How do I set up a Web site, plus get domaim etc
I'm in the process of setting up an outlet ie Webpage/website to sell original paintings in different mediums (acrylic, oil, charcoal, watercolour etc) plus provide the service of prints. As you can appreciate, to maximise sales I require a website that is innovative, with a domain that is reflective of business idea... How do I proceed??? Thanks
Asked by Frankie Cunningham,
May 2008 - Contact this person
10 Answers
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You can buy a domain name through many companies - I use www.telivo.com. Scan through potential domain names using the search option. I tend to go for .co.uk or .com only and ignore anything when the only options are .uk.com, .uk.biz, .etc, although you may prefer to do otherwise.
When you buy the domain name you will have a choice of hosting. Get this if you don't already have some "space" on the internet to upload files (many ISPs give this away as standard now anyway - so it is worth checking if you do).
Pages can then be designed in many applications, Microsoft Frontpage being one of the most basic and readily available.
With all of the above in mind, if you are even asking this question, I would be looking at obtaining quotes from 3 - 5 web design companies to do this all for you. Web design isn't a simple as just making a page in 5 minutes and getting it online. I'd happily recommend Atelier Studios (all of their work can be seen on their site, although mine is www.smarterhousing.co.uk).
Good luck :0) -
Hi Adam, Thanks for your response, it has given me a foundation to proceed on.... this is all realitively new to me....one thing I should've asked within my initial question was, some idea of costing??? But Hey!!!! theres always the next time
Best wishes
Frankie -
As an example, my site http://www.smarterhousing.co.uk, has cost over £30,000 to date.
I had cheaper offers but what I needed was pretty comprehensive and thus went with Atelier Studios, who I still use today. In the future I will bring web-design in house but don't have the resources or sufficient workload to warrant this at the moment.
If you're just looking for a basic site to show and possibly sell products you won't need to spend more than £1,000. A friend of mine has done a number of his own websites using "open source" (which is readily available on the internet for no charge) and they are more than up to the job. One example is http://www.scalesmart.com/. -
Frankie, I looked at your question and the excellent answers that Adam has given.
If you are new to doing this then I wonder if you might want to start with something that doesn't cost much to begin with and then progress to something more robust once you are underway and earning some money? If that's the case, then have a look at Microsoft Live. It's free to sign up and you get a free url with free web hosting. The web development is a very easy process to follow and may be suitable for oyur initial needs, if you don;t mind working with the templates.
Anyway, good luck with your business!
With best wishes,
Andy
www.deliverypractice.com -
I originally paid £160 for a domain name and hosting, and my partner designed and maintained our website, using FrontPage. After rebranding, we decided to go cheaper, I found an excellent site at www.freevirtualservers.com, where I bought a good domain name (yes, I agree, only go for .co.uk, forget the .biz etc) for just £8.99 (+Vat) for 2 years, with FREE HOSTING. It amazed me how good it was, I used their own free WYSIWYG WebBuilder software, which is just like working with Publisher, and had an acceptable website up and running within a few hours. I still have to read up on metatags and affliliates, but that is all covered in the wizard. It was my first attempt at a website, and I am very pleased with the results, and especially pleased with the ease of configuration for emails. There are even several statcounter options that are already embedded, so no configuring there. Throroughly recommended! My website (which, ok, may seem amateurish to other more experienced web builders) is at www.lunchcatering.co.uk, and I would welcome any suggestions or comments (whether good or bad!) which will really help.
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I have done something like this before. For a first-timer, there are a few pit-falls which you need to avoid. You can easily end up with a site that looks lovely but takes ages to download - you will need to use thumb-nails leading to bigger pics. Oh, and make sure you water-mark all your shots, else someone will start making their own prints for nothing !
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Hi Frankie,
I can offer you a good website that is inexpensive, and assist you to getting free domain name and hosting that will be within your budget, A lot of people do have free websites but I can build you an eyecatching website.
please contact me if you are interested. If you want to go for a free website there are hundreds just search for them good luck
andy -
Assuming you are UK based then I would echo the recommendations to go for a .co.uk domain name. Apart from the comfort factor, it also helps with search engine optimisation (better than using a .com domain in the UK). Costs for the domain shouldn't be more than about £6 for two years ownership and hosting costs vary enormously but shouldn't need to be more than about £100 a year unless you are expecting very high volumes of traffic.
I wouldn't recommend using something like Frontpage to design a website. Whilst it can produce perfectly good looking results, the underlying code produced can mean that it doesn't necessarily work as you expect in the different browsers in common use (e.g. Internet Explorer v6, v7, Firefox v2, v3, Safari (particularly on Macs)) and the last thing you want is users who can't easily get the information they need and perform the functions they want on your website. For anything more than a few pages of content that aren't likely to change very often then I would also recommend using a Content Management System.
Richard Morton - Accessible Web Design - http://www.accessibleweb.eu/ -
frankie,
have you looked at http://smallbusinessl.officelive.com/exploretoday. free website and domain name
andy -
I used a totally different approach I got a free flash template from www.free-flash-templates.com I changed the text and photos to what I wanted. Only then did I pay £8 for the template.
I got hosting from www.fasthosts.co.ukfor £4.69 per month
you can see my results and see my music videos at
www.studentsofpop.com
Mike Collins
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