Want to set up a website - um what do I have to do?!

[ImSoNotTelling]

Hello all

I am going to try and set up a website for my brother's business as I'm nice like that! Basically I need to get a domain name then build the site I guess - I know that some companies do it as a package...

Does anyone have a recommendation of where to go for domain name, whether to get one with a website building tool attached (or if not what do I do)... etc etc

Thanks loads for any help with this!

Go to register.com. For $12.95 a month you can set up your own website, blog and professional email.

Personally I don't like the web building templates as they make sites look so sameish. However I'm probably in the minority and I know that these tools do help people produce websites quickly.

I used to get webdomain separate from the hosting but now have them both from the same company - made it easier when my webhost moved the server that my website was hosted on.
I'd keep things as simple as possible by keeping domain name registration with the same company as webhosting but make sure you read the small print, as you want to be able to move the domain away without paying steep prices. I've hosted with 34sp.com for many years now and find they are great... but I don't need website building templates, so my website is coded in HTML, CSS and PHP.

Consider what the purpose of the website is... what does it do? Does it need certain features, such as a database for example? Does it need a online shopping facility?

Have a look at other similar businesses to see what their websites do. Pick out what you like about each website and dislike. Then design your bothers site around the things you liked on the other websites. If possible consult with end users about what they would expect to see on a website for that particular kind of business.

Response times to e-mails I find is very important. Make sure your brother is aware that e-mails from potential customers need to be responded to quickly... I try to respond to most e-mail within 12 hours, often sooner... 24 hours at most.

Consider the domain name carefully... it does not need to be the name of the company. Consider what people are likely to search for when looking for the companies product/service.

You may want to look at something like MR Site as a starting point. It is template driven so you can quickly create something and can have a simple webstore to sell a few products. Mr Site does charge to transfer domain name away to another host see terms so be prepared for that if in future your brother wants to have the site hosted elsewhere.

Also look at Webs.com (was freewebs) It is another template based website builder, free with ads... around $100 a year if having them provide ad-free site plus domain name.

Web Domain registers will also provide some webhosting often at little or no charge. For example FreeParking provides a small 4-page template based website for free, when you buy a domain name through them.

I would suggest that you use one of the Free website providers initially to experiment around with creating a website. Then once you have more of an idea of what you want... then you buy a domain name and decide where to host the website.

Thanks jabberwocky and nannynick!

Nick I had a nose at your website - it's really good. Also for the very informative post.

There is an awful lot to think about so I think I will go and think about it! My brothers business (like the mistype "bother" for brother it's quite apt!) is very small indeed and for some reason I had overlooked the small matter of paying someone to host the site. [rolly eyes idiot emoticon]

That is enough to get me started though I think. Doing coding ourselves sounds good - but having said that we don't know how to do it so an off the peg thing might be better

And thanks nannynick for your additional post - i think that having a try for free sounds ideal

If you are wanting to learn how to build sites from scratch, then I recommend books from SitePoint, such as Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS (you can get a preview of part of the book). Also see their free articles, such as HTML/CSS Beginners Guide

You will also find lots of info on the web... for example:
Learn HTML, CSS
HTML and CSS Tutorials

You can use WYSIWYG editors to help, if you have MS Office, you may find that Frontpage has been installed. CofeeCups' Visual Site Designer (28 day trial) is worth a try.

OK so plan of action is:

Find free website designer and have a go

DH look into the coding stuff as he had a go when he was a teenager and reckons himself quite a techno-whizz

Once we have done that, register domain name, with either free/cheap hosting and design, or standalone hosting and design, depeniding on outcome of the first bit...

You are great nannynick

ImSoNotTelling - I am doing a web design course at the moment (just out of personal interest) and what I have learned that is most valuable is Keep It Simple.

There is far too much 'design' in most websites. Getting a website off a template site and finding a good web host is by far the best way to go. Coding your own site is time consuming and frankly a waste of effort to begin with.

NannyNick - your site is great example of 'keeping it simple'. I wish our course tutor would learn to see the wood for the trees sometimes.

I highly recommend the web design/ usablility book Don't Make Ne Think - a common sense approach to web usability by Steve Krug

It's not about the mechanics of how to build a site - it's about how to make your site a well-designed site from the user's point of view, which is just as important as the actual nots and bolts of building a site.

It's really well written, and will steer you in the right direction, especially if you are new to building websites. The information in it is relevant, whether you hand-code the site yourself, or go for an off the self package.

oops! That should of course have been "Don't make me think!"

Great advice here from everyone.

Yes nannynick's site is great isn't it. Easy on the eye, not cluttered, just tells you exactly what you need to know in an appealing way. Very easy to navigate. Brilliant.

That is the sort of thing I'd like to do - we won't need to sell from the site, just contact brother.

register.com includes hosting in the price I gave you. I found it really simple. Would give you a link to my site but it would out me

My site layout was designed by a mumsnetter back in 2007. So I can't take credit for the design... though I did do all the coding.

I agree ABetaDad I like sites that are kept fairly simple plus I agree that coding sites from scratch is a right pain. However coding sites yourself does mean you can do things that the templates just won't let you do... such as positioning some elements where you want them to appear. If you can edit the template then it's fine but to do that you need to learn the code.

For basic HTML books, check out your local library. While their titles may be a bit old, they are still perfectly usable and you may find having a book easier than reading online.

Have a play with the free website services, see what you can create, see if you like the way template systems work. The key I find is just to keep playing, keep on trying out new things. Plus borrow ideas/code from other people, seeing how their code works will help you modify it to work for your own needs.
For those interested in how some of my site was done, I suggest looking at CSSPlay.co.uk which includes many examples of curved boxes created mostly from CSS.

No probs jabberwocky! It's in dollars though so is it a bit complicated being all transatlantic?!

Are you going to be selling over the internet? You'll need a cart, etc. for that. But as far just paying for it I wouldn't think it would matter.

Does anyone else know?

We won't be selling over the internet, it'll be a contact us if interested thing.

While I do think learning how to build websites is a worthy thing in general, for a real beginner, if your primary aim is to have a decent working website, I'd strongly suggest going for a template approach, as you're much more likely to end up with something which actually looks decent and works well, in a much shorter period of time. I'm really not sure the time and effort involved in learning how to code is worth it in the short term.

Even if you use a template approach in the first instance, you could still learn basic coding for the future if you're interested.

Here are some essential things you need to think about when building a website:

1. How to build it
2. Where to host it
3. How will you update / maintain it?

It's surprising how often people forget about number 3!

If you're looking at any template approach (or one which involves a designer, even if it's a mate), it's really important to ask how you will be able to actually update it in the future. For something as simple as you are suggesting:

a. it shouldn't cost you anything to make changes to the site (from basic text changes, to adding new pages)
b. it should be possible to do your own updates easily

Make sure you check that both these points are covered before choosing a template or designer.

It may be that you will need to learn basic HTML (and possibly also CSS) in order to update it. Learning web coding by making simple changes to an existing site would IMO be a nice introduction to website coding, and a much more realistic approach than throwing yourself in the deep end and expecting to come up with something great from scratch first time (very, very unlikely!)

Here's a cautionary tale ... I know of an organisation which paid a web company to build a website for them. They never actually had a conversation about how they would update it, they just assumed they would be ale to do it themselves. They only found out after the site went live that they had to make all changes through the design company, and that costs started at £60 an hour for every single update they would want to make (even simple text changes). They had no budget for it, the website quickly became out of date, and so although it looked pretty it was useless. They never reached agreement with the designers - in the end they had to pay someone else to get yet another site designed from scratch which was more suitable for their needs.

I did my own - its probably crap but i bought domain and got hosting as well through streamline - then i used microsoft frontpage andit was quite straight forward to make it in tables. Not very descriptive huh lol! ?

Oh an another thing!

DO NOT TELL THE NAMING COMPANIES YOUR NEW NAME until you want to actually buy it.

By all means, type the name you want for your new site into the address bar, and/or Google to see if it exists.

But if you go to one of the sites which sells names, and type the address in there to see if it's available / how much it would cost, but then you don't actually buy it in that session, then when you go back the next time to actually buy it, one of two things may very well have happened.

1. The name suddenly costs a lot more to buy
2. Magically, overnight someone else has also registered the same name (what a coincidence ) but they are willing to sell it to you - for a price.

This happened to me. I stupidly put the name of a domain into one of these sites, went back to register it the next day and it would have costs me a whole lot more.

Be warned!

lowrib, you have a very good point. Dh has a website that fortunately does not need updating often as it was set up kind of like that. Domain through one company and hosting/updating through another. It costs more than mine does and it never changes

OTOH, I tweak and republish my website frequently at no extra cost and very easy to do.

Everyone has posted so far about the technical side, but you also need to think about the content of the site itself, and plan what will be on it, before you start building it.

Lets start at the beginning ... This may sound like a silly question, but it is actually fundamental:
What is the purpose of the website?

You say he has his own business. But what is his website actually for? Sometimes, people commission websites just because they feel they should have one, but don't really have a clear idea of what the website should actually do for them. This isn't a really a recipe for a good site though.

You'll end up with a much better end product if you have a clear idea of what you want it to do for you. This is true from the most basic one-page websites, up to enormous mega-sites.

Some answers might be:

• to increase trade by reaching new customers
• to give your business a sense of legitimacy in customers' eyes
• to reduce your administrative costs / time
• to sell a particular range of product

Once you are clear about why you are doing it, then you should start having a think about

• what should actually go on the site
• how the information would be organised
• and then, what kind of functionality you need on the site.

For example, do you want visitors to the site to be able to fill in any kind of form (e.g. leaving their contact details) or will contact with your brother be only via email? Email is the simpler option, as you'd only need to include his address on the site, but it might actually be very useful to your brother to be able to collect details of potential customers. If you needed this, then the website would need a simple database behind it, and therefore the hosting / design package will need to be able to accommodate this.

If it was me I would start doing this now, as the more developed your mental picture of the site is, the better equipped you will be to see which approach is. Also you don't want to get half way through with one approach and then, as in the example above, discover you need a database behind the site, but the hosting service and design template you've chosen doesn't accommodate it!

So, before you even get into how to build it, I reckon you need these things:

1. A clear idea of what the site is for
2. A list of what pages the site will have
3. A plan of what will actually be on each page

What kind of business does your brother run? I'd be very happy to help with some ideas if you like.

I'm on maternity leave right now, but in another life I'm a website content editor. (I didn't think I was missing work at all, but perhaps I am a little bit!)

There are some reputable sites that will not rip you off like that.

I use UK2.net (good for .co.uk + .com combos - both for a tenner) and GoDaddy for domain names, you might like to look at 123-reg as well. These three companies all started out selling domain names (although they now offer hosting as well) and they wouldn't still be in business if they did that kind of thing to their customers.

For hosting I use simplewebhosting.co.uk - they are doing a £50 a year plan at the moment with a free domain name. That package comes with templates and a simple to use editing package to get you started too.

Personally I don't think domains.com is a good recommendation.

Another tip ...

I've always found the Government Website "Business Link" to be a brilliant resource for all sorts of things to do with running a business.

Their guidance on building websites is here, and well worth a read IMO

www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?site=181&r.s=tl&r.l1=1073861197&r.lc=en&topicId=107444862 3

If you buy a domain from someone other than your webhost, you will need to learn about DNS records. You don't need to worry about those if you let your webhost sort out the domain name!

For someone non-technical, I would suggest that for a first-time website, get domain name and webspace via the same company... makes it so much easier. I used to get domain names through various registars and point the domain to webspace hosted elsewhere. These days I group it all with the same provider, they are so much more inclined then to sort out any problems that may arise.

Different webhosts will suit different people, depending on their usage. For example the company I host with don't really cater for absolute beginners. They expect users to have some idea of what they are doing... but saying that their tech support has always been great whenever I've had to e-mail them to ask a question.

lowrib I think you are missing work

nannynick