thinking about starting a web site

[thecavemankevin]

Well, i've been kicking the idea around and i was looking at godaddy to purchase the domain and for hosting. I have never started a site and really have very little idea how to do it, but i'm confident i can learn most of what i need to know. This site i dont expect to be a very big site, just have home page, news/info, forums, blog and thats about it.

I know there are a ton of you guys on here that have good experiance with site creation and hosting. any advice?

oh, and once i get it up and running i may consider google ads and that kind of thing. I noticed in godaddy's value hosting it says no ads...so i guess i may have to upgrade if i go that route...??

If this project is successful, it could turn into a possible source of income and primary employment for me (althoug i'd expect it to take a few years before getting me that far along).

I am going to remain somewhat secretive about the specifics until i register the domains. BTW, i plan on registering multiple similar domains in order to quash any other idea steelers. What is the best way to do a URL transfer (when you put in one addy and it routes you to another)?

[geekwarrior]

Well, i've been kicking the idea around and i was looking at godaddy to purchase the domain and for hosting. I have never started a site and really have very little idea how to do it, but i'm confident i can learn most of what i need to know. This site i dont expect to be a very big site, just have home page, news/info, forums, blog and thats about it.

I know there are a ton of you guys on here that have good experiance with site creation and hosting. any advice?

oh, and once i get it up and running i may consider google ads and that kind of thing. I noticed in godaddy's value hosting it says no ads...so i guess i may have to upgrade if i go that rout...??

get a copy of dreamweaver....makes it easy, even though I dont like using the program

[SpitFire1299]

What kind of website are you making?

Yahoo and godaddy both are good hosting companys.

[robnix]

get a copy of dreamweaver....makes it easy, even though I dont like using the program

I'd actually recommend using NVU, it's free, and not nearly as complicated for someone that's never done any webdesign to use.

http://www.nvu.org

[thecavemankevin]

I'd actually recommend using NVU, it's free, and not nearly as complicated for someone that's never done any webdesign to use.

http://www.nvu.org

but is it something that can evolve into a business for me?

I know i can always move hosting companies, but off the start i'd like a hosting company that is cost effective and easy

[geekwarrior]

are you trying to start a website for a business you have? Or you want the site to be your income through ads?

There is quite a bit to learn about webdesign, more specifically how to get hits on your site....

[thecavemankevin]

this site will be a place for people to come and discuss "certain things" get tips on how to solve issues and possibly even become a sorce of income via ads, and perhaps a company store....but that last one is kinda iffy

[MantisMag]

godaddy is good for domain registration but their hosting is crap. slow and often down. what do you want for those prices? i suggest you pay a little more and get some better hosting. $7-10 a month is a good price for a small site.

i'm on bluehost. they're not bad. some other good ones are hostgator and asmallorange. i'd recommend getting your domain somewhere other than your webhost. that way if you want to switch hosts you don't run into trouble with your domain.

[robnix]

but is it something that can evolve into a business for me?

I know i can always move hosting companies, but off the start i'd like a hosting company that is cost effective and easy

NVU is an HTML editor that lets you do code by hand or WYSIWYG, it has no effect on your business. Most of the hosting companies will give you pretty much the same feature set. What you want to look for is what kind of support services they offer, like can you call or only email? Try here for a list of companies, take the reviews with a grain of salt:

http://hosting-review.com

[thecavemankevin]

thanx mantis and rob, thats primairly the kind of advice i was looking for (along with any other tips).

[digitard]

I have a 60-85% off code for www.dreamhost.com. I've been using them for a while and they're second to none in terms of features and performance (SSH access on alla ccounts which makes things like FORUM BACKUPS nice).

Use code: DTD in the promo field. I think the entry plan (10gigs of space, 1 terabyte of bandwidth, unlimited domain hosting, etc) is 85% off a year so like 35 bucks for an entire year.

I've got www.ghtp.net (the official site owned by WXP for Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball) running off it as well as personal sites/etc.

[MantisMag]

lol terabyte bandwidth. no way you'd ever be allowed to come anywhere near that in a shared environment. i doubt they allow you to reach half of that. unless you serve it up in the form of large files like videos and ISO files you'd eat up all of their processing power serving up that many pages and screw up their servers. they'd shut you down because you'd bork everyone else's account on your server.

from what i hear though other than that they're a pretty good host. good service and not too bad on their servers' performance. some people are complaining about a lot of downtime but it seems that they're having some issues with ddos attacks and some growth issues. it depends on what server you're on.

[thecavemankevin]

When i buy the domain, should i pay an extra $9 for private registration?

one of the hosters a guy at work recomended was www.seekdotnet.com. Anyone ever hear of them? He recomended them because they have Dotnet nuke for forums. I am looking at their middle plan "economy," but it only has 30gigs of bandwidth...that doesnt seem like much.

Also, some of the key features i am looking for in a host company is ease of use/settup (since i'm not even really a novice) I will be putting forums on this site so included software for that is a +, and of course tech support/decent value.


thanx again for all your help guys

[MantisMag]

well the host i'm on has a system called fantastico which automatically installs stuff for you. i can install phpbb (forums) and wordpress (blogging) simply by clicking on the program in a list, clicking install, and indicating a folder to install to. from what i understand it's not all that unusual a feature.

if you don't sign up for the private registration anyone can see the info that you use to sign up. the first domain i registered i didn't do this with and i get junk mail at home for all kinds of stupid stuff like domain registration for ludicrous prices in excess of $30, search engine submission, etc. it's up to you if it's worth the money to avoid giving people access to your name and address. be aware that there are some places that offer this service for free. usually there's a catch though. either it's only for your first domain, or only for the first year, or only if you get hosting through them, whatever.

never heard of seekdotnet. doesn't mean they're bad or anything. just that i've never heard of them. i'll poke around tomorrow.

[digitard]

Yeah,
I've used a lot of hosting companies in the past... I have a tendancy to change about every 6-12 months. I even had my own webserver for a year (dedicated server). But I wasn't happy with some of the SQL issues with 1and1.com so I started looking into other solutions and I was quite happy with what I found on dreamhost.com and a few people I know who have decent sized sites vouched so I tried em and honestly I couldn't be happier.

Cant hurt... 35 bucks for a whole year.