For those of you who have websites or who build them, what’s the best way to go for someone who wants to create their own website? I am not necessarily interested in making it a tri focused website, although it probably would have a section on my tri/multi-sport interests. This would basically be just a non-commercial website, with my interests and stuff that’s going on in my life.
I would want my own domain name, so I’m not really interested in going through something like geocities with lot’s of extra advertising/frames/pop-ups. What are some cheap/easy to use options for hosting? I have used HTML and VB Script in the past so I also have some understanding of web programming.
First you need to buy your domain name. There are lots of places you can do that, just do a search on google for domain name registration. Some of those same companies will also host your site. Depending on what you need (what kind of server, database, traffic bandwidth) you can pay a little, or alot. There are literallyMILLIONS of hosting options, most of the ones I have used have been for businessuse for work, so I couldn’t help you with personal hosting, but there are plenty of options out there.
Pretty easy to get a site up and running. Personally, I don’t like WYSIWYG editors, and prefer to write all my own HTML by hand, cause frankly, it looks better and is formatted better. Most WYSIWYG editors put in unnecessarytags, which makes it a pain in the ass to edit.
I would suggest starting with your favorite photo editing program, like PhotoShop or GIMP. Make a template of what you want the site to look like, then start adding content. If you want really cool stuff on your website, your going to have to use some DHTML, or JavaScript, or Flash, or…a whole list of other complex cryptic looking stuff!
Anyway, I have suffled through many web hosting companies including:
o http://www.godaddy.com/ :i am currently very happy with their virtual dedicated package (one of the cheaper ones out there). I have not used them for basic hosting which is probably what you need.
o http://neureal.com/ : They lost my data once and then they kicked me off when I grew to big. Overall, I was happy with them except for the data loss issue
o http://www.phpwebhosting.com/ : One recent crash, but they got the data back They tend to overload their servers.
o http://your-site.com/ : One of the first web hosts I used, but I got too big and kicked me off. they never lost my data and overall were pretty good.
Bottom line
o backup your data
o try to find someone who has been around for a long time (stability == good)
Are you going to make money from this? Just wondering why you want to spend money on it.
How about blogger.com to start with and if you like doing it you can buy a domain and direct it to your blog.
Look at www.eriksaunders.com for an example.
Basically, I just like the idea of having a site without alot of crap advertising or other junk that accompanies free hosted sites. I don’t think I’ll be making any money with the site. I will definitely check out the blogger.com suggestion. Thanks!
With blogger you only get one small blogger symbol at the bottom of the page and people voluntarily put their own ads on their web page!
It’s free ( company bought by google earlier this year). I use blogger for my race diary and upload pictures to flickr.com (another free site unless you want an unlimited gallery) and link to flickr images forever.
You can use any of the supplied templates for the blog and modify them to your heart’s content.
There’s also myspace.com and msn.com and 360 yahoo.com (in beta) with free blog support as well but I haven’t used those, from looking at friends’, they have much more unsubtle indications of who is paying for the free space in varying degrees.
They tend to overload their servers.