Trainer

3

Purchasing a Domain Name and Web Hosting

In this book, we will build our Joomla website directly on the web server where it will reside after launch. Some books cover a method of building the website on your local computer first, then moving the site to a web host after it's done. There are two big disadvantages to doing this.

First, no one can see what you're doing, unless they're sitting beside you and looking at your computer. In an increasingly virtual world, sometimes the people who need to see your progress are not in close proximity.

Second, you must first get your computer to run Apache, PHP, and MySQL, and you must install Joomla manually. Once the site is built, you must transfer it to the web host. None of these tasks are easy or straightforward for someone who's not a web professional.

Rather than take this approach, I am going to show you how to pick out your domain name, choose a web host, and build your Joomla site directly on that web host. This will enable you to share your site with collaborators while it's under construction and avoid having to move it later. (I'll show you how to keep the site invisible to all but your collaborators in another lesson.)