Need help! Taking the web plunge.

Rennie Heuer

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OK - I'm getting very close to signing up for a hosting service as a first step in getting a web based WW business started. The plan is to sign up now, build the web page (and some inventory) over the next two months, and be ready to 'throw the switch' in early spring. This will not replace my day job!:D This is a first step in building a supplemental income for retirement - still 9 years away.

Many of you have web sites - I'm a complete novice. :doh: I'm looking at Hostmonster as the most likely hosting service - lots of features, good ratings, and low cost. Anyone care to comment?

Also, what are some of the pitfalls I should look out for? What words of wisdom do you 'old hands' have to offer for someone just stepping into the world of eCommerce? Any direction you can offer would be helpful....Really! Any design guidance? Please? :rofl:
 
Before even checking out the price and features offered by HostMonster, I wrote up a paragraph about 1&1 -- my hosting service -- including links for [price and features] and [comparison with other services].

But after checking out the [list of HostMonster features] (is all of that really included for only $5.95 a month?!?) I'm inclined to say that you've found a darn good service.

The only 1&1 features that stand out next to that list are
* 3 free domain names (at the Business level) instead of 1 ... but how many are you going to need?
* Option of Microsoft-based hosting if you're into that sort of thing
* The ability to pay even less (for fewer features)​
Best of luck as you try to navigate all the choices out there!
 
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OK? Yes, I'd say so. If it were me, I'd have no qualms with shelling out the $118.80 and then "forgetting about it" for 2 years.

But I'm a very small fish ... perhaps you should wait for a couple "pros" to weigh in?
 
I can make several suggestions.

One host to consider is Quality Host. Between my neighbor and I we have probably hosted a dozen sites on there. Very well pleased. Had some minor issues with their mail severs going to down for 10 -15 minutes at a time and I left. Went to GoDaddy. Well GoDaddy is good, but I am probably going back to QH. To many restrictions and to many extra charges at GD for me. But they have been rock solid.

Main thing I look for in a host are Server Side Includes, Perl, and a personal CGI-bin. These probably will mean nothing to you. But as you learn they may be very important!

Shopping carts are available. The simplest is using PayPals checkout. I just added that for Credit Card purchases and it's simple and unless you have a Merchant Account or the volume to justify one it's a good way to go for CC payment. Fee's are little high for my tastes, but still cheaper than a merchant account and I don't have the volume to justify one.

Register.com is the place to handle your domain. They have been the best if you need to change something.

Learn HTML. It can make you pull your hair out but if you learn to hard code as opposed to using a Visual editor. Your better off in the long run. Learning it is a pain! But I have gone back and found many problems for sites using some of the "easy" editors. I am not a fan of Front Page even though many are. It has TONS of useless code and creates a needless bloated file. But thats my opinion.

Get help creating you web site if you need it. There are so many bad looking web sites out there. You want your site to look professional, not like you did it yourself. People notice!! I have a company I deal with and it's obvious they do their own pages. Lots of things that are very amateur about it. They have a great product but I think the page can turn people off.

I probably have more but that is enough for now. :thumb:
 
I can make several suggestions.

One host to consider is Quality Host. Main thing I look for in a host are Server Side Includes, Perl, and a personal CGI-bin. These probably will mean nothing to you. But as you learn they may be very important! :thumb:
Both present in the service offered - loved the rest of the info also - keep it coming!

For now, I'll be doing my own with some careful guidance from a friend or two. I don't want the site to look amateurish, but until I can afford more, it will have to do. I've heard lots of not so good stuff about FrontPage. I will probably use the building tool that is available from the hosting service. Another option is Nvu, which is free and I've heard some good things about. Sorry, but HTML just is not on my list of things to do right now - just too much going on.

Whats their uptime like? Cheap isn't any good if they go down for extended periods, or frequent short periods.
99.9% Guaranty - pretty close to always.:thumb:

A friend of mine runs several very busy sites for a couple of non-profits. I had him look at the offering and he felt it was pretty good also. He had experience with GoDaddy similar to Jeff's.
 
A couple lessons learned from my own mistakes:

1&1 treated me good for several years, but lately my sites are down or painfully slow FAR too often. I'm going to drop 1&1 and switch hosts as soon as I have a bit of time. I will likely go with Bluehost, which is where we have the FamilyWoodworking stuff.

My sites have been done with MS Frontpage, but I will likely re-do them somewhere along the way to use something that is not quite so proprietary. Frontpage is relatively easy to use, but some things done in Frontpage do not display correctly on non-Microsoft browsers. (Looks peachy keen on IE, of course.) :rolleyes: In hindsight, I would have used a different authoring tool.

I'll agree and disagree with Jeff's suggestion about learning HTML. I agree it's good to know some basics, to help in figuring out problems that may arise, but a good site authoring tool sure speeds things up, and is way more intuitive to use. (I know a fair amount of HTML, I just prefer not to have to use it in "native" style.)
 
I'm using Ripplehost for my website for exactly two reasons. Maybe three.

1- darn, it's cheap. (I'm not running a commercial place, so I don't really drive that much traffic to it.) Never seen a place yet that could beat $10 a year.

2- I know the owners. (they also run idologic, which is a well regarded place for larger websites that need more bandwidth and more support.)

They "maybe third" reason is that I have over 15 years of Unix IT experience so I have no problem at all with a web host that is basically self-support.

I just write my own basic HTML. Earlier this fall I picked up a bit of CSS to update things, but mostly I've just got old-fashioned static HTML going on. On the Unix side I use "WML" -- which is a macro language/toolkit -- to help me manage all the source files.
 
I'm using Ripplehost for my website for exactly two reasons. Maybe three.

1- darn, it's cheap. (I'm not running a commercial place, so I don't really drive that much traffic to it.) Never seen a place yet that could beat $10 a year.

2- I know the owners. (they also run idologic, which is a well regarded place for larger websites that need more bandwidth and more support.)

They "maybe third" reason is that I have over 15 years of Unix IT experience so I have no problem at all with a web host that is basically self-support.

I just write my own basic HTML. Earlier this fall I picked up a bit of CSS to update things, but mostly I've just got old-fashioned static HTML going on. On the Unix side I use "WML" -- which is a macro language/toolkit -- to help me manage all the source files.

Art,

After reason two you slipped into some bizarre foreign language and lost me. None the less, I appreciate the advice and will pile it into the old cranium for reference.

PS. Loved your love seat. :thumb:
 
BTW - If you sign up (and pay) for 2 years it's only $4.95 per month and the Domain registration is free. So, it looks OK?

Becareful ............the Domain name is free...........but
if something goes wrong you can NOT take your domain
name with you to another site. It will belong to them. And they have the right to SELL IT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Talking from experience, and my brother is web builder
but you are tallking bucks for his service to be point blank.
But worth every nickle if you had a major business.

In the mean time register your own domain name then
go to your web hosting companies and say "have this web name registered and would like to use your services for web hosting.

Like I said if it goes sour............. you still have your name that you worked to hard to get recognized.
 
Thanks for the insite Bob - do you know this to be a fact with this particular host? Or is this just something I need to watch for wherever I go?
 
I'll agree and disagree with Jeff's suggestion about learning HTML. I agree it's good to know some basics, to help in figuring out problems that may arise, but a good site authoring tool sure speeds things up, and is way more intuitive to use. (I know a fair amount of HTML, I just prefer not to have to use it in "native" style.)

I should have said, that I use Coffee Cup HTML editor. I didn't mean it the way it sounds. I am not masochistic! ;) But Coffee Cup allows you to work with the code and see it. But it's not true hard coding.

Thanks for the insite Bob - do you know this to be a fact with this particular host? Or is this just something I need to watch for wherever I go?

I can't speak for that host but this is common. Thats why I say just register it yourself at register.com. That way it is in your name, you control it. Not your host.
 
Hi Rennie :wave:,
I am like you, wanting a simple web site to generate some photos of your work ( think that is what you were insinuating) , simple to change, inexpensive to operate, with the ability to take orders or sell stuff!
I made one with the straight HTML after a one semester class I had. It is fascinating, that HTML language, I however have forgotten it. :doh:
I am trying to follow this thread, with you. Sadly enough, there is a great cyber-gap that some of those familiar with the computer don't seem to realize. Hopefully they appreciate being the "have s" cause ( speaking for the have nots ) "I'm in the DARK out here!" 'Al Pachino, Scent of a Woman'":D:rofl::rofl: ( It is easy to love the intelligent as that is sometimes all they have! :eek:)
Ignorance maybe bliss, but also frustrating. :D
Shaz
Best of luck in your Quest!
 
Thanks for the insite Bob - do you know this to be a fact with this particular host? Or is this just something I need to watch for wherever I go?

As far as I know this is true with all sites that offer free
domians..........the old saying goes "Nothing is Free, there is alway a catch"

I had a domain free name by one of those sites and let it go............

Bang about two months later the name was for sale for $1,200. I could have bought it back, but it was
suppose to be my name..............Leason Learned.:huh::doh:

PS
Why dont you do something like get a site just to post your pictures, then put the address on your cards etc, that is what I do true example:

http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/BobGlen/Hertiage Collection/
 
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This bring up something I have been thinking about for a while. Lots of people use Photo Bucket and some of the other places. Another option is getting your own domain and posting you photos there. If you just going to link to photos and don't really need a web site you can take any old domain name. And with the price of hosting being so cheap it's not a bad alternative. And your in control of you data! Not someone else.
 
Pay for the domain name. If it works well it will be a very important business asset and you want to make sure that you own it. I'm not sure what your business is but think about how people might search for you in Google and try and get some of those words in the domain name. If you were building birdhouses then "www.bobsbirdhouses.com" is a much better URL than "www.bobsgardenresidences.com". Its called search engine optimisation. It is a black art. There are people who will charge you a fortune to do it but the easiest thing to remember about it is that if search words are actually in your url then they count for lots of points. Go here - Bruceclay - to read a lot more and fry your brain.

If you find a good domain name you need to register close matches (bobsbirdhouse, bobsbirdbox, bobs-bird-house, etc....). registering domains is very cheap. Cover all the bases.

I use 1&1 for domain registrations and Hostway does my hosting although I have a hosting deal with 1&1 as a backup as well. I keep a mirror of my site on both servers and if one dies can switch over in an hour or so.

I use MS Frontpage for site building. It covers what I need and to be honest 90%+ of visits come from IE browsers. That may mean that I am missing out on the 10% using other browsers but in truth, they are used to dealing with the issues and are probably not my market anyway. I make some small adjustments by hand rolling the code but I am not in the market to be a web developer and suspect that you ar not either. There are freebie offerings and low price editors and site generators out there. Use them unless you are at least as interested in writing code as you are in woodworking.
 
Pay for the domain name.....registering domains is very cheap. Cover all the bases.
From what I've seen, it's about $35 per year per domain. Does that sound right to you? I was thinking I would register thus - w..mybusinessname.com - your advice seems to be contrary to this idea. Problem is, I will begin the business with a certain product line but may wish to expand into other areas. That being the case, would it be wise to end up with a domain name that is very different than my product offerings? Let's say my initial product line is silverware boxes. To follow your prescription I would try to register w...silverwareboxes.com. What happens two years later when I want to start a line of A&C plant stands? People would never find me.
Do I oversimplify? Like I said, this is all new to me.
One last point - $35 per year is cheap....for one. If I have to register 7 or more sites that have similar or derivative names it's no longer cheap - at least not for me!:eek::rofl:

There are freebie offerings and low price editors and site generators out there. Use them unless you are at least as interested in writing code as you are in woodworking.
You assume correctly! I hardly have time to spend in the shop. I don't want to trade that time for learning code.:eek:
 
From what I've seen, it's about $35 per year per domain. Does that sound right to you?

Seems dear to me. 1&1.com appears to be quoting $6.99/year for a .com registration. In the UK that is my domain that I control. Check that this is the case. Using 1&1 for domain registration does not limit you to using them for hosting but my experience is that they are as good as any, certainly for my fairly modest needs.

I was thinking I would register thus - w..mybusinessname.com - your advice seems to be contrary to this idea. Problem is, I will begin the business with a certain product line but may wish to expand into other areas. That being the case, would it be wise to end up with a domain name that is very different than my product offerings? Let's say my initial product line is silverware boxes. To follow your prescription I would try to register w...silverwareboxes.com. What happens two years later when I want to start a line of A&C plant stands? People would never find me.

That is the point at which you register www.plantstands.com (too late by the looks of it) and point it to the same web space. You can point as many different URLs at the same webspace as you like. My main url is www.adirondack.co.uk but www.fanbackchair.co.uk takes you to the same place. By all means register your business name as well but if you register "rennieswoodworks" and people search for "silverware boxes" then you have weakened your chances of being nice and high in their google search. If you are doing something even a little bit specialised then a highly placed google ranking will rapidly become your biggest business asset.


Do I oversimplify? Like I said, this is all new to me.
One last point - $35 per year is cheap....for one. If I have to register 7 or more sites that have similar or derivative names it's no longer cheap - at least not for me!:eek::rofl:

Last count I had 126. A few of those are personal but most are for this business or prospective future product lines. Think of it this way. If you were opening a retail store and had the opportunity to pay $10 a year in rent to make sure that your competitors couldn't get prime locations in your town would the $10 be well spent?

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