How Much?
Overview | 1. Domain Registration | 2. Internet Hosting | 3. Internet Services | 4. Site Development | Conclusion

1. Domain Registration:
A domain is what most people see as your web "address". Most businesses use the name of their company as the domain for their web site (for example: kraft.com is the domain for the Kraft Foods web site; baxter.com is the domain for Baxter Healthcare's web site). Domain registration generally costs approximately $35 per year for a ".com" domain. However, several internet hosts will pay your domain registration fee for as long as you use their hosting services. For example, Yahoo Web Hosting has a package where $14.95 per month ($179.40/year) pays for Yahoo to host a site, and they in turn pay to keep the domain for that site registered. This ends up being an easier and less expensive way for many small businesses to register their domain name and host their site (One factor to watch out for is to make sure that when a host registers your domain, you are listed as the domain "Registrant." Otherwise, the host becomes the owner of the domain and you might have trouble switching hosts in the future.) Most of the free hosting solutions will not register a domain for you, but will allow you to put up a site on their domain in your own sub-folder (example: www.freehost.com\your_business). For a business that wants to present a professional image, this is usually not a good hosting solution.

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