Domain names, web hosting, DNS, SSL, and the digital infrastructure that powers everything online. From registrar to server to launch.
Short beats long. .com is king (95% of type-in traffic). Avoid hyphens and numbers. Say it out loud — can someone spell it after hearing it once? Check social media handle availability too. Use Namecheap or GoDaddy instant search.
Premium domains sell for $1K-$1M+. Two-word .com domains are the sweet spot. Industry keywords + location (austinplumber.com) have clear value. Check recent sales at NameBio.com. Expired domains at ExpiredDomains.net.
.com: Default, most trusted. .org: Nonprofits, open source. .net: Tech, networks. .io: Startups, tech ($50+/yr). .co: Startup alternative. .ai: AI companies ($80+/yr). Country codes: .us, .uk, .ca for local targeting.
DNS translates domain names to IP addresses. A record: Points domain to server IP. CNAME: Points subdomain to another domain. MX: Email routing. TXT: Verification (Google, email). TTL: How long records are cached. Use Cloudflare for free DNS management.
Best for: Small sites, blogs, portfolios. Cost: $3-10/mo. Pros: Cheap, managed, easy. Cons: Slow under traffic, shared resources. Top picks: SiteGround ($3/mo), Hostinger ($3/mo), A2 Hosting ($3/mo).
Best for: Growing sites, developers, multiple sites. Cost: $5-40/mo. Pros: Dedicated resources, root access, scalable. Cons: Requires server management. Top picks: DigitalOcean ($6/mo), Linode ($5/mo), Vultr ($5/mo).
Best for: High-traffic, enterprise, auto-scaling needs. Cost: Pay-per-use. Pros: Infinite scale, global CDN, managed services. Cons: Complex pricing, can get expensive. Top picks: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Vercel, Netlify.
Best for: HTML/CSS sites, JAMstack. Cost: Free-$20/mo. Pros: Blazing fast, secure, free tiers. Cons: No server-side code. Top picks: Netlify (free), Vercel (free), GitHub Pages (free), Cloudflare Pages (free).
Let's Encrypt provides free SSL certificates. Auto-renewing. Used by millions of sites. Certbot makes installation automatic on most servers. There is zero reason to run a site without HTTPS in 2026.
Free tier includes: DNS, SSL, CDN, DDoS protection, and basic analytics. Proxy your site through Cloudflare for instant performance and security boost. Takes 5 minutes to set up. Every site should use it.
Disable password SSH login (use keys only). Firewall (ufw on Ubuntu). Fail2ban for brute force protection. Keep packages updated (unattended-upgrades). Disable root login. Use non-standard SSH port. Regular backups.
UptimeRobot (free, 50 monitors): alerts you when sites go down. Google Search Console: monitors indexing issues. Server monitoring: htop, netdata, or Datadog. Log analysis: GoAccess or AWStats. Know before your users know.