Domain Name:
Before you download, you should have a web Domain Name, and determine who you will be using for your web host provider.
- Domain Name Suffixes The suffixes tells what type of organization you are. For example, we use writtenforchrist.org, because we are a nonprofit organization. Cox Communications and AT&T use *.net with their emails customers because they are a network. Commercial Businesses use *.com or *.biz There are some who break the suffix rules, because the are no suffix rule police. As a nonprofit you should be using *.org
- Selecting a Domain Name This should be simple as your church name with an *.org at the end. Life is not always simple, thus if you are the First Baptist Church, you may need to add your city and state. This might look like: firstbaptistchurch.losangeles.ca.org You could add '-' character, but with smart cell phones, the user will need to switch screens to type the '-' character. Do not buy the domain name yet unless you know the host provider does not supply yours.
- Test Domain-Name Do a basic test on the new domain name simply by typing the domain name into your web browser.
Host Provider
The host provider will need to support PHP, which this template written on and these instructions were written for.
The SSL Certificate will allow a better SEO ranking for the search engines. In fact some browsers give warnings when you do not have an SSL Certificate.
When selecting a host provider, by the price they offer, please do not only look at the price of the first year. Most host providers offer a large discount for the first year, and then you find out their standard cost. I suggest researching their standard cost and use this as your reference.
It seams everybody offers email as a customer support option, but waiting a day or two is frustrating when you cannot get your website up. This is why most want chat and/or phone customer support.
Written For Christ has selected Regional Internet for our web server host provider.
Spreadsheet
We created a Google Sheet for determining the the features and prices of the host providers.
SelectingHostProvider.odsSelectingHostProvider.xlsx
When downloading the OurLittleChurch, do not create any folders within MyWeb. The unzipping process will create OurLittleChurch folder. Do not modify the code within OurLittleChurch folder, this is your reference code.
The next process will be to copy the OurLittleChurch folder and create a new folder with your church name. You and others will have less problems if you do NOT add spaces with the name of the directory.