A New website ?

[Sohoeasy]

I need to create and publish a website a bit sharpish. I'm pretty good with stuff and expect to start tonight ( using the mac's iWeb application ) and be ready to publish to the net real quick . Having not had my own site before, I have never found the need to learn the site publishing part of things. I'm with BT broadband.Can they host my site? I've looked at Apples "mobile me" service which seems to offer web hosting too,but I'm really uninformed about how to go about it. Will BT or apple for example give me www.joebloggs.bt.com, or www.joebloggs.Apple.com ? Or do I need to get a separate web address from a third party? What will it cost ? I know I could research all this but I'd like to see if I could bypass all that "doody" with the knowledge of the XRV'ers. Ta very much, Soho

[AlanH]

The first thing to do is decide on the .co.uk domain you want - yournamehere.co.uk

Go to 123-reg.co.uk , register for an an account and register the domain.

Next you'll need hosting which rather depends on what you want to do with the site. If it's a basic low-traffic site then I'd go here...
Shared Hosting UK | Shared Server Hosting | PHP Shared Web Site Hosting | Clook Internet Services UK

If you need some hand-holding then I run a web consultancy business. We don't normally do just hosting but as you're an XRV.org.uk regular, I could make an exception and match Clook's prices.

As you can't PM at the moment, post your email address and I'll send you my contact details. It could all be up and running tonight if you need it that quick.

[BobA]

Nick

There are much better people on here to answer the technical aspects, but here's my ha'pennys worth.

I use UKDomains, who will sell you a domain name, and then host it for an annual cost, and provide an email service as well.

Use their search box and enter a domain name which best suits your requirements. Try to get a .com name if possible, as most people think in .com, although most of the good names are gone. If you can think of something applicable and memorable it may still be available. Next choice would be a .co.uk name, and anything after that .biz for example would be my last choice.

Good Luck mate


Bob

[AlanH]

Try to get a .com name if possible, as most people think in .com, although most of the good names are gone. If you can think of something applicable and memorable it may still be available. Next choice would be a .co.uk name, and anything after that .biz for example would be my last choice

That used to be the case but nowadays the preference is shifting towards .co.uk if a business is UK specific as people have a preference for a UK site. If you do that, check what is hosted on the .com as you don't want people going to a competitor or a porn site

[Whealie]

Soho,

Ignore these so called Experts (except Alan who is an expert). Do not go with BT as they offer very little for a lot of money.

I teach a build your own website course (next week as it happens). I can send you some notes and instructions by email.

If you go with Web Hosting UK | Dedicated Servers | VPS Web Hosting you can get a domain name and then webhosting for less.

You can then install Wordpress and use that. I did the zebra's website, my Chriswheal.com website and many others using this. I set up the Longest day site and others have taken over as it is pretty easy to use.

I can spend a bit of time helping you with it if you like.

[AlanH]

If you go with Web Hosting UK | Dedicated Servers | VPS Web Hosting you can get a domain name and then webhosting for less

If reliability is important, don't buy on price. Chris may have good experiences with Web Hosting UK but overall the reviews are mixed...

WebHosting UK Review, User Reviews of WebHosting UK
Web Hosting UK http://www.webhosting.uk.com/ Review in Web Hosting Companies at Review Centre

Soho, it depends what you need the site for and how important it is. Web Hosting UK may be perfectly fine for what you need it for - but if it's anything more than a hobby site, maybe consider something more reliable.

If you go with Clook, their support is very responsive. If you went with ours, you'll have a phone number to call and speak to me if something goes wrong - and I run our servers. Stuff like cPanel, Wordpress etc. can be provided too if that's what you need but if you are just looking at getting something up together with iWeb and uploading it via FTP, Wordpress may be overcomplicated.

[Whealie]

Alan may well be right, but I have a good relationship with webhosting and they seem to jump when I say jump. They know many people who do my course sign up with them so they tend to react if I ask them to.

I have never had a problem with them. I fully expect to - that is the nature of technology - but I expect to be able to get it sorted faster than when I tried to deal with BT.

Were I trying to set up a professional website for a client, I'd pay Alan though, not just for the server but for the site set up etc. For a one man band that you can run your self and with god search engine optimisation the Wordpress solution works fine.

35 of the world's top blogs use Wordpress. 19% use the AOL software I have to use professionally every day and I wish AOL would switch to Wordpress.

[AlanH]

I have never had a problem with them. I fully expect to - that is the nature of technology - but I expect to be able to get it sorted faster than when I tried to deal with BT.

Dealing with BT is like trying to push rope.

[Sohoeasy]

Thanks people for getting right on it ! It's now 11.00pm Cabby arrived at my place 'bout 4hrs ago and he's just left. We just ate all the food in the fridge & oven.Talked the the usual bo**ox which had nothing to do with websites, so I'll have to start tomorrow.

So....... I get Joebloggs.co.uk for a one off £2.99p & then sort a host right ?
I'm still thinking of using Apples mobile me as a host. It's 59 quid for the year.(I'm a total mac type )

My site will not be too complex. Just offering basic information about my history in the entertainment and music biz'. So that I can refer people to a website rather than sending emails to folk all the time ! Now that I'm unable to ride, I have to do some real work and up until now I've always had personal management for my musical career , but I reckon the website will be all I need to bring in the work. (he says )

So can I get a "Yeah" for signing with mobile me,or would that be really stupid ? (you DO get a free 60 day trial,so obviously I'd take the trial first !)

As mentioned, I can turn my hand to pretty much anything so I don't see any prob's getting all the content I want , formulated with just Photoshop/Illustrator and iWeb apps.....Or again,am I just being stupid.

[AlanH]

So can I get a "Yeah" for signing with mobile me,or would that be really stupid ? (you DO get a free 60 day trial,so obviously I'd take the trial first !)

No, don't do that. If I understand the blurb right, MobileMe will only allow you to publish to a www.somenamehere.me.com account included with it - or to your own hosting account for your own .co.uk/.com (or whatever) domain. This means that to host on your own domain you STILL need to buy hosting. If you need a reliable and professional site to bring work in, what you need is proper hosting, a proper domain name, a proper email address (will be sorted out with hosting) and a site strategy.

We've done various things for bands and the entertainments industry in the past. We're currently working on a site to replace this old one we did years ago:
Power Generation for the Events Industry from Show Sparx Limited
Those are the guys who put up 17km of festoon lighting at Glastonbury - but they also do small scale stuff like power for a wedding marquee.

This is one of our sites:
AC/DC Tribute Band - UK - Hells Bells
...and all of it is managed by the band using a straightforward handcrafted CMS system we built for them as they are non-technical. They can embed YouTube videos, add gigs etc without going anywhere near XHTML code, FTP logons or anything like that. They use Facebook and YouTube to great effect too - and if you want to see an AC/DC tribute band they are pretty damned good

As mentioned, I can turn my hand to pretty much anything so I don't see any prob's getting all the content I want , formulated with just Photoshop/Illustrator and iWeb apps.....Or again,am I just being stupid.

No, you are on the ball. Maybe. The iWeb app and an FTP account to a live webserver will get you started and able to play around. Ultimately, whether it is a good idea depends whether you are any good at it The web is full of awful sites where people who can turn their hand to pretty much anything decide to become web developers overnight. However, with iWeb's templates you can't go too far wrong (hopefully).

I'm not averse to setting up a test hosting account and an FTP logon for you to have a play if you want. You could do that even before registering the domain - although my advice would be to get that done via 123-reg.co.uk independently of any hosting. It'll cost £7.99 for two years for a .co.uk domaain. In my experience 123-reg are one of the best for domains but their hosting is utter pants.

Drop me an email with a landline number tomorrow if you want to have a chat. Try my throwaway email address: ############