How to Make a Website

[TheMonkey]

if you ever want google to puke information all over you, just type that in.

can anyone break it down for me?

i have no experience, no domain. just want to document my build and share it. i'd like to have my own domain rather than a blog. isn't godaddy for people for me? do they offer hosting/domain/support and page building software for this? are they priced right, or what other route should i consider?

even information from godaddy's site seems to be unclear to what they offer. every site i go to just has 'click here to buy' buttons flashing everywhere.

thx for any help.

Scott.

[JMarsa]

1. You need a webserver (either yours on someone elses) to dish up your content. If you rent space the sevice is called webhosting.

2. You can register a domain if you want a specific URL or you can use the directory space assigned to you (like www.your-isp.com/scott/
If you register a URL the service is called a registar (like networksolutions ect).

3. You need to present your content in HTML. You can learn it, pay a web designer or use software. IMO learning is easier than using software.

How do you get on the net now? Maybe your ISP offers free webspace, many do, look into it it's usally cheap if you need to pay extra.

Godaddy is a good bang for the buck, shop around.

--JMarsa

[YoungGun]

I have a small site. Www.college-investor.com

I use www.inmotionhosting.com for hosting and to get my domain name. The cheapest hosting is $7 a month and the domain name is free with hosting. If you go to the site they will tell you if the domain name is available too.

The harder part is the building of the site itself. Do you have dreamweaver? Microsoft FrontPoint? Or any web design software? Some places offer online software but they are baddddd. To build a basic site is pretty simple with good software.

Thats my little bit for now as I am sure there are much smarter guys on here then me!

Tim

[69TAPoser]

I use citymax.com for my site:

www.69firebirdbuild.com

...It is a hosting/building site and is basically no harder than using Microsoft Word. But it is hard to make it look as good as someone that is building their site from scratch. It is a compromise.

It is also a bit expensive, mine is $20 a month. They include all sorts of e-commerce stuff that I do not use. I do have over 500 pics uploaded with them though.

Phil

[cad]

you can get hosting from godaddy for about 3.95 per month and I believe you get a month free if you pay for a year. You can get your domain from several places. In the end they all register your domain with the gov't (ICANNS). You should be able to get a domain for about $7 per year. Set it up on auto-renewal or you could lose it. Call godaddy and ask them about their site builder system. They have the best customer service that I have dealt with. I host my site there and never have an issue. I use Frontpage and have used Dreamweaver. Frontpage is easiest....if you know MS Office, you can figure it out. Buy a Frontpage for Dummies or Dreamweaver for Dummies book from Borders. They are very good books. You can actually publish a site using Word if you want to keep it simple.

[cad]

Godaddy is pricing .com domains for 1.99 if you buy any additional product, such as web hosting.

[Poltergeist]

I have my domain registered with godaddy, $7 a year, and host the site with webstrikesolutions.com $30 to setup the site and the first year is free, then $7 or $8 a month after that. 1gig of storage, 20gigs of bandwidth a month and unlimited email accounts with your domain name. I use MS frontpage to build it.

[TheMonkey]

thx for the information guys. for sure cleared some things up.

Poser- your site is in the spirit of what i had in mind. you did a nice job. injury meter is great. good tip on the dynamat edges.

YoungGun... cool site also. MER call went well this morning, Thain is a stud... way too cheap.... buy buy buy! buy with both hands!

[Texas Hotrod]

I stumbled across a site called webshots.com. They have free picture gallery hosting, so I joined up and had a place to post my pics. I felt guilty, so I opted to pay for my picture hosting and got upgraded in the process.
That was fine for a while, so I started searching for web hosting.
I signed on at godaddy, applied for a domain name and paid for a web account.
Well, I'm pretty decent with a computer, but there's no way I could get the hang of typing code. Too difficult for me, I'm used to pointing, clicking and dragging. So I contacted the fine reps at godaddy, talked about my issues, and they happily downgraded my service to a "website tonight" program. It took a while to learn how the whole thing operates, but by making a few (dumb) mistakes, I was building my pages in no time. Instead of building custom photo galleries, I saved a lot of time and posted links to my webshots photo albums.
A also have a program called "the Logo Creator", used for designing and producing business cards. It's been really handy for adding text to pictures, resizing pics, and general manipulation. My new computer came with a program called "Paint". I can open any picture with Paint, change it how I want, add text (with a crap-load of different faunts) with the Logo Creator, and upload that pic to a website, gallery or forum.
Like this pic: (I blocked out the license plate w/Paint)
Click on it and it'll take you to the webshots album.



To a custom creation for a web page:

Check out GD's website tonight package, it worked for me.
I agree too that Poser's and Gun's sites are cool. The end result depends on one's abilities and the use of software.
10 people with the same resources will have 10 different results. My site is by far nothing spectacular. I can honestly say I did it myself with what I had to work with.

Good luck on your site Monk.

[Hammered]

Hey Scott,

Check with your internet service provider first. Road Runner gives either 5MB or 10MB hosting space. I know many of the other service providers do the same. In fact, RR is rather stingy with the amount of space they offer. I used MS FrontPage to build my site, but I hear that MS is not supporting that software anymore and has already released a competing product. As Phil said earlier, it is pretty much like using MS Word. RR would let me use my own domain name, but I didn't bother to buy one. I eventually outgrew the hosting space they provided and got a deal through someone on the FGF board. My current site is probably 4 times the RR limit and I'm not being wasteful with excessive image size or resolution. Make sure you know how much hosting space you're getting.

John