Hey there, I'm planning to set up my first website, but I have plans for several others if this first one is a success. My first site will be: - a weblog - with embedded music (I was hoping to host my audio files on soundcloud or another site like that, and just embed them into my blog) - some photos (small size, and not too frequent). - It's about music technology and I have a niche-market within that. Basically, everything non-webtech is completely planned out. - I plan to use either Mac's iWeb software or WordPress for this. On future sites (fully fledged sites, rather than blogs) I may use something like DreamWeaver. - I also want an email address linked with the domain name. I'm in the UK and need to know the best host to use and best place to buy my domain name (I want .com for it and all future sites). I plan to use this host (if reliable) for all my sites. If you can help me with picking a hosting company and/or domain name registrar, that would be excellent. Thanks for taking the time to help a n00b like me with this. Here's some idea of my planned sites (so you can get an idea of how much space/what ind of services I'll need): *Site for my music production - maximum of around 5GB of my music (probably a lot less) in an audio player. Would have paypal set up for people to buy tracks if they wanted to. - possibly some video (not a great deal and could embed using youtube) - pictures (not excessive, will be updating them on a semi-regular basis) - around 10-15 pages maximum - may have a blog (undecided at the moment) - domain-email for contact purposes - an email newsletter sign up service (and an easy way to handle organising and maintaining this) - may expand to include a merchandising store in the future (I may use a "services site" like soundcloud or reverbnation as part or all of this) *Site for music tuition - some images, but again not an excessive amount - about 10 pages maximum - downloadable .pdf files of lessons/tutorials - possibly some video (again could embed using youtube) - domain-email for contact purposes * Gardening blog - will use WordPress for this - quite a lot of pictures, probably hosted somewhere like flickr - needs domain-email for contact purposes - would be set up for a relative, I'd be the webmaster, they'd just be creating the content at first * Food blog - same as Gardening blog, again for a relative to create content Obviously, I may set up more websites and blogs in the future, but these are the current ones I'm planning. They're not basic excuses to try to raise cash - I hope to use them for my offline business, so I want them to look professional (e.g. the music website probably wont have lots of adverts on it, but I want to keep that option open).
At the moment I'm using ukwebhost.com for our uk-based sites hosting and 123reg, namecheap and godaddy for domains. Hosting can be a bit hit and miss no matter what people suggest, so you might find the one host is ok for a while, a few years if you're lucky, then you have to move somewhere else. It sounds like a headache but it's actually very easy to move hosts so long as you keep your domain registration totally separate. We never get hosting and domains from the same people, it's a lot less fuss in the long-run that way. Moving domain registrars is also easy, so if you find one too annoying to use, you just move somewhere else. Anyway, if you want it all uk based I'd try ukwebhost.com for hosting at the moment, and 123reg or perhaps heart internet for domains. Never be tempted to get hosting from the domain registrars though, it usually sucks something awful.
If you use Godaddy go with the domain department. Just a heads up I have nightmares at times with Godaddy with their blogs and website services. Godaddy's great with domains not so much with other things.
Thanks, I appreciate the tip about keeping hosting and domains separate (I wasn't sure about that). Will look at the companies you recommended and make a choice. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to having the domain registered in your country of residence? What about with hosting? Does it matter if I shop abroad for these? Thx again for the replies.
You get better uk search results for uk hosted websites, so if you're targetting UK residents then it's best to set it all up uk-based. Same goes for any other country of course, USA hosting for better localized USA search results etc. P.S. You gave me a negative rep by accident I think? You need to choose positive if you approve. I don't mind, just so you know.
Bugger! The perils of late night posting, really sorry about that. Yeah, I meant to give you positive rep there. Right, I'm not particularly planning to target UK residents - I'll mostly be working with a mix of UK and US people through my site (and through my offline work), so I'm thinking of using either Blue Host or Dream Host for hosting. They both have the one-click set up for a WordPress blog, and I think that'll be the easiest way for me to begin. I want to be able to use Google AdSense with this and the Amazon Affiliates programme, too. I'm planning to use 123reg to register my domain. Any thoughts on this? Can I put the Google and AdSense adverts on my WordPress blog if I'm hosting it at BH or DH (This is important to me, thx)? I'm really edging towards Blue Host for these reasons - Unlimited disk storage, Unlimited monthly data transfer, host unlimited domains on 1 account. (Good if I want to set up further sites/blogs later!). It's $6.75 per month, which works out around £4.70. Massive thanks for the help you've both kindly offered me. It's much appreciated, thanks.
Oh yeah, I forgot - how difficult is it to add Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliates stuff to my WordPress blog if hosted on Blue Host or similar? Can I look around for templates for that? And any reasons to use/not use their "site builder" if I go with them? (i.e. does it tie me in to using their services, or limit what I can do with my site in anyway, also is it easier doing it that way? can I modify stuff myself once I've used that to get a basic shell up?) Massive Thanks.
I never tried blue host or dream host, but as long as it's cpanel hosting (not plesk) with fantastico they would be okay for me, it's easy to switch with file and database backup via cpanel if it doesn't work out. Fantastico means you can install Wordpress, Joomla and a whole load of other stuff with a mouse click - saves me a lot of time. You can get plugins for wordpress to do adsense I think, and amazon codes you just put in yourself in htlm view when psoting usually for individual product links, so the type of hosting doesn't really make much difference in regard to adsense, amazon, cj.com etc.
I'm getting ready to begin a project myself. Thanks for the advice all and thanks Verbal for asking the questions. Also, does anyone know which of the tons of HTML how-to books out there is the best? I went to Barnes and Noble and there are a TON. Help!
I often recommend clients, the ones who want to have a go getting their hands dirty, those 'HTML and CSS in 24 Hours' books. This one I mean: http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-HTML-Hours/dp/0672328410
Cool, thanks Astro and 24788 for the awesome replies. I've wanted to dive into doing websites myself for a while now, and feel confident enough to go ahead with it thanks to your helpy (I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future, but I'm good with languages, so I reckon picking up html will be fairly straightforward once I get started using it a lot). Thanks glutengirl for posting - good question, I've added that book to my wishlist for later!