my own website - who's best to buy from?

[TopoftheMorning]

Hello there

I need to set up a website which will be mainly for getting information to interested people (ie nothing posh or interactive).

It will need to be really easy to upload content in terms of text and pictures, and I'll need to be able to have a contact me sort of area.

That's about it really. Oh it needs to look as decent as possible given that I am not a web designer and have none of that knowledge.

Where would I get such a website from please?

If I already own a domain name, will that have come with the ability to build webcontent or can I buy separately?

Thanks!

Try yola.com. Very easy to navigate and free. Probably adequate for what you want, and you can use your own domain name.

Or you could do it for free on google [https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?continue=http%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F&followup=htt p%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F&service=jotspot&passive=true&ul=1 here]]

lets try that again here

Barry, wordpress is good blogging software, but it takes a bit of effort to set it up and keep it running. Or do you mean a hosted blog at wordpress.com? If you do just want a blog (which you can upload images and attach documents to), get a free one at blogger.com - you can point your own domain name at it if you want.

TopoftheMorning, I'd recommend blogger.com to you as well - or if you qualify, look at the brand new free GBBO initiative.

If pictures are important to you, take a look at Flickr too.

All these should work for you as long as you don't need to have any of the information in private areas needing people to sign up with passwords etc. If you do need this, you will be better off with Google Sites which is intended more for this than public-facing web sites.

Get your domain from someone like 123-reg. They do offer hosting packages too which are worth a look. Buy the .com as well as .co.uk (or if an org, .com, .org, .org.uk) to avoid someone else confusing your users.

oooh, I was just about to post something similar. There's moonfruit and 123 reg with easy design tempaltes; you can either set up a site for free or pay for it to be bigger and better. Both seem to be about £50 for a year. I'm weighing it up as we speak...

WordPress is software that you can install on a web server to run your own blog. Because you install it yourself you have lots of control over how it works and what it does, there are lots of plugins you can install for various things and it is generally a geeks delight. You can get the WordPress software free from the link you posted (wordpress.org), and it is generally reckoned to be the best of its kind all-round.

wordpress.com is a site where you can sign up for free and you get a blog - you don't need your own web host, you just sign up and away you go. However, in this case Blogger.com is generally reckoned to be the best of this kind of service all-round.

Hope that helps.

You can try VodaHost, they cost just under $10 per month. They have their own easy to use web building software that will get you up and running quite quickly. It uses Control Panel that makes running things really easy and it has a lot of free extras.

I also think that HostGator is cheap as well.

Good Luck Jo.

I've just gone with moonfruit, their design programme kicks crap out of 123. Unless you really aren't fussed about not being able to mess with the templates - I'm too fussy and I like moonfruit, and for free too!