websites and the internet etc

[shadrack]

right so im no computer geek, but im thinking as i go forward and grow my buisness i could do with a website, nothing flash but just maybe 1 or 2 pages explaing thing etc, then a contact page maybe with an email form for people to fill in re info quotes etc, something i could make myself over time, and how i go about this, how i buy a web name address etc

thanks

[X5Sport]

First buy and register a web domain name.  There are plenty of registrars out there, but go with a UK based one if you can.

You'll pay about £3-£8 per year for a .co.uk.

123-reg.co.uk are one of the larger ones, or 1&1, or then there's GoDaddy etc.  A simple web search for buying a UK domain name will find you plenty.

You can also add cost options that keep your name and address as the 'registrant' private.  A tool called Whois will reveal details so .i have mine set to private so that a 'whois' search brings back no data.

Then look for a cheap website host like 1&1, or Fasthosts and see if what they offer meets your needs. 

Also think about 'availability' - I.e. Is your site up 24/7, what happens if the hosting company suffers a glitch, how long can the site be down for?  In theory the better the hosting company the more likely it is that your site will be there 99.999% of the time (measured in hours across a rolling year).

And when you set things up use passwords that are AT LEAST 12 characters long, using alphanumerics and special characters as that makes it very hard for someone to hijack your site - another reason to go with the major players.

I'm sure people like pvr will chip in with other tips too.

Richard

[shadrack]

So the best way forward is to use a company? Im a little limited at this so how much is it roughly per year to have the website? Is the domain name renewed every year? If so can this be done on auto renew so does not get lost etc.  Down time isnt that much of an issue as im primarily a tradesman however im now subcontracting other trades to jobs as well as subing electrical work out.  Its more somewhere to showcase work etc etc as well as contact info.

thanks so far

[Reusch]

Try this chap James at  Netnebulis I use him for our website he's based in Sweden but he's always available and excellent.

[X5Sport]

If you set you domain name to auto renew then it will.  Mine do.  I always get a reminder 90 days before though.

The cost of being hosted is not bad and will depend upon the amount of traffic.  Again have a look at someone like 1&1 or Fasthosts or GoDaddy for costs.  For a small site it can be less than £100 a year these days.

If you want to do all of it DIY then you need a good broadband connection (it's the outbound data rate that becomes very important rather than your inbound (download) rate and if like me you only get about 500kbps outbound then that is all your customer will get.  And you will need a dedicated machine to run the site on, or a server, which needs to be left on plus additional hardware like a decent firewall and commercial router to protect the rest of your home from 'hackers'.

It's much cheaper to go down the hosted route as the supplier will use high speed connections, commercial servers (you just use a small bit of one server), 24/7 supported operations etc.  You just build your site - or use their services to build a simple one - and save it on their servers.  You can then add products like PayPal, Visa etc if (and when) you need it.

A lot of hosting companies offer a menu driven system which you just add the products you need for your site to a shopping basket and then build it.  It only gets expensive when you start building large, compkex, flashy sites with lots of add-ons.

Richard