You have had the idea of a lifetime.
It could be bigger than you tube, funnier than stupid videos. It will make you millions and you will be the most popular person for miles around.
While nothing will happen overnight, you should strike while the idea is fresh; get things going now, even if you don't do anything with the idea for a few months. For the idea to be a success, there are a number of things that you need to as soon as possible: get the domain name, arrange hosting and put an interim home page.
Where do you start? With your domain name.
The first thing that you need is a domain name. The domain name will be the basis of the whole identity of the site, how people find you. You do not want to spend a long time building the site only to find the domain name has been taken by someone else.
You don't have to spend lots of money on registering the domain name. Just ensure that the name is registered in your name.
For a quick easy and cheap domain name registration, try www.wittyweb.net a domain name company setup to host funny and amusing domain names.
When registering your domain name, do a little bit of research. If possible you want the .com. While there are plenty of domain groups available (.info, .net or even country level domains like .co.uk or .de) the .com is the main one that everyone looks for.
Check that your domain is available. If it is not, and you are happy to take one of the less popular domains, check what the already taken domains are being used for. You don't want to find something totally inappropriate for your target audience being hosted on the .com!
If you are registering a country domain, perhaps because it will appeal to that country only, check the other variants - if possible try and pick up the .com version as well, even if you don't intend to use it.
What Next? Hosting.
Once you have the domain name, you then need hosting.
You may think that the hosting isn't something that should be setup this early, but it can prove invaluable while the site is being built. You don't have to make the site visible, test it on sub pages behind the main page.
Your ISP may offer hosting as part of their package, but that isn't really suitable for running any kind of professional site. You may be restricted on what technologies you can use on the web space and restrictions on its use for anything deemed "commercial".
You may be tempted to look at one of the free hosting options that are all over the internet. The problem with using a free host is getting off them when the site becomes popular. Free hosting companies are notorious for shutting down web sites for no reason, due to a violation of the terms. Their terms are written so that they can cram in thousands of web sites on a single server and when one site starts to take more resources it will be shutdown.
Instead look at one of the low cost hosting solutions from a commercial host. While these may cost may be a few dollars a month, the service you will receive should be much better. You will have more freedom to use the technologies that you require and moving to more advanced hosting should be straight forward. For your funny domain, www.wittyweb.net is an ideal choice as various hosting packages are available.
You have your domain, got some hosting, what now? A basic home page.
Get a basic home page up on your hosting site as soon as possible. Include basic information about what the site will be about and an email address to contact you. If you are looking for content, then include a request and a special email address for content to be sent to. Be careful with your email addresses as they will be collected by spam robots. You may want to look at some of the techniques for hiding the address from automated robots - even at this early stage.
Once you have the home page, start submitting it to the search engines. It can take many months to get listed, so by the time you have the site built, the search engines should be aware of your site.
You could also use a package to automate your search engine submissions.
www.wittyweb.net offers the Traffic Blazer tool which will do most of the work for you after entering your information just once.
With the basics in place, you can then start to build your site and become the next big thing.
