Your very first website

[Seanny]

"Wondered if you could offer me some advice ~ I want a website but have no idea of how to go about it. I have looked at companies previously and they charge a fortune to set them up and an ongoing fee. I am not looking for anything too fancy or flash just want a wee site of my own with a price list and gallery for my photo's which I can update on my own without having to pay each time. I am pretty computer literate but dont have the time to research doing it all myself. Is there any company that could do this for a reasonble price you could recommend?"

Hi guys, I received the above message from Karol (Nemotail) and it covers a subject I've been asked about many times, so lets get it out in the open. By the way, Karol has said that I can use her name here so dont go shouting at me, ok?

Ok, you'd like to have a website, do you need to spend any money to have one or can you get a website absolutely free. If I can get one for free, What are the drawbacks and/or benefits? If I have to pay out money for a website, will I have better results? Are there disadvantages to that also?

**********************************

The Free Website:
Anybody can have a free website, let's get that out in the open straight away. All you have to do is sign up with any of the companies offering freebie sites and within minutes you can be designing a website of your own for free, that's zero cost! You really dont need to know anything about webdesign as these companies will let you use their website creators which will nearly make the site for you. The most common or well-known freebie companies are Freewebs, Bravenet and Tripod. You'll most likely know that lots of Geeks have already made a site with Freewebs.

The Benefits:
1, For a start you dont need any web designing skills to use this site.
2, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
3, It is completely free to use.

The Disadvantages:
1, Your site will have ads on every page and you have no control whatsoever over which ads appear there.
2, You will not have complete access to the code on the pages, thereby preventing you from making them as search engine friendly as possible (this is important if you want your site to appear in the search results).
3, You are restricted to using the free templates. This results in lots of people having sites which are nearly identical.
4, (my personal opinion) Those who use Freeweb sites often dont bother updating or maintaining them simply because they ARE free. They want a website like.... yesterday, they sign up with Freewebs, post all their text and pictures in the first one or two days after signing up and never do anything with the site after that. The site stagnates and dies a death until their account runs out. I've seen this happen many times.

********************************

The Paid for Website:

Ok, how about splashing out a little for your website, why should you consider doing that? How much money is involved? If you are not going for a freebie website, you'll need to shell out some dosh. How much depends on you. What do you want exactly? I know several of the Geeks have paid for the own domain name (www.nailsbywhoever.co.uk) and hosting. Hosting simply means where your website files and pics are stored so that they are available for visitors on a 24/7 basis. Total cost for a domain name and hosting is probably in the region of £60 a year, give or take. You may get it even cheaper than this but always check out what the hosting company supplies for the price quoted. There can be huge differences between each one, If you're not sure whats' meant by a particular term, get someone else who knows about such things to check it out for you so that you can make an informed opinion and a wise purchase. Once you've decided on the above, you now need to make your website. Again, many hosting companies provide
website creators where you can design your site without having any prior web knowledge, although you should be aware that as with the Freewebs site creator, there are some restrictions which prevent you from optimising your site fully.

The Benefits:
1, You've put some money into getting your site up ad running, so you are much more likely to put some effort into it also, thereby trying harder to make it succeed.
2, You dont have to display any ads whatsoever.
3, If using a website creator, you dont need any web designing skills and you are less likely to come across someone else who uses a similar template to you.
4, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
5, If you or someone you know builds your site using code, you can make your site as search engine friendly as possible with minimum effort and no extra cost.

The Disadvantages:
1, It costs money. Approx £50 - £60 for hosting, to be paid each year.
2, You initially have to sort out a domain name and hosting provider.

*********************************

The absolute best option in my opinion has got to be the Paid for Website. Ok, it does set you back a bit financially, but if you optimise your site and make it work for you, eventually it'll start bringing in clients for you, you'll get your money back in no time.

Finally: If you're thinking of hiring somebody to build your site for you and maintain it by adding new links, pictures, pages and/or text, this will cost extra. Maintenance costs time to the web-builder, so ask beforehand how much and in what way do they charge? Is it an hourly charge or do they charge per update. They will NOT do it for free, in the same way that you wouldnt consider doing a set of nails for free. Sounds reasonable?

If anyone has any questions, fire away or email [email protected]

 

[angel fingers]

ooh sean, thats really good info. i'm at the point where i am seriously thinking of having a web site, not for the nails[coz i'm already plenty busy] but for the silver jewellery that i make. i have not enough time or knowledge to set it up on my own and although your post answers a lot of questions for me i was wondering how much i should expect to pay for someone to do this for me. i know you said it would be an hourly fee, but would it take them 1 hour , 1 week , or 1 month to start me up with this.

 

[Seanny]

Hi Angel, I suppose a good web designer could have a simple web site up and running in a couple of days, maybe less, but if they're charging £50/hour you can see how costly it's going to be. Remember too, that all you'll be getting is a new website, you still need to find someone to host it plus you'll still need a domain name..... more money.
I think a far better option is to use a good website builder and do it yourself as and when you get the time, better still if you have a friend that can do it at a reasonable rate. Make sure however that they really can do it properly, it can be a right mess trying to fix someone elses mistakes. Your new website should 'look good', be easy to navigate, be search engine friendly and of course, it should do what you set out for it to do, namely advertise your services and/or products in a professional way. If you're signing up with a new hosting company, make sure that the websites that they offer do NOT use Frames, and let them know in no uncertain terms that you are not interested unless that is the case.
HTH

 

[naturalnails]

I have always done my own websites - I think I am currently on version about 6. The first one I did was a Free one using Tripod.com. And like Sean mentioned there were ads on every page. It was also limited as to what could go on there - I could not have a counter and the stuff had to go where they wanted me to put it.

I then got a package called Arachnophilia which is an HTML editor so I could then download my Tripod pages into it and add the bits I wanted.

Then as I got more interested in the HTML I decided I would do my own from scratch and then be in complete (ish) control of content. I uploaded it onto my ISP but unfortunately it had a name like w.lineone.net/mywepage etc

Not a good look LOL for a professional image.

I then looked into buying my domain name and then into web hosting and forwarding.

After various discussions with Sean I moved over to 1&1 for my webhosting package and have optimised my website to be as search friendly as possible.

My site now rates as a Google 4 pagerank (out of 10) which may not sound that special but for a nail site it is about as good as it gets.

There have been various discussions on here about websites and whether the search engines are the be all and end all - it is up to you. But I think Sassy coined the phrase that you could have the most fantastic shop front in the world but if no one can find it then what is the point. Dont go all out initially for all the bells and whistles - just make it nice and tasteful and easy to navigate. Add some GOOD pictures of your work and make sure all the links work LOL.

 

[Seanny]

Dont go all out initially for all the bells and whistles - just make it nice and tasteful and easy to navigate. Add some GOOD pictures of your work and make sure all the links work LOL.

Good pointers Fiona. No harm to mention too, steer clear of those dreaded flash intro pages, they are a disaster!

 

[angel fingers]

blinkin eck fiona, you sound like a right wizz. all that just went right over my head ! i cant really afford to pay 2 days at 50 squids per hour.and i just dont think i can find the time to learn enough to do it myself so i think i might ask my teenage daughter to ask around the college, maybe there is some poor geek that would do it for a bit of pocket money.

 

[Seanny]

Hey.... you got pocket money? Why didntya say? What kind of site had you got in mind? LOL

 

[nemotail]

Okay Seanny,
This threads gave me the boot up the bum I needed ~ I have done it, got a domain and hosting with 1&1 - you are in for a load of questions from me soon!
KxXx

 

[Seanny]

Good for you Karol, I look forward to seeing your new site when it's up and running. Dont forget that there are quite a few geeks who have sites with 1and1 so there'll be no shortage of help if and when it's required.

Please take special note that you need to contact the tech support people asap to make sure your domain name is pointing to your webspace in the proper manner, ie, not 'framed'. Bekster signed up with 1and1 recently, and not being familiar with what was required, ended up with a website using Frames when there was absolutely no need for that. Thankfully it's all sorted now. Not wishing to bore you with techo jargon, just remember frames are BAD BAD BAD! This goes for anyone who is thinking of signing up for a domain name & hosting with any hosting company


Best of luck with your new venture Karol :wink2:

 

[Seanny]

...... just to follow on...


Here is one that definitely should be avoided. http://www.netbenefit.com/ One of our own Geeks, Bev Rose has her website http://www.nailsathome.net/ with them but is having some difficulty coming up in the search results. Remember I said previously that Frames were bad? Well, here's the reason in mind boggling simplicity.

When a search engine such as Google or Yahoo visits Bev's site, the red text below is the text that they see, in plain speak, this is EVERYTHING they can find on her start page.

nailsathome.net Redirection Your browser does not have the features required for you to be taken automatically to the site you're looking for, so you need to follow this link.


As you can see, there's zero chance that Bev's site will ever come up in the results. I've contacted tech support and they say that that is just the way it has to be. ?????? The lesson here is to check your hosting company out before you enter into a contract with them. If in doubt, ask around.

 

[Sparklepink]

i registered a domain name ages ago..... where would i get a good hosting from??

i have also registered it with http://www.nominet.org.uk/

but what should i do now??

Jess
xox

ps... if its better to pm me abt this then please do so.,... i dont wanna clog up the board

 

[Seanny]

Hi Jess, I think this info is best left out in the open where everyone can benefit, this domain name & hosting thingy can be quite confusing for newcomers. Of course, if you want to know something specific, you can PM me anytime as indeed anyone can.

If you already have your domain name, you now need a hosting provider, somewhere to place your website. I cant honestly recommend one host over another as I dont really know much about any of the hosting companies in the UK. I can say however that both The Nail Directory & Liberty Nail Design are both hosted with 1&1 and we haven't had a single problem with them. There is a slight drawback to using 1&1 which its only fair to point out to you guys, and its something I only discovered myself recently. The 1&1 servers are located in Germany and if your site is hosted with them, the search engines will think that your site is physically based in Germany. You can get round this by optimising your site, but it would be better, all things being equal to have your site hosted on a UK based server. Notwithstanding this last part, I still think 1&1 is an excellent host. If anyone has any good experiences with a UK based host, lets hear them please.

Sorry, back to Jess's situation. Once you've signed up for hosting with whoever, you now need to get your domain name pointing to your new webspace. If you contact the place where you first registered your domain, in your case http://www.nominet.org.uk/ , they will give you all the details that you require. You then contact your new host and pass on those same details to them so that they can make the necessary adjustments to your webspace setup.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Hi Seanny

I'm currently building my own website and really enjoying it, its not as hard as I thought, I only have one more problem to solve before I have it up and running and thats how do I make my site copy written and how do I stop anyone form pinching my photos (you know the right click save as thing)

Any advise you can give me would be great

Davinia

 

[Seanny]

Hi Davinia. I've just received a query that's brought me back to this thread and I see that you've posted a question that hasnt been answered, sorry about that. In answer to your question how to make your site copyrighted, are you referring to the whole thing, ie, text and pics? Most of your text is just going to be about the services and products that you provide, I cant see how you could, or why you would want to copyright that. Most other sites will have the decency not to copy the wording from your site, it is a totally unprofessional and downright lazy thing to do. Surely it's not rocket science to make up a couple of paragraphs in your own words. You would think, right? Unfortunately some people do exactly that, just copy the wording. What can you do about it? To be honest, maybe not a lot. Try contacting the person concerned and air your grievance, hopefully they see sense. If they dont..... who knows?
Regarding protecting your pics? There is no sure-fire way to protect them short of not placing on the internet at all. If you are going to place pics in a web gallery, the best method for deterring casual thieves is by marking your pics with your name or website address. This makes it very difficult for them to pass the pic off as their own work.
No Right Click? Dont bother with it, it's a cinch to overcome. If anyone presently uses the 'no right click' script on their site and thinks I'm talking rubbish. PM me and I'll give you a brief demo by 'pinching' some of your own pics and displaying them for you elsewhere in less than a minute.

HTH

 

[EllaX]

seanny - theres some fab info in this thread. i've just designed my website (in dreamweaver) - and it has no frames lol!! was flumoxed when it comes to hosting though was told to use 123 reg! reading thru your post i think im gonna have a look and 1&1! xx

 

[Seanny]

seanny - theres some fab info in this thread. i've just designed my website (in dreamweaver) - and it has no frames lol!! was flumoxed when it comes to hosting though was told to use 123 reg! reading thru your post i think im gonna have a look and 1&1! xx

Hi Pinkchic, good news that you're not using frames, that will be a big benefit to you once your site goes live.

Good too that you've brought up Hosting again. I know a Geek in here has her site hosted with a particular company that shall remain nameless for the moment (more to follow) They only, as far as I can make out allow 7 to 10 megabytes of monthly traffic which is less than totally useless. Monthly traffic by the way is the amount of data transfer that you are allowed on a monthly basis, ie, people viewing and downloading from your site. To put it into perspective, 1and1 offer 1,000 megabytes and 123 offer 1500, a slight increase on 7 I'm sure you'll agree. Always check out what your hosting company is offering before you sign up.

 

[pinkgenie]

Hi guys, I received the above message from Karol (Nemotail) and it covers a subject I've been asked about many times, so lets get it out in the open. By the way, Karol has said that I can use her name here so dont go shouting at me, ok?

Ok, you'd like to have a website, do you need to spend any money to have one or can you get a website absolutely free. If I can get one for free, What are the drawbacks and/or benefits? If I have to pay out money for a website, will I have better results? Are there disadvantages to that also?

**********************************

The Free Website:
Anybody can have a free website, let's get that out in the open straight away. All you have to do is sign up with any of the companies offering freebie sites and within minutes you can be designing a website of your own for free, that's zero cost! You really dont need to know anything about webdesign as these companies will let you use their website creators which will nearly make the site for you. The most common or well-known freebie companies are Freewebs, Bravenet and Tripod. You'll most likely know that lots of Geeks have already made a site with Freewebs.

The Benefits:
1, For a start you dont need any web designing skills to use this site.
2, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
3, It is completely free to use.

The Disadvantages:
1, Your site will have ads on every page and you have no control whatsoever over which ads appear there.
2, You will not have complete access to the code on the pages, thereby preventing you from making them as search engine friendly as possible (this is important if you want your site to appear in the search results).
3, You are restricted to using the free templates. This results in lots of people having sites which are nearly identical.
4, (my personal opinion) Those who use Freeweb sites often dont bother updating or maintaining them simply because they ARE free. They want a website like.... yesterday, they sign up with Freewebs, post all their text and pictures in the first one or two days after signing up and never do anything with the site after that. The site stagnates and dies a death until their account runs out. I've seen this happen many times.

********************************

The Paid for Website:

Ok, how about splashing out a little for your website, why should you consider doing that? How much money is involved? If you are not going for a freebie website, you'll need to shell out some dosh. How much depends on you. What do you want exactly? I know several of the Geeks have paid for the own domain name (www.nailsbywhoever.co.uk) and hosting. Hosting simply means where your website files and pics are stored so that they are available for visitors on a 24/7 basis. Total cost for a domain name and hosting is probably in the region of £60 a year, give or take. You may get it even cheaper than this but always check out what the hosting company supplies for the price quoted. There can be huge differences between each one, If you're not sure whats' meant by a particular term, get someone else who knows about such things to check it out for you so that you can make an informed opinion and a wise purchase. Once you've decided on the above, you now need to make your website. Again, many hosting companies provide
website creators where you can design your site without having any prior web knowledge, although you should be aware that as with the Freewebs site creator, there are some restrictions which prevent you from optimising your site fully.

The Benefits:
1, You've put some money into getting your site up ad running, so you are much more likely to put some effort into it also, thereby trying harder to make it succeed.
2, You dont have to display any ads whatsoever.
3, If using a website creator, you dont need any web designing skills and you are less likely to come across someone else who uses a similar template to you.
4, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
5, If you or someone you know builds your site using code, you can make your site as search engine friendly as possible with minimum effort and no extra cost.

The Disadvantages:
1, It costs money. Approx £50 - £60 for hosting, to be paid each year.
2, You initially have to sort out a domain name and hosting provider.

*********************************

The absolute best option in my opinion has got to be the Paid for Website. Ok, it does set you back a bit financially, but if you optimise your site and make it work for you, eventually it'll start bringing in clients for you, you'll get your money back in no time.

Finally: If you're thinking of hiring somebody to build your site for you and maintain it by adding new links, pictures, pages and/or text, this will cost extra. Maintenance costs time to the web-builder, so ask beforehand how much and in what way do they charge? Is it an hourly charge or do they charge per update. They will NOT do it for free, in the same way that you wouldnt consider doing a set of nails for free. Sounds reasonable?

If anyone has any questions, fire away or email [email protected]

Some great info there thanks!!

xxx

 

[EllaX]

cheers seanny thanx for the advice! xx