Starting a website

[toonmilo]

Hello all, i am keen to start my own business, with the use of a website. Can anyone suggest any good free ones that allow you to register with a search engine etc. Or maybe the free ones are no good??? If so, i would ideally like to have a website name that ends in .co.uk. would i be right in saying you have to pay for those websites??.....Also, what software would i need to create the actual site, is 'Frontpage' any good?

[vehelpfulguy]

Long answer so this is part 1

It is better to have your own site name rather than a free one as this will look more professional. With your own site you can have a name like www.mycompany.co.uk

There are two initial stages in getting a web site, registering the name, and getting a company to host it.

Usually the company who host it will also help you to register the name. It is very easy and can all be done over the internet.

I used a company called Netcetera but there are hundreds of them http://www.netcetera.co.uk/

Registering the name can be as low as 2 or 3 pounds for a co.uk (it is more for a .com), and hosting the site can start from about �5 a month for a simple site.

more answer to come 

[vehelpfulguy]

Part 2 of answer

Once you have the web site name and a company to host it you can design the site.

Microsoft Frontpage is fine for beginers, and you can design a good site with it.

Most professionals use Macromedia Dreamweaver, but this is expensive and complex. There are other products.

It is important if you design a site that you make it look professional, if it looks badly designed it will reflect badly on your company.

I would have 4 or 5 goes at designing the site before you settle on one and announce it to the world.

If you do not think you can do it then hire someone to do it for you.

Once you have designed the site on your PC you them need to upload it to the company that will host your site. This can be a bit technical and you may need some help.  

More answer to follow 

[vehelpfulguy]

Part 3 of answer

There are a number of ways to learn web design.

There are books like "Idiots Guide to Creating a web page" or "Web page design in easy steps".

There are also monthly magazines like "Web pages made easy" and others which come with CDs or DVDs with "free" software.

W H Smith have a few good books (but actually in the magazine section) such as "Web design for beginners" or "Learning Dreamweaver". These also come with CDs with free software on them such as Dreamweaver.

(Note that I do have these books above from W H Smith but they do come and go so if you do not see them ask)

Anybody can add their site to a search engine, and you can read more about how to do it in the books above, or search on the web for more help. 

Good luck 

[Oneeyedvic]

6 months ago, I started a business and needed a website - I created this with no experience using Frontpage: www.allianceandgeneral.com I got books out of the library as vehelpfulguy mentioned, and did a bit of research on the internet.

There are also a lot of free templates you can use which make life a lot easier. Try googling for free website template.

I personally used www.virtualnames.co.uk to buy and registert our domain name and host our website.

 

It really is not as difficult as you think to fo it.

 

Please note that most people will say Frontpage is rubbish, but I found it to be very easy to use and did everything I wanted.

[Woodsz]

Try these

http://www.webstudio.com/

http://www.easily.co.uk /

[toonmilo]

Thanks everyone! Will start researching etc. Much appreciated

[Shamruth]

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