Hi all. I want to register a website domain and make a simple website. I’ve programmed a simple website in HTML before so I know the basics but someone else registered the domain and provided te space for me so I didn’t have to sort that bit.

Which company would be good for what I need? I don’t need loads of email addresses or massive storage, just something fairly simple and reliable.

Thanks.

Many offer free wordpress and similar. We use 1and1 and it’s included in the monthly price (£5 IIRC).

It means you don’t actually need to do any html.

For reference: http://go.lvis.org.uk

Mines on Weebly.
Simple enough for an idiot like me to work!

I think that’s the point. You can just pay your monthly fee and get a ready to go website builder included be it wordpress (one of the most common and IMO a good one), Joomla, or weebly (that I’ve never heard of but that’s kind of the point – you don’t need to have so long as it does what you need).

The 1and1 looks fairly simple. Might give that a go.

timbur – Member
Mines on Weebly.
Simple enough for an idiot like me to work!

Interesting.

How much do you pay per month?

Can you use own domain name?

😀

Hi all. I want to register a website domain
…
someone else registered the domain

Which is it?

Many offer free wordpress and similar

WordPress is free. You can self-host (wordpress.org) or have WordPress host it for you (wordpress.com). If the latter, you don’t need to pay anyone anything for hosting, just point your domain name at your wp subdomain for $13/year.

Cougar – Moderator
Wordpress is free. You can self-host (wordpress.org) or have WordPress host it for you (wordpress.com). If the latter, you don’t need to pay anyone anything for hosting, just point your domain name at your wp subdomain for $13/year.

Cougar,

Could you help me out please.

Say if I want to have my domain name as http://www.chewkw.co.uk then to have my website content hosted on WordPress, so when someone type in my URL …

Questions:

1. Will WordPress website show my content and with my URL rather then simply WordPress?

2. What do you mean by self-host?

3. what do you mean by WordPress host it for me?

I am planning to set up 5 pages website with e-commence for now just to get things started.

Help please.

Cheers

😀

1 yes. They’ll give you e.g. chewkw.WordPress.com for free and accept you pointing http://www.chewkw.co.uk at it for 13/year. As I understand it anyway, I’m no wp expert – check out their faq / documentation.

2 you have your own server / web host.

3 you don’t have that and are storing your content on WordPress’s servers.

Thanks Cougar.

If $13 / year that is very good considering I am just having very simple 5 pages for now.

I will check them out in detail tomorrow.

Typo … no e-commence for now.

😀

I’d “try before you buy” if I were you. Have a play with it before you spend money.

Cougar – Moderator

I’d “try before you buy” if I were you. Have a play with it before you spend money.

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, will definitely trial it first before paying.

hmmm … will check out if they have POP emails.

Nothing.
Bought the name and then paid to upload it (not sure on technical terms)

timbur – Member

Nothing.
Bought the name and then paid to upload it (not sure on technical terms)

Ok, that sounds straightforward. I am thinking of site5.com as theirs are rather reasonable in price.

I have designed my website (dummy) … well the basic of how it should look anyway but still trying to think of what to write information wise. 😕

Not sure if it’s still on, but 1and1 had an offer on where you could get your first year, including domain registration, for 99p + vat

durhambiker – Member

Not sure if it’s still on, but 1and1 had an offer on where you could get your first year, including domain registration, for 99p + vat

Will check it out later … must be a catch somewhere.

If you want ecommerce it adds a layer of complexity. If you are new to setting up websites then I would look at a platform that offers ecommerce built in. If you use WordPress plugins to add ecommerce you’ll also have to look at payment systems and possibly SSL certificates (for security). If I was looking at setting up a small store I’d be looking at Squarespace or Shopify.

I’ve spend half the day looking at ecommerce platforms for clients and whilst those two don’t scale for the stores I’m looking at I think for testing the waters they are perfect.

I’d look at Stripe for payments – nice and easy to set up from what our clients tell us and a nice easy fee structure.

Good luck in your new venture!

Edit: just spotted that the ecommerce requirement was a typo. So ignore the above. WordPress will be fine for what you need to do. TSO Host are good and cheap for self hosting a site ( https://www.tsohost.com ) Should have a discount code if want one for them. Would still look at Squarespace if you want to get something up quick. Looks really easy to get going and has some decent templates to get you started.

durhambiker – Member

Not sure if it’s still on, but 1and1 had an offer on where you could get your first year, including domain registration, for 99p + vat

Just checked again on 1and1 but I don’t like their pricing structure. i.e. Pay x amount for 12 mth then xx amount after that.

mrben101 – Member
If you want ecommerce it adds a layer of complexity. If you are new to setting up websites then I would look at a platform that offers ecommerce built in.

Yes, I want that in future but not immediately as I need to see how things go first. i.e. simple website and most importantly going out to do my sales first.

If you use WordPress plugins to add ecommerce you’ll also have to look at payment systems and possibly SSL certificates (for security). If I was looking at setting up a small store I’d be looking at Squarespace or Shopify.

It looks like there are some hidden charges for WordPress if I want to add ecommerce etc later on. Not sure if the WordPress’ free templates are customisable as I don’t twit or blog … It also looks expensive if I want a bit more of this and that for later use.

Squarespace is also rather similar to WordPress to some extend and information is not very clear on their cheapest package.

Shopify looks very good but I am just starting up so will keep them in mind.

Thanks for the advice on SSL certificates.

I’ve spend half the day looking at ecommerce platforms for clients and whilst those two don’t scale for the stores I’m looking at I think for testing the waters they are perfect.

I will not start with mega online store if I start ecommerce but rather few products at a time. Start small to learn.

I’d look at Stripe for payments – nice and easy to set up from what our clients tell us and a nice easy fee structure.

Stripe looks good as payment platform. Will also keep this in mind.

Could you have a look at site5.com for their hostBasic package please. What do you think?

I mean they practically give you everything you want eventhough none of new start-ups use them all or are competent to use them all, nevertheless the features are there if we want. The price is very reasonable and I don’t mind the website to be hosted in USA to be honest.

Their Easy SiteBuilder seem to be easy to use?

Could you have a look please.

Cheers

😀

My team’s website uses weebly http://www.NWAlps.com

Could you have a look at site5.com for their hostBasic package please. What do you think?

I mean they practically give you everything you want eventhough none of new start-ups use them all or are competent to use them all, nevertheless the features are there if we want. The price is very reasonable and I don’t mind the website to be hosted in USA to be honest.

Their Easy SiteBuilder seem to be easy to use?

Had a quick look – the price looks good/cheap. It looks like the site builder was built by an engineer with Window 3.1 though – this is a bad thing 🙁 Didn’t spot how you add e-commerce to the website builder, though I skipped through the video. It looked like you would need to install one of the open source carts to run a store.

WordPress hosted I think works for blogs, self host wordpress installs you can pretty much do what you want with if you know how – its a really flexible platform in that regard.

Squarespace is a little more expensive per month than site5 – $10 p/m if you pay monthly for the basic package, then up to $24 p/m – which is pretty cheap to be honest for an ecommerce store. I’d start at the cheap end of that and then on;y upgrade if you need to.

One thing to consider is the free templates available. Make sure whoever you use can provide you with a responsive template – i.e. the site adapts to the screen site of the device you are using – so it works better on mobile phones and tablets.

They both have free trials:

http://www.site5.com/about/thirty-day-free-trial/

http://www.squarespace.com/

Sign up to both and try them. My gut instinct is that SquareSpace is the better platform – for ease of use and template quality, but have a go an see which you prefer.

Shopify is great if your main focus is a store, but there is no point in using it for a none ecommerce site.

I’ve no vested interest in any of these btw (unless you want to sign up for Shopify using my affiliates code 😉 )

Hope that helps!

Depending on what you want the website for, could you use one of the e-commerce photography webstites like Clikpic or Photium? You don’t HAVE to sell stuff on there, but you can if you want.
I had a Photium website for a while and it was easy to use and the guy running it responded to problems/help request very quickly.

I think Photium has a month trial, which lets you spend a decent amount of time playing with it.

mrben101 – Member
Hope that helps!

Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, it helps a lot especially from someone with experience in web design or dealing with web hosting company etc, I am totally lost so need to learn fast as I will have to spend my hard earn money properly. 😀

mrben101 – Member

… WordPress will be fine for what you need to do. TSO Host are good and cheap for self hosting a site ( https://www.tsohost.com ) Should have a discount code if want one for them. Would still look at Squarespace if you want to get something up quick. Looks really easy to get going and has some decent templates to get you started.

I am checking out TSO host at the moment and they look good but still rather confused about their pricing structure i.e. they got this drop down ‘+’ scroll bar so not sure which ‘+’ is included and which not … hmmmm … TSO host pricing The professional package seems reasonable as it comes with free domain name.

This is what I want on my initial website.

1. My own domain name.

2. 5 pages to 8 pages webpages (bloody pages started to increase as I design) using template I can manage.

3. Free emails with my domain name on. i.e. info@, sales@, me@, delivery@, feedback@, etc or forward them to my other emails …

The future …

1. Small online retail store … e-commerce.

2. Better design …

3. Whatever there is to improve my income.

😀

I use these @ £2.95 per month had my site up and running in 3-4 hours.

http://www.uk2.net/website-builder/

http://www.saintefoyapartment.com

Hey chewkw.

Just jump in and try the free demos first – get a feel of what you like/don’t like and how easy the system is to use. Spend a few hours signing up and playing with the sites that have a free demo. Even if you out grown or decide you don’t like the platform you can move easily enough later. Though it might be worth considering if the platform you start with will let you grow as you want to – i.e. can you upgrade/add a plugin for an ecommerce store?

There were plenty of options mentioned on this thread.

If you just want to get up and running and you don’t have any experience in the area I’d ignore the self hosted options where you’d have to install WordPress your self (like TSO) – the install my be one click, but they won’t support you if you get lost using wordpress.

Long term you might be better moving to a self hosted site, but you want to get something up and running asap and get trading. That’s the hardest part! You can improve the site as you go – but if people don’t know you exist then you are already losing!

mrben101 – Member

My gut instinct is that SquareSpace is the better platform – for ease of use and template quality …

I think SquareSpace might be the choice as their templates are nicer but more expensive than others. However, if it is easy for me to use with reliability then I guess spending a bit more for peace of mind is good enough for now.

Personal $8/month package – Is 500GB bandwidth enough for a 10 pages website with average 3 pictures?

They also do not providing emails so I might need to look Google App or Gmail for that … hmmm …

Do you know anyone using them?

😀

Sorry – missed your reply. Why doesn’t this forum tell you when you have a reply like every other forum I use does?!

Start with the free trial and see how you get on. I’d start on the basic after that and see how you go. It should be plenty for starters. No need to spend to much up front! And if you out grow it or don’t get on with it then its only a month by month contract.

I’ve spotted a few friends who a designers (but not web designers) who use squarespace, but I only know as I had a nose at the code of the site 🙂

I pay £33 a year for a Google App account at my personal domain – its been fine once it was set up.

Let us know how you get on 🙂

Yes, it will be the basic package of $8/month that I am singing up to.

Also will be using Google App for personal email domain at £33 a year as this is better than any around at the moment.

I’m in the process of designing my website now … let see if my design is up to scratch. 😆

Will update again once I got it running.

🙂