Website Basics. Domains, Hosting, HOW TO.?

[Peter O'Connor]

Hey Y'all,
So, I am a NOVICE,STARTER,NEWBIE etc with a computer,,, ok!
I spent far too long manipulating BLOGGER to create a form of portfolio... but
It's time for PETE.COM, I don't want pete@wordpress.co.uk, I dont want pete@weebly.com
I want pete.com.....

I have found a choice of domain names I would be happy with, .com's NOT .co.uks'
I travel alot so I think .com is essential for me.
These domain names are between £5-£10 for the year - Nice, I'm happy with that
BUT.... before I get the credit card out could someone tell me in laymans terms what follows after purchasing the name... is there hidden costs I need to know about, is the domain name useless without X+Y etc
Weebly will let me use my own domain name but does that mean they are my hosting people or , or, or,
MY MIND HAS NOW MISTED AND MY EYES ARE GLAZED!!!
I'M STUCK...

Easy English please,, if there is abbreviated terminology I have to go and look up, fair enough,
Time for this old dog to learn new trix... I'm scared of writing html tho...
Path of least resistance...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Domain registration is like buying a custom number plate for your car

It get's you the plate, but you still need a car to put it on.

So after you've registered the domain and paid your registration fee, you need to find somewhere to host it. (The car)

The hosting is the server where your domain will live - and you'll pay a monthly fee for that.

Hosting usually allows:

Access to upload and update website
A limited amount of disk space to put it on
A limited number of Email addresses pete@pete.com, sales@pete.com etc

Lots of hosting companies to choose from - huge range of prices - some may be UK based, some may be abroad - not really anything good or bad about either as long as you like the price, and they can deliver the service.

After that, they tend to want to 'upgrade' you with extras - like shopping cart software, SQL databases etc etc - if your website just requires basic HTML pages, and you're not selling stuff or taking credit cards, then you can say 'no thanks' to the extras.

My dodkin.com domain is hosted on Domainhost in the US Web hosting, domain name registration and web applications for small business— DomainHost
I have dodkin.com email addresses, and I can FTP my website and updates to my site easily

My work websites are hosted by GoDaddy - easy to use, try and sell you lots of extras, but easy enough to say no and just get he basics. Domain Names, Web Hosting and SSL Certificates - Go Daddy

If you get ******-off with your hosting service, you can always move your domain to another hosting company.

Remember - you will have to renew your domain registration yearly - or buy a cheaper multi-year registration, just like your car registration.

If you let it lapse - you'll get warnings - then they'll put it back up for sale and you'll loose it.

Not as complicated as it may seem - cost summary below:

Domain Registration - Yearly or multi-year package deal
Hosting - Monthly cost or yearly cost
Email - monthly/yearly - usually included in hosting fee
FTP access to upload/change website - usually included in hosting fee
shopping cart - extra to requirements unless you're building an online store and taking credit cards

I've probably missed something - so others please chime in!

 

[Peter O'Connor]

Nice one Chris, Reading this thoroughly...

 

[Peter O'Connor]

Beautiful, guess what, I understand, You are Godlike.
So!
I've been referred to WEEBLY.com as a real easy Do It Yourself website...
I can use my domain with them but does that mean they become my hosts?
This is where I've got to...

Domain Registrar - Support Articles

I think I will 'outsource' sales etc to other sites, email@pete.com would be nice but not essential, I'm quite happy with gmail, everyone I know has me as that, so no need to change I don't think..

essentially I just want a simple/memorable domain name for international use...

Thanks again Chris, Bookmarking this page of sense....

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Yep - Weebly will be your host - not sure where they make their $$ as there's a lot of freeness talked about on their website!

Sure there must be charges somewhere, but reviews all look good

 

[Peter O'Connor]

Do you think I'm ok to buy my chosen domain name from godaddy now, (£8/yr) while it's still available and implement everything else when I get my head around it... I am so ignorant to all of this, I'm a bit fearful to act!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

You should be fine - just don't sign up for hosting at GoDaddy!

 

[Hamish Gill]

If you buy the .com why not buy the .co.uk you can point one at the other ...

Erm, Chris has covered most things

Who is building your site?

We do everything apart from buying the domain name
I'm not trying to flog my services, but of you go to a company they will often recomend hosting (or sell you a bit of theirs) ... We have a range of packages we sell to our clients and because it's out hosting we know that it has all the right bits included that we need...

 

[Peter O'Connor]

Mornin Hamish,
Belated birthday wishes to You, Internal organs have settled down by now I hope, Takes a bit longer as the years pass!

I was going to use weebly.com to build, I did a fair bit of research last night and hear no negatives at all.
Apart from Blogger, I am completely new to this so please do hit me with your sales rapport...

As an ignorant I don't follow the benefits of having .com + .co.uk... does that mean twice the work to establish presence with the 2 sites... Or is it one site that both addresses will go to...

Also I've just noticed the 'tags' section below, how beneficial is it to you if we add a few words per post?

 

[Hamish Gill]

Tags are fairly useless ... Certainly nothing to worry about at this stage ... I just have somthing do a fairly bad job of generating them for me...

In simple terms if you have a .co.uk you just point it at the .com which will be pointed at the hosting ...
So when somone goes to the .co.uk it redirects them to the .com
It's just nice to have both, once set up means nothing
Type realphotographersforum.co.uk into the address bar and see what happens
In fact try realphotographyforum.co.uk ... Same deal

My sales pitch ... You can read that here if you like
http://www.realphotographersforum.c...rk/2886-advise-needed-site-web-portfolio.html

Being a web design company I feel it hard to talk about things like webly and wix as they don't really come into my world other than when people ring up and say we have a webly site but we want somthing more bespoke etc

That's what it comes down to really, you pay for design and expertees or you do it for free your self with an online tool or dream weaver etc

As I said to Fidel, you can do a lot worse than Wordpress for a free site ...

 

[Peter O'Connor]

Yep, follow you all the way on the bespoke kudos, that's why I haven't bothered my web design friends for help as they are pros and work hard for their earnings, so I don't cross the line as I don't have that kind of dollar to invest... Yet!

I didn't realise the f8creations is what it is, congratulations, you have an excellent image.

Maybe I'll pop in next time I'm passing the M5, see if your coffee has the same quality!

Terrific info in the Fidel thread, awesome. thankfully I read about the Bob Parsons cruelty last night whilst researching, I was going down the godaddy path before that.

 

[Hamish Gill]

you would be welcome to pop by!
yes .. bob parsons ... im no eco warrior vegan type person ... but there is a line and that guy went flying pasted it with no mention of "go"

 

[Pete Askew]

Had to look that up to see what was going on. Maybe this will be his 'Ratner moment'.

 

[Hamish Gill]

It certainly did some damage to godaddy... They seem to still be up and running though...