How do I make a web site?

[orbitalfreak]

My family is looking in to setting up a website for our soon-to-be business, and I would like to know how to go about setting it up. I know some (and can learn more) coding, so that's not the problem. What we're interested in is where we would go to register a domain name, and where we could look to get our site hosted. Also, is there anything else that we're missing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MythosaAkira]

My family is looking in to setting up a website for our soon-to-be business, and I would like to know how to go about setting it up. I know some (and can learn more) coding, so that's not the problem. What we're interested in is where we would go to register a domain name, and where we could look to get our site hosted. Also, is there anything else that we're missing?

Thanks in advance.

You got a lot of options here, so I'll just relate my personal experience. Often, the provider you hook up with can work with you to get your domain name registered, or you can do it yourself. It's not that much work, but it's one less thing to hassle with. If you do it yourself, you can register your domain name at http://www.networksolutions.com.

You also may need to check with your provider if there's a difference (to them) between a personal web site and a business one. Some make a distinction, other's don't. Make sure you get the right one.

There are also technical issues you'll want to look into if people will actually be able to order products from your site. An interactive, "e-commerce" site will be more involved than one that simply serves up basic HTML.

Personally, I've had good luck with Doteasy (http://www.doteasy.com). In the past, I'd been with a variety of "free" hosts, but they almost always went out of business or gave me a multitude of technical problems. I've never had any problems with Doteasy, and the small cost I pay each month (you can get a 20 MB/1 GB site for free, and pay a little for more space/bandwidth beyond that) is worth the reliability I've had compared to most of my old hosts.

Hope that helps...

 

[Psionicist]

Please answer these questions:



Do you need database connections?

Do you need support for scripting languages such as PHP or ASP?

Do you think your site will get lots of visitors?

.com? .net? .org? .biz? .info? .us? ...?

How much webspace do you need? Less than 10MB? More than 10MB?

Is the website a critical part of your business? Do you need regular backup of the sits contents?

Are you familiar with the basics of FTP?

 

[orbitalfreak]

For more information, my parents are starting a farm, raising goats, rabbits, cows, and poultry. The main stock will be miniature horses, though. We want the site to mainly be a "storefront" of what stock we have available to sell. It would be constructed to showcase the animals we will have on the farm, list what's for sale, and have just an e-mail/snail-mail address for contacting us to actually do business. We won't be selling anything through the site itself.

As an example, this site is what we're trying to get ours to look like. We probably won't start out with a message board though, but there is a possibility to add one later (maximum number of users would probably be in the low hundreds).

Main
-Horses
--Galleries of our Stock
---What's for Sale (contact info)
-Rabbits
--Galleries of our Stock
---What's for Sale (contact info)
-Other Animals ... same format.

Please answer these questions:

Do you need database connections?

Don't think so.

Do you need support for scripting languages such as PHP or ASP?

Probably not. We're talking about just a simple HTML setup.

Do you think your site will get lots of visitors?

About 5-10% of ENWorld's traffic, at the most.

.com? .net? .org? .biz? .info? .us? ...?

Not sure, probably the default .com.

How much webspace do you need? Less than 10MB? More than 10MB?

Storage space? Probably under the 10MB mark.

Is the website a critical part of your business? Do you need regular backup of the sits contents?

Website will be mostly a gallery, with information. It will be the primary source of information about the business. Actual business communications will be done through e-mail; it won't be like ordering things from Amazon.com or anything.

Are you familiar with the basics of FTP?

I can upload files to a server using a FTP program. That should be sufficient for the amount and type of updating we would be doing.

Overall, I'm expecting (hoping for?) a low level of difficulty in maintaining the site. About once a month, I would upload some new pictures or make a new page to showcase a single animal. It should be something I could do in a weekend, maybe a full week for major updates, all in my free time. The website won't be my place of work, but just a service to help out my parents with the farm.

 

[Psionicist]

Funny thing is, I did something like this for my grandparents and their stable (they have 14 horses or so) this month.

www.stallskogshyddan.com

I would recommend you to learn some basic PHP, because maintaining a site is so much easier that way.

Look here:
http://www.stallskogshyddan.com/index.php?page=hem.html

Note the INDEX.PHP?PAGE=HEM.HTML ? View the HTML source of the page.

Now look here: http://www.stallskogshyddan.com/hem.html

The PHP script is basically the layout of the page, that includes a core piece of text or images depending what the PAGE variable in the URL is set to. If you want to change the layout of the whole page, you only have to edit one single file, the INDEX.PHP. The rest (such as HEM.HTML) is just pure text formatted with basic HTML tags.

This is VERY easy to implent. I can email you the source code with comments if you wish, it's merely 2 rows of code, plus some extra code for security reasons.

The best thing is, that PHP doesn't cost any money (it's free), so a web space provider with PHP should not be any more expansive than one without.

 

[Fast Learner]

I do not recommend Network Solutions. Their best pricing is $25 a year if you buy 3 years. I use Dotster -- they work exactly the same, have better support, and their worst pricing is $15.95 a year if you just get one year.

For hosting, if you're looking for a low-cost ASP provider I've had good success with both MyHosting and Brinkster.

(I don't work for any of these companies nor do I have any interest in them -- I'm just passing along what has worked well for me.)

 

[Maraxle]

Check out www.jaguarpc.com. Lots of web space and you can register domain names through them for $9.95. No, I don't work for them, but I do have my site hosted on one of their servers.

 

[Judas]

For Domain Names, use www.godaddy.com. You can't beat thier pricing. $9 per year for 1 year, or $7 per year for 10 years. Godaddy offers domains by proxy, whcih basically means all the registant info points to the proxy, instead of your personal info. powweb.com has the best prices I've seen for hosting, but I can't say on thier quality, as i don't use them YET. My current domain hosting is through www.hostmysite.com and they have AAA customer service!

 

[orbitalfreak]

Cool, y'all. Thanks for the info.

We're still a few years away from actually getting this thing off the ground (gotta make baby horses and all ), and this info will get us started on our way.