It struck me, as I closed the pages to FIVE DAYS IN PARIS, to start a website dedicated to the works of Danielle Steel. Some of you will applaud me, most of you will jeer. I accept that. I am not perfect, but I am dedicated. Indeed, I defy any of the naysayers to read the 1977 classic, PASSION’S PROMISE and not be moved to tears. To have a heart is to know the Steel Lady. But I digress. The point here is that I had an excellent idea for a website and websites take a bit of doing.

Your first step is the deepest: you have to get hosted. Not like Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island, but like getting an address. This means you need a catchy website name, like www.steelladyofletters.com. Now, this will effectively be your domain name. “A what?” you ask. Oh, my poor Tattoo, you will learn shortly how the fantasy of a website will become reality. Cut to commercial.

You see, a domain name now needs a host to essentially “carry” it. Think in terms of real estate. You have the plans to your dream home, now you need a piece of land to build on. That piece of land will then be your address. But in this case you will get to actually determine your address. Nifty, no? Yes. This is where a DNS provider makes an entrance like William Shatner.

A DNS provider registers your domain name and is responsible for making sure when people type in your URL address your site pops up. So, of course, it stands to reason that you would want to get hosted on a reputable, far-reaching provider. By far-reaching I mean one that has numerous geographical servers located throughout the nation. Worldwide would be even better. This ensures when people in France or Sri Lanka type in your website address, it shows up.

You should know, for the sake of landing a viable DNS provider, that most hosting services share servers with other hosting services. This smacks of fractional-reserve banking, you know, what your local bank does when it lends money based on possessing a fraction of the actual loan amount, but DNS servers are far more reliable than your local bank. If it’s still there these days. Anyway, my point is find a good host. And then hail Danielle Steel.