In order for someone to own their own website, they must know how to setup webspace, purchase a domain, build a website, and publish their website on the web. This getting started guide for web hosting will teach you the basics of setting up web hosting and getting your own domain name.

There are three major parts to getting a website published online:

1. Webspace (where your website files live)
2. Domain (that points to your webspace)
3. Website Files (the actual content of your website)
   

Webspace:

Webspace is where your website files live and is the "Disk Space" that hosting companies give you when you sign up to their services. Think of webspace as a "Home" for your website files. In order to have a website, you need a place for your website files to live.

Domain:

A domain is the name that people associate with your website. For example: www.wealthyaffiliate.com is a domain name and it points to our website files on our servers. You can think of a domain like your street address to your home. In order for people to find your home you give them your address. In the online world a domain is the address to your website files.

Website Files:

In order to have your own website, you need to have the content of your site built in a "language" that Internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and others can read. When you visit www.wealthyaffiliate.com in your browser, you see our homepage. The homepage is made up of a number of files that are hosted on our webspace. Our domain then points to these files and your browser displays it.