OK, lets get the fancy names out of the way first.

Some important terms you'll need to know before we start are.

Domain Name: This is your website and (the last part of) your email address - something like alpinecomms.co.uk. Consider this like a telephone number, which connects your computer to the right website or email account. Just as with telephone numbers, these can be redirected to a different place when you want.

Email: These are routed using your domain name to an email server, which is like a postbox that stores them until you or your computer are ready to read/download them.

Website: A set of computer files including images which reside on a computer server somewhere. Building or designing a website involves creating these files - usually a one-off project. Hosting the files involves holding them on a large computer centre which is available 24 hours a day and which will send them to any viewers computer immediately on request.

Search Engine: A website which knows about most of the websites on the internet and can very quickly provide a list of relevant sites with a brief description for any given set of search words. Google is the dominant search engine with over 50% of all searches, but Yahoo and MSN are also widely used. Search Engine Optimisation is the process used to make your website look"friendlier" to the search engine computers so that your site shows up more prominently.

Pay-Per-Click: Short adverts are automatically inserted into the top line and down the right hand side of search engine results from Google and Yahoo. You can arrange for your advert to be shown in response to any set of keywords, and pay a small fee if anyone clicks through to your website via your advert. Google calls this system Adwords. Yahoo and MSN have similar schemes.