Scottmorrison.com.au - the official website of Australia's current prime minister - has been brazenly purchased by an internet prankster for $50. It appears the PM's social media team forgot to renew the domain name.

The site has since been stripped of all content and now plays the punk ditty ‘Scotty Doesn’t Know’ on a loop over a picture of Scott's smiling face. Wow. Just... wow.

Web hosting has come a long way since the days of uploading a few static HTML pages, some images and perhaps a few extras like a gallery or discussion board. Today's web hosts need to offer databases, automation, blogging platforms and a bunch more. When you're ready to take your data into your own hands and run your own website you need to find a good web host that can make life as easy as possible for you.

Thankfully, there are dozens of great companies looking for your business. Today, we're looking at five of the best.

One of the easiest ways to start publishing your own content is to use out-of-the-box software that integrates easily with a hosting platform. It makes the whole set up process and admin side of the website super easy. One of the most popular tools for doing that is WordPress. Lots of web hosting companies offer integrated packages that include WordPress-specific services. Here are a few of the best and most popular - some of which are offering big discounts for a limited time.

HostGator's Snappy 60 sale has seen web hosting prices dropped by up to 62%. This means you can get unmetered bandwidth on your website for under $4 per month. Here are the details!

Registering a domain name is one of the first things new businesses need to do when they're setting up. And that means dealing with a company that dispenses domain names; a domain registrar. Registrars verify that the name you've chosen isn't the same as someone else's and they manage the renewal process. Often, they bundle domain name registration with other services such as web hosting and cloud-based email. So, who are some of the better domain registrars out there and what should you look out for?

Whether you’re building a brand or running a business, having an online presence is essential for getting your name out there. Unfortunately, running a website can be expensive and time-consuming -- unless you have Lifetime.Hosting in your corner.

Looking for a reliable, easy-to-manage, and high-speed web hosting option? Now readers of Lifehacker can get more for less with the A2 Hosting Swift Plan, which includes a year of top notch and unlimited web hosting services -- plus a free domain. It’s all available for 88% off the retail price for a limited time.

What good is having a great website if your web host is unreliable? Kick your sketchy web host to the curb and transfer your site to the Face Extra Hosting Plan. Right now Lifehacker Australia readers can purchase a 5 year subscription for just $104 AUD , a savings of at least 86% off the RRP.

Google has added a new feature to Drive: You can now serve up web content from within your Google Drive folder, even ones that run JavaScript. All you need to do is upload your HTML files and assets, and then make them public.

Site44 is a free web app that hooks up with your Dropbox account and lets you create multiple websites inside your Dropbox account for the world to see. Create the page with their site builder, and then manage and edit the site locally -- your changes will always sync to the web.

When you're ready to take your data into your own hands and run your own blog, own your own photos, and host your own apps, it's time to find a good web host that can put it all on the web for you, give you the tools, bandwidth, and storage you need, and support you when you need help. Thankfully, there are dozens of great companies looking for your business, and this week we're going to look at five of the best.

Have a website and want to know the minute your site is down? This simple Google Docs spreadsheet from Digital Inspiration can email you and monitor your website for free.

Most people consider Github just a repository for code and a place where developers can collaborate on projects and visitors can download cool new open-source applications. It's definitely that, but there's much more available to you at a Github user if you know how to take advantage of it.

If you've even briefly considered setting up your own domain with Google Apps, consider that after May 10, any new Apps "Standard Edition" sign-ups are limited to 10 users, requiring a Business Edition purchase to go beyond that limit.

As we covered in our lessons on how to create a website, getting your site online can take a little effort. Coralrift, on the other hand, lets you pick a name for your site, drag your site onto a drop area, and click a button to upload it. It's basically instant website deployment.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to build and maintain a full-fledged web site. If you're just looking for a simple way to unify all your online profiles, these personal landing pages are a perfect fit.

Whether you're looking to share photos with family or trying to start your own online business, code-free web site builder Moonfruit aims to cover your needs.

If you're running your own web site, or planning to, you probably know exactly what kind of space, bandwidth, and features you'll need, along with a price point. HostMonk finds web hosts based on those preferences. The site boasts of pricing and listing more than 2,500 hosting packages from a wide variety of companies, and it does offer up the nitty-gritty details on each one, including their server and headquarters locations, managed or unmanaged status, processor types, Linux or Windows, and all the basic numbers and prices. It seems to tend away from the big names in hosting, but could also net you a pretty sweet deal on data pricing, if you're willing to shop around. It doesn't offer point-by-point comparison selection or comparison, unfortunately, but otherwise delivers the numerical goods without your having to endlessly Google around. Free to use, though many links are connected to affiliate systems.

HostMonk

Having your own hosted web domain has never been cheaper, or easier, with the vast array of free resources out there. Here are our ten favourite tools to help anyone launch and maintain their internet presence. Photo by Jasison_Judd.