Totally clueless - how do I "take over" a website from someone else?

[wilbur]

We are buying a holiday home which has its own website for rentals. The sellers have offered me the option to take on the web site and domain name - it is hosted through a hosting company and they pay a monthly fee. Is it that simple? Would I have to get the domain name officially transferred to me? Also, she says she can give me the Admin Password and then I should be able to update it myself. Do I have to know about programming and html stuff to do that, or is it like editing a word document? If I want to do things differently, can I change web hosts but keep the domain name?

Can you tell I have absolutely no clue about this kind of stuff? I am a whizz at designing layouts etc, but have no experience in creating a web page.

Also, is £20 per month a lot for web hosting? It seems quite expensive for a simple site that is just pics and text over about 6 pages.

Please, please help. Feel I am buying a pig in a poke and don't want to make a huge mistake.

Yes you could get the name transfered over to you..fairly easy to do I think.

As for updating stuff yourself...well it depends on whether the site was done in plain HTML or something more complex..but generally you could change text and images fairly easily yourself..it may get more complex if you want to change the design or add stuff/take it away from the navigation for example.

Yes...once the name is signed over to you it is yours and you can get it to post at any hosting you like.

My husband and I are web designers and we charge £30 a year for hosting but I don't know what you get included for your £20 a month? DH knows more about the techie stuff than I do so I could ask him about the transfer of hosting/domain name stuff and whether £20 is alot if you want...although I am sure others will be along with answers.
Hope this has helped

"you can get it to post at any hosting you like." should read "you can get it to point at any hosting you like.". should preview lol!

Oh, thank you for answering! I will ask her if it is plain html that she used.

£30 a year sounds a lot more reasonable for hosting! Presumably that is for the sites you have designed yourself. I am not crazy about her design and copy (I'm an occasional copywriter and so quite picky about that stuff) so I do want to change it at some point. Out of interest, what does a redesign of an existing site cost chez futurity? You can CAT me if you would prefer.

yes...we only provide hosting for sites we design or at least sites we have worked on as it is quite a job being a hosting company I would imagine. As for how much a redesign is ..well all depends on whether you have the content/images you want to use already..what sort of design you want..whether you want any e-commerce or other wizzy database stuff but it doesn't have to be silly money at all. We did a site for these people who set up their own holiday home..there is a link to us on the bottom if you want more help

£20 a month sounds a lot to me... I pay £20 a year for hosting space (excluding domain name charge). That is purely for space, no fancy tools.

Do you like the domain name? Is that something you would want to keep? If you search for holiday homes in that area, does it rank near top of the list on say Google?

Does the holiday home get a lot of repeat business... do existing visitors use the website to make bookings?

If you feel the domain name is worth keeping, you could just keep that - but point it at other hosting space, with your own website design.

Nannynick - I think that is exactly what we are thinking of doing. The domain name is good, but I don't think they have promoted the site particularly and it's certainly not a fancy site, so I would want to get it higher in the search rankings (will have to learn about that too LOL). I am going to find out if the hosting service she is using has her locked into a contract - I don't want to find I've taken over a great long thing that I won't be able to get out of.

One question, when you both say "point it at other hosting space" is that a reasonably easy process? Does one go to a hosting company and say "hi, my name is wilbur, my domain name is wilburshouse.co.uk, could you remove me from current host and place me on your hosting service?" Or do I have to extradite myself from current host first?

Futurity, your design for the other holiday home looks v nice! It is the kind of thing we need - good simple copy, lovely photos, links to local attractions and availability calendar etc.

Thanks for the compliment..I was very pleased with it and lucky that the client provided fantastic photos and detailed content.

Regarding your other question...depending on the type of domain (be it .com, .co.uk or otherwise)and the company that it is currently with it moving it can be as easy as filling in a couple of fields on an online form or as fiddly as filling in paper work and faxing and posting them off. (In this day and age it is normally very simple method)

A domain name is simply a pointer to a piece of web space. The domain name doesn't have to be purchased or maintained through the same company that provides the web hosting. We typically use 123-Reg.co.uk to purchase and maintain our domain names and provide hosting through a web hosting company in the US.(far better features and services for our money)

If you wish to keep the domain name being paid for and maintained by your current provider the cost should be in the region of £6.50 for 2 years for a co.uk domain name and £16.00 for 2 years for a .com, .org or .net.

To make use of an alternative piece of hosting you change the name servers at the company who is maintaining your domain names to point at the new web hosting. I hope this all makes sense...if you need any help with this feel free to give us a shout as this is something we are very familiar with.