I need a website, where do I start?

[MemoryMakers2669]

Here I am again, with my dumb questions.

I am starting a business and have settled on a name. When I put said name in between www and .com, nothing comes up. Same with .org. But, when I was on some site about domains, it says they are both taken, but neither actually work. Not a big deal, I am adding something to the end of said name and it works.

So, I want a great website for my company, but have NO idea where to begin??

Are the host sites, that have all the templates, etc, get you your domain and all, are they all the same really? Can anyone recommend one? Any cheaper than $9.95 a month?

Thanks again guys!

 

[miss missy]

I get my domains from GoDaddy.com, now if it comes back taken, its taken and it may not be in use... see some people buy popular domains in hopes that someone may need it amd pay them big bucks for it!!

I use rochens for my http://www.rochenhost.com/ I have had no problems in 4 years now.

Mambo is a free open source content management provider. Here you can use it to manage your website and they have a great forum for help too!
Use WYSIWYG, sort of like this here where you are posting.. it mean WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET.

There are a lot of add ons and free templated out there for Mambo too

http://www.mamboserver.com/

Hope that helps

 

[miss missy]

Examples of sites using Mambo

http://www.stupidscifi.com/

http://www.mambosolutions.com/

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

My head is spinning I tell you!

I hope one day this all makes sense to me. Thanks for the links though. I am going to start paying attention to who "powers" websites and such.

How do you go about making up the templates and such yourself, or does everything come from some other source?

 

[miss missy]

My head is spinning I tell you!

I hope one day this all makes sense to me. Thanks for the links though. I am going to start paying attention to who "powers" websites and such.

How do you go about making up the templates and such yourself, or does everything come from some other source?

You would have to know web coding like HTML to set up a site template by scratch. There is a book, HTML too but there are other coding used on sites too, so you have to know what you want. Like a Flash site is different altogether. There are people who do this stuff and will set up a site for you for a fee. I found I enjoyed learning so I dove in and did it myself. Unless you have an interest in knowing how to make and manage a site, then pay someone else to do it. It is called web design. The hosting is the people you pay for the " web space" and the domain is the address and you pay for that too, but the domain name www.XXXX.com, .org for 1 or 2 years is cheap.


surf sites like this... "how to build my own website"... and read read read! Join forums and ask ask ask! http://webbuildinginfo.com/

 

[epcotfan]

I like godaddy.com and Ipowerweb.com.

 

[ducklite]

I use GoDaddy.com for hosting as well. They are reasonable in price and the servers are very stable. I don't think I've ever had an outage, and I get minimum 20,000 hits a day, so I'm sure I'd hear about it if I did.

If you are truly unsure of where to start, you really might want to hire someone to do the site for you.

A lot of college kids are real GUI and usability pros and will work cheap.

Anne

 

[Quinn222]

If you are setting up a web site for a buiisness and don't plan to hire someone who is familiar with how to do it you might want to check out your local Community College and see if they offer a class or something. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do well and a poorly designed web site can turn off customers pretty quickly.

 

[ducklite]

a poorly designed web site can turn off customers pretty quickly.

It's like business business cards. You can design a logo yourself and print your cards off on your printer, but they will always look "home made." You are so much better off spending the money for a professional graphics person to do your logo and getting cards printed professionally. I'm pretty good with grapics, but still bartered with a graphic designer friend to create my logo and had the card printed professionally. I get a TON of compliments on my card. It's my introduction to potential clients, and I want to leave a lasting impression.

The same thing goes for your web site. It's your introduction, the first thing people see, and you need to make a good and lasting impression.

And web sites do NOT need to be fancy, they need to relate information in an attractive, easy to navigate manner. One huge mistake that small businesses make is to spend a fortune designing a lot more site than they need. I spent ten years working as a web designer/programmer and you'd think my site would have all sorts of fancy stuff, right? Wrong. Other than using style sheets, and a single piece of javascript, it's all basic html.

My site is for my photography business. If I were selling web design services, I'd put a lot more into my web site. But people aren't coming to see fancy web design, they are coming to see photo's. And the easier and faster I can get them to what they are looking for with as few clicks as possible, the better. The same applies to your business, and everyone elses.

My site has over 150 pages, and no one ever has to click more than twice past the home page to get to the photo's they want to see.

Anne