The Specialists

Back in early May, Al and I decided that we should turn our Specialists idea into a webcomic. Until then, we’d been planning to make a roleplaying game product, but the project was languishing (I’m using a very specific definition of “languish” here which means that Al was churning out art like some kind of art-churning machine and I was… somewhat less productive). So we switched gears and less than two months later, we launched our site. I was amazed at how quickly, cheaply, and easily it came together.

There are all kinds of resources on line that make setting up a web site a snap. Literally anyone with a few bucks and a basic level of computer literacy can launch a blog or a webcomic in no time (of course, filling it with content is another story). I love that the Internet gives everyone an equal opportunity to express themselves, and that the cost of entry is so low (for now, anyway). If you’ve ever thought about starting a website of your own, read on. Otherwise, you can probably skip this one. (You won’t hurt my feelings. Have a good weekend, and we’ll see  you on Monday!)

I’m going to outline the basic steps required to launch a site, and tell you a little bit about the choices we made at each step. I’ll also list some alternatives to the products and services that we used, but this isn’t intended to be a detailed comparison of different products. You should research each of these to find the one that works best for you.

Domain Registration

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide on a domain name and register it. There are lots of domain registrars on line, and it generally costs about $10 to $20 to register a domain for a year. Most hosting companies are also registrars, so it’s generally easiest to use the same company for both. Be prepared to compromise on your domain name. Your first idea has almost certainly been taken already, either by a legitimate website, or by “cyber squatters” who register domains solely to sell them for a large profit. (This is why we are using “thespecialistscomic”; we’d have liked to use “thespecialists,” but we weren’t prepared to pay thousands of dollars to the squatters who currently own that domain.)

Hosting

Once you have your domain, you’ll need someone to host it. You’ll most likely want a shared hosting plan to start, which means that your site will share a server with other sites. We use Go Daddy, who offers shared hosting for about $7 a month. Eventually, your readership may grow to the point that you’ll need a dedicated server, which is much more expensive (generally around $100 or more a month, depending on which options you choose). However, by that point, you should ideally be bringing in enough money from ads to cover your hosting costs. We’re nowhere near this point yet, so I can’t offer much insight.

Something to keep in mind when choosing your hosting plan is which programming languages it supports. This will be important when you decide what software to install in the next step. If you’re looking for free options, then your best bet is probably PHP.

Other web hosts include 1&1, Dreamhost, and Blue Host.

Software

Okay, now you’ve got a domain, and a place to put it. Now you’ll need something to put there. Otherwise, visitors to your site will just see the host’s “this site coming soon” page, which is nice and all, but not really worth the price of the hosting. If your site is going to be a blog or a webcomic, then you could do a lot worse than WordPress.

WordPress is built with PHP, and is open source, which means that it’s free. It provides a very customizable platform for blogging, and is relatively easy to use. Go Daddy can install WordPress for you at the click of a button (they also provide this feature for some other packages). There are also hundreds of free themes and plugins available for WordPress. Themes can change the look and feel of your site dramatically, while plugins provide extra functionality. We use the ComicPress theme, which is very popular amongst webcomic creators.

Other PHP-based blog or content management system (CMS) packages include Movable Type and Drupal.

If you’d prefer to use ASP.Net instead of PHP (and unless you’re an ASP developer, I can’t think of a compelling reason to do so), you can also use DotNetNuke, which is an open source CMS package with lots of “modules” available for download, including some for blogging and webcomics.

At this point, you actually should have a functioning site. Not bad for an investment of about $17 ($10 for domain registration, and $7 for the first month’s hosting) and a couple of hours. Of course, now comes the hard part: creating the content of your site. And if you want to customize the site’s appearance or functionality, you’ll need some extra skills and software, or hire someone who does. Still, it’s surprisingly easy to start a website of your own. If you’re interested in starting your own site, whether you’d like to do a webcomic or a blog, or just about anything, don’t let the technical stuff intimidate you. It’s easier than you think to get started.

Shawn