11873 Web site domains/building your own, etc

Hi Violetta, it depends what your looking for, there are free sites ( like our one ) but they get ads that pop up...........but like I said ..its free.....and very easy to set up and use, and change when you want too..............good luck

Hi Violetta. I was going to transfer my domain a month ago to another ISP so I had a look around. I nearly went for this one - [url=http://www.one.com/en_US/]One.com Web hosting  -  Domain • Hosting • E-mail  [/url] but it would have cost me in transfer fees. If I set up another website I will use them although I' would ask what hosting fees are involved after the first year.

Hi Violetta

Lovely to see you back and glad you haven't been put off by the disturbances on the blog over the last few days, its been sad!.
Now for websites, we used GoDaddy.com. My daughter did our website and although not free we've had no problems with it. Fingers crossed!

Violetta. I also suggest you get in touch with HenryG here. He is a web designer based in the UK. He also runs a web group here on The Forum.

You could have a look at this one Violetta [B][URL="http://www.webs.com/"][/URL][URL]http://www.webs.com/[/URL][/B]
I used them for my first website design and I didn't know 'up from down' then.
They are free, unless you want to buy a domain name of course, but they are really easy for beginners to set up...

I've progressed now to a [I]'slightly'[/I] more complicated design site, but while I think you can have a 5 page site free of charge a 10 page one does cost a bit. This was GO Daddy [B][URL="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/hosting_build_website.asp?ci=8975"]Free Web Hosting Account With Web Site Tonight Purchase[/URL]
[/B]
My partner and I went to a website designer for our larger site two years ago and the template we chose cost (I think) about he charged about $90 for a 'shared template (that means others can buy/use the 'layout' but NOT our design..... He did everything on the design and set it all up at the outset, but then it was up to us.... thank heavens my partner knows a bit about it. I'm a total 'dork'. Should you be interested in him - send me a PM....

But in any event - Good Luck - In Bocca al Lupo!

Violetta I was in the same boat as you a few months ago and did quite a bit of research on domain registration/web hosting sites, so I hope the following info will be helpful.

I used [url=http://www.simpleurl.com/]domain name registration[/url] to register the domain and [url=http://www.servage.net/]Servage Hosting - One Solution[/url] to host the site. I did a Google search for discount codes and was able to get a discount on the Servage hosting. As for web development.....I'm a complete n00b but I was able to build my own site from templates on Rapidweaver software (I use a Mac). Be careful if choosing a free web host as many have limited features.

Here's a list of some "free" hosting sites you might want to check out -
[url=http://www.000webhost.com/]Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads[/url]
[url=http://www.doteasy.com/]Free Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration Services by Doteasy.com[/url]
[url=http://www.hostmonster.com/]Host Monster - Web hosting[/url]

Have fun :bigergrin:

You are all wonderful, I honestly cannot thank you enough for so many incredibly helpful replies in such a short space of time. I wish you were all here right now so that we could share something red and Tuscan! I'm going to print off this thread and study it carefully but will no doubt be back with loads of questions for I'm afraid you're dealing with two card carrying technically challenged individuals here, so please be patient with us. Thanks again.

I personally like 1and1. I host our business site through there and recently I've moved just about everyone else's site that I look after there as well. All in all I've been with them for 2 years and I've never had an issue. They've got the usual web-builder tools that your husband can use to create basic pages with - if you want to do something more involved then any designer will have be fine dealing with 1and1. Their webmail is decent if you're travelling and I otherwise make good use of IMAP to keep all my emails synced across 4 different Macs.

Finally, they answer the phone and they respond to emails. Can't say fairer than that.

I've just moved someone off GoDaddy simply because although they were cheap, his clients were all UK-based and it just didn't make sense having a server across the other side of the planet hosting his site. It's much quicker/slicker now & since it's a business, accounting is somewhat simpler & he can reclaim VAT.

I have used 1&1 for years and am very happy ... they are very unintrusive and the billing I get from them each year is really simple and easy to pay.

Thanks everyone. Hubby's spent the day playing around have terrific fun in the process. But several of you have used the phrase, "looking after people's websites". Do we need someone (and, if so, who?) to "look after" ours?

Im another 1&1 fan - great service and problem free hosting. And cheap.

Violetta Hi It depends how complicated the website is and your husband's abilities!!! E-commerce ones are tricky, brochure type ones aren't. Yes you can pay people to look after your website ie makes any changes on your behalf when you require them. If you do use someone then they will require your Password and User ID to the ftp where you website has been uploaded to. Web hosting is on the whole in these cheap offers confined to them basically doing zilch for you, other than the smooth running of the allocated web space they have.. I think I have this right.

Hi Violetta,

We used 123 Reg when we set our up. Everything seemed quite simple and i thought they were relatively cheap at the time.

[url=http://www.123-reg.co.uk/]123-reg | Domain names | Domain name registration[/url]

Hi Violetta,

It all depends on what kind of site your setting up and how much bandwidth / cpu you will need. If Its a new site then it will take some time to build and get traffic so i suggest starting off with a basic hosting package.

[U][B]Domain name[/B][/U]:

One thing that i will suggest is to always use different companies for your domain and hosting. It has been be mentioned in this thread a company called godaddy ([url=http://www.godaddy.com]Browser Update Page[/url]) i would recommend them to purchase your domain but not for hosting on a standard shared server. From my experience of them way back there shared servers are very overloaded and your site will run slow. I suggest this because at a later date should you wish to change hosting providers you just need to change the nameservers in you DNS Control panel to your new web host. Most web companies offer free domain included in the price of the web hosting but pay the little extra and keep them separate ( trust me, you will thank me one day when you understand all of this)

[U][B]In regards to hosting:[/B][/U]

As you will be setting up an E-commerce site you will most certainly need to use a database (mysql or sql) so you should check that is available in your chosen hosting package. You should also be aware of any connections limits or limits of databases sizes (most shared hosting providers do have limits unless your on a higher spec plan)

Most E-commerce sites use PHP or CGI to run so again you should check that is also available in the package. PHP 5 and SQL 5 are the current standards so i would suggest a plan with those specs although your site [B]may run [/B]on PHP 4 and SQL 4.

Also look at what backup system you host provides. Again this is very important. You dont want to spend hours designing a site and if a hard disk fails on your server or some hacker decides to play games you may lose everything. All good shared hosts take daily backups for you just be aware of them!

[U][B]Customer Support[/B][/U]:

When you are in the learning process of all this you will no doubt need to call customer support at some stage. A good shared host will provide 24 hour telephone support. I once used a well known Italian host but i quickly moved away from them as there support hours where 9am 8 pm Mon - Fri and only by email. / with a 24hour responce time.

Keep this in mind when selecting your host.

I dont want to be too tecnical in this thread but if you have any questions feel free to PM me and i'll do my best to help you.

I agree with all of that. I don't think they're looking to start an e-commerce site, at least it wasn't mentioned in V's initial post so it could be whole lot simpler; someone else introduced that into the equation later on. If you're going to go down the e-commerce route though - watch out! There's an entire new data-security system being rolled out by Visa/Mastercard and there are lots of hoops to jump through with regards to site security/credit card handling methods & it's costly.

Can't really agree entirely with above re the need for expensive 'e-commerce' hosting.

I've designed my own and other people's site and if its a case of selling a few products or taking cash for a booking you are better off using paypal.There are very easy to use 'buy it now' buttons that you can copy and paste onto your web pages. You can even set up a programme in outlook express so you can email these payment buttons to customers.I do jewellery repairs so it allows me extra flexibilty.You can do this in euros if you want thro the paypal uk site.

My site costs me £20 to host a year and I pay something like 4% for a sale using paypal.I also give my customers a choice of paying buy cheque.So very affordable compared to these ecommerce deals costing many £100s .

You can take a look:

[URL="http://www.mybeadyeye.com"]www.mybeadyeye.com[/URL]

My appoligies I misread the thread... I thought you was setting up an ec site. :yes:

If its just static content (Plain HTML) then any web host will do (even godaddy) but if you plan on using a database then my thread still stands. You kind find basic packages for €10 or less a month that will provide all of what i stated above to start you off.

Paypal is the cheapest solution for taking payments online but i'm not going to go into that as that is not my area.

Just to say, girls, if you want to keep your partner quiet for a while, give him a website to design! I've hardly seen mine since Tuesday night...

No offence, but 4%!! Jeez, two or three of our clients paying that way would eat up more in fees than it costs to host a genuine e-commerce site.

Sorry to disillusion you ski but an ecommerce site would not include the fees to whoever processes online payments! So you pay the hosting and shop package as well as your cc fees.

If anyone has found a way of getting paid online without paying any fees please let me know!! I used worldpay at one time but they wanted a one off fee of several hundred to set up and then an annual fee.

Incidentally the paypal fees go down if your turnover increases ( mine is quite low as I sell more work in shops and galleries than online) . Not sure but maybe to 2 % or less?

Yup, I'm well aware of e-commerce websites - we've had one for years. But those fees are quite extortionate - but that's because you're paying for the convenience of Paypal I guess. With most regular banks you can negotiate your own terms and settlement options although much of that is dependent on the type of business and your turn-over. Worldpay are horrifically expensive as well - we always get a quote each year when we have the option to terminate our current contract.

How's the website coming along Violetta?

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I keep well away from Paypal except for when dealing with the most trusted of people. If your client has a grievance against you and makes even an unsubstantiated claim, Paypal will deduct money from your account or your credit card and it is then a complete pain to get the money back. No credit card processing site is going to be cheap, though. I use 2checkout.com (for ebook sales) as they have 24 hour customer service, and they are extremely reliable and prompt payers. But they now require new vendors to go through a whole series of security checks - so it's not quick to set up.

Hi
we recently changed to 1&1, they seem fine. For a self build site, you could do worse than trying [url=http://www.bluevoda.com/]Free website builder create website maker web page site builder[/url] their video tutorials and templates and components seem great and its a content management type set up that simplifies the whole process. Its free to download the software, the only costs are a small monthly fee once youve created your site