how to make a website...???

[PMS BellaBklyn]

hey everyone! i have a few questions about websites but you can't laugh as i know NOTHING about them lol. first off, how do you go about getting a .com name? i know you gotta buy it or whatever (how much does it cost or do you pay by the month, year, etc?). ive asked people before and they went on a rant about having to find a server, yada yada, i was lost lol. these things need to be explained to me in simple forms (ie, "go to this website and put in what you want for the url, pay this, and voila!") lol.

also, how do you...ok here's where you can't laugh.."decorate" the page LOL. im sure you can hire someone or learn how to do it with codes, i have no clue lol. can i just tell someone what i want and what pics to use, what kind of links to use, etc? ugh, i dont even know where to start! someone help! lol ;)

[Jenstar]

An easy start is getting your domain at GoDaddy.com, you register the name for a year (or two, or three...), it is about $10 a year with the fees. Remember to renew it when the time is up, otherwise it will become available again for anyone to register. Then, once you have the domain, you need hosting. You can host at GoDaddy too, they have a website builder (I think called website tonite or something like that, my very VERY non-techy SIL built her site with it). Basically, you use their tools (kind of how you'd make something in Word or Publisher) and when you hit publish, it does all the coding for you.

Hosting at GoDaddy is probably a bit more expensive than what you'd get if you "shopped around", but not many places have a website builder, which sounds like something you need :) I think they have templates and stuff, but they should have info about how it works on the site.

Not sure what kind of site you have in mind, but if it is for a blog, another thing is to do one at Blogger.com (owned by Google), it is a good way to get started when you don't know much about how to do it :)

[shavania]

It depends on what you want to do. If you actually want to just learn how to make sites yourself, you can get hosting. I think free hosting still exists or you can ask someone that has a site to host your site. If you just want to put up random content, you can go with blogger, mySpace, or one of those places.

[PMS BellaBklyn]

awesome, thanks for all the help. it's for a professional site. i guess if i explained it, it might help you guys know what we're looking for lol. my girlfriend is a composer and she has a site right now but it's her old "music" name .com and she wants it to be just her name. she'll put a bio up, a calendar for events, her music pieces (possibly need them to play when you click on them?) not sure, but stuff like that. here's some examples of a few composers she works with...their sites, i guess, to give you an example of what would be needed on the site.

www.derekbermel.com (http://www.derekbermel.com)

www.whitneygeorge.com (http://www.whitneygeorge.com)

I guess I'm wondering how much it would cost to do something like this? But to make sure I'm not confused, I just go to godaddy.com and buy the .com name and it's only $10 a year or so? Thanks for the help you guys, I really appreciate it!

[Jenstar]

Yes, you can get the domain name from GoDaddy for $10 or so.

For site designs, they can range form fairly inexpensive to thousands and thousands of dollars, depending on what is being done. If you/she likes those websites, check in the footer to see what company designed the site - then send an email saying you loved the design and get a quote on something of the same nature, and see how much it costs. The second site you gave will definitely be a pricier website design than the first kind of design, though.

[PMS BellaBklyn]

ok, thanks so much for the help!

[Tiki]

the best place to go for beginners is checking with your ISP to see if they have a hosting package that you can add on to your internet bill. My ISP provides hosting at an extra $5/month on top of that.

or even googlepages, super easy to use, site builder... plus you can't go wrong with google.

if you feel like you learn quickly and can pick up on stuff, going with godaddy is probably your best bet for a DNS, they have great support and are willing to do pretty much everything for you if you request.

for hosting... i'm using hostmonster right now... 5.95/month for unlimited space and transfer, and they don't breach that as some other hosting companies do. We have well over 50 domains on that account, and over 400gigs of stuff stored there, and they haven't complained yet. http://www.hostmonster.com/

and as for design, it pays off to have a forum full of people that know what they're doing =] feel free to PM or drop me a line on aim, i'm always in a helpful mood

[H2O Scrub]

yeah to be honest some times it cheeper to just keep the site you have and maybe change the domain name to something. after doing this though you will have to change the "A" records that are setup with original host of the site. If you wanted to start from scratch then there are many many people out there that can host domain names and also give you pre built sites so that even if your not good with creating one you can do it your self.


Sorry i just re-read that and it sounds confusing. I dont mean to plugg a friends site but im just going to use it as an example. A friend of mine who used to play WOW with us (he was the guild leader) also runs his own business for webhosting. Right now his sites are setup mainly for gamers but he is exspanding. He does not do the domain hosting part but has a great pre built site for anyone and you can mod it anyway you like by just point and click and uploading pic\vids\music.

anyways if you wanted to look at something like that check out http://www.dkpsystem.com/

well good luck and hopfully i didnt confuse you to much :)

[Karra]

...Or...


Get someone else to do it :D :p

[H2O Scrub]

...Or...


Get someone else to do it :D :p

/agree

[Maverick DSO]

I host at Hostmonster.com and they have a script installer that will install Joomla! automatically. I learned to use Joomla and have two sites...

Hand-coded : http://www.tragicmaverick.com
Joomla! : http://www.massivemetal.net