What is a Domain and Why should you have one.

Why do people live in homeless shelters online?

If given the choice most people would prefer the comforts of their own space, as opposed to someone else’s; so, why are so many people comfortable living in someone else’s domain? For example: Fb, Ig, TikTok, etc. these are all sites that are free for anyone to open an account and exist online, in someone else’s Domain? Not all people choose homeless shelters, or free websites; some rent and pay subscriptions, like HOA’s on a condo, with sites like LinkedIn, WordPress, or GoDaddy for example. Just like people aspire to own a home, having a domain and existing on your own website should also be something everyone can attain, not only for business, or tech savvy folks, but everyone.

How and why the Internet was created?

To understand what a domain is we must understand why and where it exists.

In the 1960’s government researchers wanted to share their information with one another, however computers at the time were immobile, weighing upwards of 16000lbs. If researchers wanted to access information held in one of these computers, they would have to travel to them or send and review information on magnetic tape via snail mail.

With the Cold War, the race to space, and Soviet Union’s successful satellite Sputnik; The U.S. Defense Department was pushed to consider ways information stored in these immobile computers, might be accessed even after a nuclear attack.

The first network of computers set up was known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) along with the Data Defense Network ran by the U.S. Defense Department. Although, these networks would be beneficial, they were limited to the agencies who could afford academic or government contracts. In today’s context you had to have a computer, connected to one of the only available networks that paid for access to the information sharing system. This inequitable access to technology and information, would lead to independent networks. Each network being created was like its own country in the sense that they had their own protocols and ways of communicating creating a kind of, Tower of Babble.

Uniting the Intranetworks of America and the Birth of the Internet.

The early sharing system was run through Stanford Research Institute, now known as SRI international. SRI would receive host files that they would assign a numerical address online; and a registry of these numbers was created. As technology advanced and computers got smaller, setting up internal sharing networks became more affordable, companies like General Electric and Remington-rand were one of the first to have computers using them for things like proprietary research and payroll calculations. More networks meant more host files, which in turn created more numbers to be registered and a centralized system was needed.

On January 1, 1983 the Internet was born, now all computers with access to the internet would communicate under universal communication protocols. These are known as Transmission/Transfer Control Protocol and Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP), this coincided with the DNS (Domain Name System), which assigns IP addresses to domain names. If the Internet was a Post Office and you wanted to send information to someone, you first must pick the box or envelope to send that information in, this is the Transmission control protocol, it communicates how packets of data are sent over the Internet. A Domain name is like the street name on the package, and the IP is your numerical address telling the receiver who sent the package.

Making the streets safer for travelers online.

In 1991 the TCP standard became HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) which is akin to a basic white envelope, used for basic or general information sharing online. Then in 1997, HTTPS (hypertext transfer protocol secure), was created to transmit sensitive information or to prevent government censorship, by sending packets using encryption; imagine this is like certified mail requiring a signature.

Don’t get Lost on the Information Highway

A domain name provides a unique identity to an IP numerical location online. Imagine a domain name is what you call your home; for example, “The Smiths,” but when people put in “The Smiths” in a GPS, there is a numerical location for that name.  It will have the home address numbers, street name, suite or apt., city, state, country, zip. Just like a mailing address there are levels to domain names and locations on the Intranet.

In 1985 there was only a few top-level domains, “.com” and “.edu” which are now considered generic (gTLDs). As of 1998, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, manages the development and architecture of domain names and spaces. As of June 2020 there were over 1,514 TLDs (Top level Domains) such as; .guru, .tips, .club, .life, and many more according to ICANN reports.

TLD or Top-level domains today give the individual the ability to be specific about what their domain provides and the type of information sharing that will take place; ex. If my domain uses “.plumbing” safe to say my site is about plumbing.   Next is the SLD (second/sub level domain) like Facebook or Google, they are located left of the “TDL” and are the Brand of the  Left of the SLD, is the Subdomain, most are familiar with the generic “www.”, which stands for world wide web. Other familiar subdomains are “shop.” “help.”or “info.” A simpler way to think of this is like giving the names to bedrooms in “The Smiths” home. Having a Domain is not so much like having a house, but more like buying a condominium. You never own the land it is on, you have HOA’s, must follow guidelines and pay fees, to “live” in a space that provides you a numerical address.

What’s your URL?

A domain is not to be confused with a uniform resource identifier (URL). A URL is how sites give you a space in their “shelter”; for example, www.facebook.com/yournamehere.  Like homeless shelters, having a mass amount of people without having the proper infostructure, can be dangerous or even deadly. “Social sites” popped up giving out urls, collecting people’s algorithms but, without necessarily having the proper guidelines for care and safety. The lack of oversight has been dangerous for many people, young and old. A “social site” will give you a space in the “master’s domain,” but everything you post is owned by the “Master” not the individual.

From Homeless Online to Housed in your Domain.

Homeownership is hard. Finding land, with a house, where you want to live may not be possible for everyone. The same can be said for domains, not everyone will have one, but it won’t be for lack of space, more for lack of knowledge. Anyone or anything can exist anywhere, in time, and space when you have your own domain online.

This maybe the most important part of having your website, am I right?

Etsy, Bigcartel, Wix, and so many others prey on this part of your small business dreams. 

AND THEY MAKE SURE TO CHARGE YOU FOR IT! 

For more on price comparisons click $12 Domains 

Third Party Pimps, as I refer to them, business like GoDaddy, Wordpress Etc. are like internet gangsters. 

These sites have tried to claim a part of the internet, where you can't get in unless you pay their price.

They don't just want you to pay once, they want to punk you over and over again with fees and subscriptions.

Taking a cut of YOUR business every left and right.

If you've been following the instructions posted so far you should have a:

• Domain with google
• email
• free hosting
• template 

In this post will cover 2 ecommerce options

(if you have others please leave them in the comments)

• Paypal 
• Ecwid

Yes, there are fees associated with ecommerce that you can not avoid. However these stores wont charge a monthly/yearly subscription to use their service. 

Your business will be charged if/when your business sells something or wants an upgraded service.

Paypal offers a lot of payment options, like subscriptions, which for many content creators can come in handy when we talk about login clients later on,

For now we are dealing with a BuyNow option.

Whatever your business needs Paypal has been doing it from the beginning of ecommerce so have no fear.

With the paypal coding, the best look is creating individual new posts for each item you want to sell.

You will generate the code for a purchase button according to each item post.

For tracking purposes you will want to recreate a new button for each item. DONT COPY AND PASTE THE SAME CODE FOR DIFFERENT ITEMS.

 

Here is what a paypal post would look like Services

There are a lot of amazing Content Creators. 

If you have decided to use Google Domains and purchased your dot "whateveryoucallyourself", now it's time to setup hosting. 

You can also forward your domain to a site that you already have as well. (I don't recommend, but you can)

I'm just showing you one way to get up and running without hurting your bottom line. 

Google sites is a new feature offered through google domains. I haven't used it myself but is what it says, SIMPLE. I will post about it later as I am still learning the ins and outs for you. The big take away is that it is a free service.

As stated before, YOU have the service or product people want, so your people will go where YOU send them! To often small business struggle because their FB/IG or Third party service is hacked or their content is pulled due to haters flagging posts.

AAAANNNNND....Lets be clear if you are doing something egregiously wrong, your website can be shut down as well.

We know big intranet does not care about YOU and all your hard work, they can and have, easily erased. 

These third party pimps (T.T.P) only care about what you bring to them, and how much they can make from your intellectual property.

Instead of sending your traffic, hard work and ideas to someone else's street (Domain) and Home (site), use the T.P.P. to find and point YOUR people to YOUR dot "wahateveryoucallyourself".

For now we are working with BLOGGER for our hosting.

Blogger of course has it's own template themes. If you are currently using FB/IG for your business then this is a seamless fit for you. If you don't mind them they are readily available for you to use.  You can find tools to decorate and personalize your "blog" to your liking on the Layout tab and Theme tabs.

As we discussed in the Domain post, templates and services usually come with limitations and or CO$T$.

Since I am not paying a monthly fee for hosting and design, I use the money I save to I pay for things that I have found much more beneficial. 

For example a premade personalized blogger template. This provides a professional look and coding for a ONE time fee.

Again there are different prices for different features or designs, I personally have never paid more than $12.95 

Here are the sites I use....

I suggest taking the time to browse and find the right fit for you and your business.

In the next post I will share add-ons like social media sharing tools and a store.

Once you have purchased the Template from one of these sites, you will receive the setup instructions. Here is an example of their set up.

1. Template Installation
2. Logo Setup
3. Template Setting
4. Shortcodes & Markups v2.0
5. Create Sitemap

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