The first steps are really basic ones. Here’s some hints for getting started.
This is actually a follow on from our PAD Program to Submit Software item but it may be generally useful to people.
If you’re selling software (or giving it away) on the net, your software needs to be on the net. It looks better (and people are more likely to try your software) if your site looks “real”. In the very least you can get by with using free web space that came with your internet account BUT there are problems with that. What if your program is really popular? What if the downloads exceed your free bandwidth each month? What if you change internet providers?
The cost of a domain name is not much. We use GoDaddy.com but other registrars exist and some may be even cheaper.
The cost of hosting is not much either. We use xhostsolutions.com because they are a good price and we like them. There are lots of others out there too – probably with similar prices, and service that is just as good. I have a friend that works for velocity internet in Canberra. They do web hosting.
In many ways unix(linux) based hosting is better than Windows hosting but we have used both and either one works.
This really answered my problem, thanks!