It's the New Year and you're getting ready to put your new business plan into action. Part of this plan is to create your website. There are many great businesses out there to design and build your site just as there are many articles and sites dedicated to help the 'do-it-yourself' crowd. But either way you choose to go, there are basic setup steps that you should follow to protect your business. Just like you protect your physical business, you need to protect the Internet branch of your business.

A 'website' is essentially made of two parts: your domain name (often known as your 'dot com' name) and your web pages. Your domain name is a naming system that uses nameservers to tell a computer where to find your website. For instance, the domain name timefindersmagazine.com uses a nameserver (ns111.canadianwebhosting.com) to tell other computers that this website is hosted on the server 76.74.187.200. As humans, we'll remember the domain name timefindersmagazine.com before we'll remember that IP address! This domain name is registered with a domain name registrar.

The second part of your website are your web pages which are stored at your hosting company. This is a company that has a series of computers where you can store the files that make up your webpages, host an email account ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), and access tools like backups, templates, online stores, etc. There are many hosting companies with large pricing differences out there but you should look for some basics:

• stability of the company and 'uptime' of the servers
• backup policies
• number of email accounts allowed
• 24x7 support
• no contract fees and other guarantees
• host both Windows and Linux servers
• offer a control panel

Make your comparison list, do a Google search and see reviews on the company, call and email the hosting company and then make your decision. If you are working with a web designer, they will be able to help guide you in your choice of web hosts.

So now that we know the basic definitions of what a website is, what do you need to know when you are creating accounts with your domain name registrar and your web hosting company? You need to maintain ownership. Bottom line. Especially if you are working with a company to help you through this process, please be sure to explicitly state that you and your company should be the only contacts for the domain name. Too often, businesses will want to change hosting companies, change domain registrars or change web designers and they find they have lost control of their information!

The information you should control when you have registered your domain and hosting your webpages is:

• your domain registrar account name and login
  This will allow you to make changes to your name, address and email information as well as your nameservers.
  TIP: use an email account NOT associated with your domain eg. a Gmail or HotMail account
• if you have registered a .CA domain, you will also have your Canadian Internet Registration Authority account name and login
  CIRA will request authorization before transferring any .CA domain so you will need to have access to this account should you ever need to transfer your domain.
• your hosting account name and login
  This will allow you to login to your host where you can upload webpages, create email accounts, and access other tools.

If you are not the person setting up all the accounts, please make sure you receive all this information. To check to see whether your information is correct, you can use websites like Network Solutions or WHOIS.net to display your information. Click here to see an example whois record.

There are many considerations when taking your business out into the Internet and you will find that it is an ever changing environment where the hard fast 'rules' of today become passé as the next new big thing comes along. But through it all, you will retain ownership of your Internet business because though you may be small now, everybody will know your name right? Cheers!