Business web site

[mdshunk]

I'm looking to start a website for my business. I know zilch about websites, and I'm a little confused. In my limited research, I see three options to build the site:
1) Hire someone to do it. I'm sure I don't want to go this route, due to the fact that I am poor.
2) Buy a software package to do this. I might consider this, but I'd need some recommendations.
3) There are some websites that you can design a site in real time and see the results. I'm monkeyed with a few of these, and I can't get the precise results I want.

Then, after I have a site, where does it 'live'. That is to say, how do a find a server to host the site? Registering a domain name(s)?

I think I have a little bit of a head start. I have the site pretty much designed on paper, and I have all the text finalized and most of the pictures and graphics gathered.

What do I do from here? I think that my first step would be to register a few domain names. I have about 8 or 10 that I'd like to reserve even if I don't use them, but I don't know how to do that even.

Thanks, guys. Maybe there's a website design guru that haunts this site that can give me some advice? Thanks again.

[Homer]

First of all, you just need to choose a domain name that is available. You need to register that name with a DNS registrar first. Once that's done any provider can host the site. Now there's a lot of providers that handle the registration as well as the hosting, such as webair.com that hosts this site.

In the past I have done all the html development from scratch without the help of any software packages. I spent the time in the mid-90's figuring things out. Now for the more advanced features it will be very difficult to do it from scratch with a text editor but you can start there. As recently as the year 2000 I put together a web site completely from scratch (no software to help me) including all the java scripting. This may not be practical now.

I guess it all depends on how much time you have, how fancy you want it to be, and how much you have to spend.

Homer

[mdshunk]

...how much time you have,Want it soon. One of my lead services is getting a little pi$$y about me not having a site.
how fancy you want it to be,moderately. and how much you have to spend.none.

[mdshunk]

When registering a domain name, are there price considerations here? That is to say, does it cost the same to register a domain name regardless of who I register it through? Is there one or two services that are famously cheaper than others? How long is the registration good for? If the domain register service says that a domain name is available, is it in fact available 100% for sure?

[Homer]

When registering a domain name, are there price considerations here? That is to say, does it cost the same to register a domain name regardless of who I register it through?No, costs will be different depending on the registrar you select.

Is there one or two services that are famously cheaper than others? How long is the registration good for? If the domain register service says that a domain name is available, is it in fact available 100% for sure?One of the cheapest in Go Daddy (https://www.godaddy.com). They also provide hosting services. You can register an available domain name instantly if you provide a credit card number online.

Homer

[mdshunk]

Okay, step #1 is done. I got all the domain names I wanted paid for and parked at GoDaddy. It was a fairly painless process, filled with lots of offers for "extras" along the way. I didn't bite, since all I wanted to do was reserve some names for the moment. I suspect that they'll all be forwarded to one site anyhow.

Groovy... now I make some pages and figure out where they can live.

[Ohm1]

I would like to do something like this myself Homer. Yet, I'm not computer savy, so I would need somesoftware to help me. Feel me in! PM me if you want! Thanks! Thanks for the idea MD!

[mdshunk]

Copy Cat! :eek:

[Ohm1]

:p I try!

[mdshunk]

I understand that since I am such a model of success, I'm bound to have others riding my coat tails. ;)

[Mr T]

Children, one option when you register your domain you want to take is 'private registar info'. Otherwise I can go to a whois server, type in 'sparkyselectric.com' (or whaterver you registered), and i can get your name, address, and phone number. With the private registration the info is still on file (as required), but your register's info will pop up along with a reference number that points to you. THis keeps the spammers out of your hair. I highly recomend this feature, as a big source for spammers is the whois info. Many registers are starting to make it harder for their bots to scan this info freely. (Why you sometimes have to type in a password thats printed right infront ofyou in weird charectors in order to view it)

I do web design as a hobby, I'd offer my services but I"m in the middle of destroying my garage right now, followed by a bathroom, at the same time as getting my yard ready for spring. Cant promise turnaround time. But, if you get stuck with something, feel free to PM me, I"ll see what i can do.

[mdshunk]

I elected to keep my information public. I do everything I can to invite hackers and spammers. That's my hobby.

[Mr T]

Really..... what is this domain then? BRING IT ON! :D :D :D

[mdshunk]

Say, I've been turned on to MicroSoft's 'Front Page' utility. I have it now, and it seems like it'd be okay. Is this a decent one to use? I know I need to do what I think is called "frames" (I think). I want a menu to stay at the left hand portion of the screen no matter what page of my site you're on. Will Front Page do this for me?

[Mr T]

Make sure your webhost supports frontpage first. I have never used it, and never plan to. I personaly avoid it like the plague. I know that there has to be some type of extentions installed on the server in order for it to work properly.

And if you do use frontpage, check your page in other browsers to see how it looks. Microsoft thinks that there is only 1 web browser in the world, and it's theirs. (The truth is, there are hundreds of web browsers out there, several are getting very popular too)

Good luck.

[bmwpower]

I like Adobe GoLive. I've tinkered with it several times, seems pretty intuitive

I just didn't get Dreamweaver. Not intuitive.

[xkvator]

Feel me in!
Hey!...keep that kind of stuff to your PM's :D

[xkvator]

I'd offer my services but I"m in the middle of destroying my garage right now, followed by a bathroom, at the same time as getting my yard ready for spring.
AND...Trying to get "you know who" how to figure out the simple task of editing a picture. That may take awhile.


MR T...I won't bother you this week, so you can get some work done. Except for a quick look late, this dry weather has forced me to WORK.

Soon as you get me straightened out on the pics, then you can tell me all about "building websites"...I think i've dug a couple foundations for them before :D

[dkerr]

Spammers love a means of being able to scan your site for email addresses, whois on the domain name where you have to enter a bunch of characters to get to the actual information would be very time consuming for a spammer to get info from thousands of websites, and are likely to go after easilier targets. Private domain name info is offered by a lot of domain name domain name registers but at an additional cost, and if you are paying out of pocket with no income from the site, it is an additional cost that you may not want to absorb.

Frontpage can still be used even if the webhost doesn't support frontpage extensions depending on how you want to use frontpage, there are features within frontpage that do require certain frontpage extensions compatability from the webhost. I use frontpage as an html editor but I don't use the frontpage extensions features and I use ftp as a sole means of uploading to the website, I don't ever use frontpage to upload to the website, but I also know most of the raw html code, which certainly helps, because frontpage can at time be very stuborn, and knowing some html code can get around occasions when frontpage wants to do one think and you want a slightly different format / spacing, etc.

The first page on the main directory of the website MUST be index.htm
index.html will work and index.php or index.shtm
shtm is for a server side include page, I use htm extension on all general html pages. This is because some search engines will not spider or scan a site that uses an html extension as an index page. webhosts are set for a certain sequence of index page, in other words when you go to www.yoursite.com it automatically seeks a .htm page if not found it may look for a .shtm page , if not found it may look for a html index page , then perhaps a .php page, this sequence may vary from host to host, if none are found it will either go to an display of the directory or an error page.

You can set up your own custom made error pages for such things as 'page not found' using coding in a htaccess page.

Domain names can be gotten for $ 8.95 a year, but can go much higher. I use www.godaddy.com as a domain register, which is one of the cheapest around, but there are many others. It takes up to 72 hours to fully propulate the globe for dns server update when entering domain name server dns data for a new host.

Choosing a host, you need to take into consideration what your needs are, such as

1. storage space requirements ... how big are all the files for your site, and space for future expansion.

2. do you requrie cgi support - and what languages - perl , etc.

3. do you require mysql and / or php support, what are the versions that the host is running for php and / or mysql database support - inportant for such things as forum software.

4. operating server system - linix / unix / windows 2000 server, inportant depending or what your need. I am using a unix server.

5. reliability - they all try to claim that have high reliability, not all live up to it.

and I could go on and on. Also you could have the greatest site in the world but what is the point if no-one knows about you ? You must be on the search engines. But again if you come up on page 10 of the result [page, what is the point, very few people will look beyond the first couple of pages.

How do you get near up closer to the front of the results.
hidden metatags in the html code....that has...
a) proper keyword selection metatag
b) proper title wording metatag
c) proper description metatag
b) coding meant for certain search engine spider, such as codes to tell to follow all links and spider all pages, and to have the spider to revisit every 30 days.

keyword density, keywords to appear in the description , title and occur with a certain density on the main page, too many keywords on the main page and you be labelled as spam and the search engine spider will skip your site, too few and it will hurt you ranking / result page position.

There is a real act to getting good positing on the search engines, that is why big companies will pay big bucks to ensure their site gets high the first page of search engine results.

Don