Building a website

[Jill]

Hi All!
I am ready to get myself a website but don't know were to start. I have done searches on web address and found sooooo many. Some start at 30 dollars a year for a .com up to 700! I have a name picked out and I ran a search on it and seems it is available. Were should I start? Can anyone recommend a site that is reputable for buying an address. I know I am probably saying this wrong...address,url,link I am confused!!!
Thanks in advance!

[Jill]

I should have done a google search before I asked my question...I found out I am talking about domain name and found out it is 35 dollars and year...the 700 dollar was someone wanting to sell me a name that I asked about....I guess I answered my own question but if anyone has sugestions I would love to still hear your thoughts.
Thanks!

[Doug Nelson]

Try looking at http://www.webhostingtalk.com

Another forum, they even use the same software as here
It's huge, and offers quite candid discussion of good/bad hosts.

[jeaniesa]

Wow - thanks for the question Jill - and your answer Doug! I've got my domain name registered, but am just now thinking about looking around for a webhost. You're link will be invaluable Doug. Thanks! -Jeanie

[cendres]

I would be curious if you were doing this for business or personal. Your own internet provider may offer a certain amount of free webspace. Usually it is about 5 mg. if they offer it.

The downside is the following

-limited space
-can't pick your own domain name

Pictures are what seems to use the most space. If you compress them enough and size them appropriately you can still make your site graphic friendly.

Just my 2 cents - Carl

[Jill]

Thank you so much Doug...I needed that point in the right direction!

[Jill]

Carl, we must have been sending at the same time! I do have some space on MSN, it has so many distracting xtra's I think my age range of customers would get confused (my grandma was my test subject and she gave up!) It is a great idea though~I want a site to use mostly as a portfolio of what I can do and most of my customers are seniors. Thanks so much for answering my question, you guys are just great!

[Paul Rupp]

I would recommend dotster.com for registering your domain name and freeservers.com for a host. Dotster.com is one of the least expensive domain registrars that is reliable, they have been around for a while.

On freeservers.com your site is free, but with banner adds, if you would like to get rid of the banners, you have several options. I think for around $6.00 per month you can get rid of the banners. If you want to spend a little more, then you can upgrade the service further and get more space. I think you get 20 meg to start.

I have my site hosted there and have been pretty happy with there service.

HTH

Paul R.

[Rick]

Try 10-domain.com

I got a couple of domains there for $10 a year!


As far as hosting goes, I'd have to see who I use to hosts mine, but it's like another $10 a month.

Very reasonable rates, even.

What program are you going to design it in? I highly suggest Dream Weaver.


Rick

[Jill]

Thanks for your suggestions. This was quite a project for me! I had to learn some new words...and learn to be patient! I made my web pages in microsoft publisher 97 (got for 2 dollars at a g-sale and figure what the heck I will try it!) I followed Dougs link and have signed up with WHN (web hosting network) I got my domain name thru a company they use and it was 9.95. The web host is 6.95 a month and have used 2 of the 50 Megawhatzits that are alloted. They were very helpful in walking me thru the whole getting your site uploaded process. I downloaded Cuteftp to upload my pages to their site it was a free 30 day trial and was pretty easy (with some help from the net host) WHN has a forum to ask questions in and see what problems others have encountered. I guess some times things have to be rebooted on the hosting side and causes downtime to some websites but I have had this happen once so far. Anyone else have this problem with any of their hosts?
I don't know if this is the right forum for this but I will post my website addy at the bottom of this. It is a very very basic beggining site, I plan on adding much much more but what I am wondering is how it is balanced on others screens. Do the words line up with the pictures? Do all the button/links work? Is the site to dark/light? Would appreciate any input and if you want you can use my addy on the website to respond. Thanks so much and I will post in the right spot for review of the finished site when done. Thanks guys
Hours later I re- read my post..... maybe I should include the addy... http://www.pastandpresentphoto.com

[Vikki]

Looks very nice! Nice layout and color, and easy to navigate.
Only saw one oops. Your "slip" is showing on the bottom of your contact page.

[cendres]

Looks like your well on your way Jill, nice job. Not sure why the code is showing at the bottom of the contact page but thats easily corrected.

I have a monitor which is at 800 x 600 resolution and everything looks great and all the words seem to be where they should relative to the pictures. The font on your home page title is coming thru correctly. I have a problem on my website that some people, based on how their browser is set up, doesn't recognize the main font I use on my personal website. It defaults them to arial for some reason.

Since it is a business, you may want to investigate how best to register your domain name with some of the search engines so that people can find your website if they do a random search. I don't know that much about it, but I do know it doesn't happen to easily without registering with some of the main search engines.

Best of luck and good job - Carl

[Doug Nelson]

Very nice. Simple and elegant.

You've got a lot of blank tables at the bottom with a lot of empty space resulting. This is most likely not your fault. Publisher is a notoriously inefficient web editor. Before your site gets much more advanced you might want to consider a dedicated editor, like Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Fusion, or Golive.

[jeaniesa]

Jill, I love it. Simple yet very well presented. By "simple" I don't mean "plain" or "simplistic", I mean "uncomplicated" and "easy to follow & understand." Very important for many users out there.

Hope you don't mind that I took a look at your source to try to figure out the "slip" on your contact page and the big blank spaces at the bottom of your pages. I don't know if you're comfortable editing the source text of your files, but if you are the two things are easy to fix.

1. On your contact page, look for the line that contains "cgi-sys". Then back up in that same line and find the characters "&lt;". Change those characters to a single "<". Now move towards the end of the line and find the characters "&gt;" and change those characters to a single ">". That should fix the "slip" problem.

2. Towards the bottom of every page you will find four lines that look something like:
<tr>
<td height=824></td>
<td colspan=8></td>
</tr>
Simply delete these lines as they are only adding space to the bottom of your pages. The space isn't that big of a deal really, but when I see a scroll bar in my browser window, I expect something to be down there and there isn't.

Hope this helps. You've done a great job - especially with Publisher. (I'm not sure I'd have the wherewithall to figure out how to do a webpage in Publsher. )

Jeanie

[Jill]

Thank you all for your responce
I will try Jeanie's idea to fix my "slip"!
I didn't know what to do with all that blank space so just left it! More to learn...phew
Thanks again!

[Vikki]

Hi Jill,
I was visiting your page again (browsing the links) and noticed that your restoration image is in gif format. I'm curious as to why you chose that format. From my experience, it seems that jpg produces a smaller file (faster loading too), and keeps all the color info, and is beter for photographs. Whereas gif is better for simple graphics.
Just curious.
Vikki

[paulette conlan]

New Years Greetings! Very elegant looking site.Since one of my goals of 2002 is to create a proper site( I can't really count the "just to see what it's like" site I did with Pagebuilder on Yahoo) , yours is a nice inspiration.
Sometimes all of the information out there can get overwhelming at times and it's hard to know where to start.I appreciate the links from the thread you started.
Anyway,awhile back on this site I asked what kind of web development software folks here were using and I remember Doug saying he was using GoLive for this site.I'm wondering what programs other folks out there are using and also is it just easier in the long run to just learn to write in code as opposed to learning a program like GoLive,Front Page or Dreamweaver?


Paulette

[Jill]

Hi Vicki!
I have no idea why Gif I sure did notice on the enhancement picture I used there is not much color info....strange looking photo! I used Publisher 97 and I think it just automatically generated the pictures to a gif file. I didn't change them to a gif just to 72dpi jpeg and medium compression....The pictures on your site sure load fast so I am glad to know I should keep as jpeg, Thanks! I appreciate your opinion, your site and restorations are wonderful and very proffesional. I keep reading that the ping format is a great option for photo's but do they take longer to view/download for people? I will have to try that.
I am getting all my example pictures and much more information together for my finished portfolio/web site (which is taking me soooo much longer than I thought!) Changing a few things that bug me, like the background of my company name doesn't blend in with the background right....I am going to play with the transparency feature and save to web and see if I can fix that. I don't like the grey background in my drop shadows, explaination boxs and the befores and afters don't line up for everyone so will change that somehow. Just ramblin thoughts .....
It is frustrating and fun Paulette! Thank you for your kind words about my site....It was my first try and lots of fun with the help of this groups examples making it easier.
I was looking through everyones site's on the new links page and I am so impressed. I wonder why I can't leave a comment on the sites?

[Doug Nelson]

Comments are not available yet. Still working on that part.

[Vikki]

Jill,
Thanks! I think fast loading images are a must. Here's what I do for the images on my site: I try to keep the width of images to around 800 pixels. I save everything in jpg (png is still too big), with a medium compression (about 6). My thumbnails are all 60 or 80 pixels wide (can't remember exactly), with a compression of about 4 or 5. Tabs or buttons are usually in the gif format. Infranview is a great little program for doing a batch resize (although PS does it as well).
Re: guestbook/comments. I have one, but I didn't like where it was situated, and haven't put it back yet. Which also reminds me, on one of your pages, the links to your guestbook don't work. I think it's the page where your html code for your counter is showing.
It also took me a while to get my site going. I have no desire to become a html guru, so it took me a while before I got it how I liked it. Keeping it simple works best for me, as far as maintenance and updating. The more flashy and elaborate, the more work......
I started off using a lot of different programs to build my website, but now I use HomeSite by Allaire. It's actually more program than I need, but I'm comfortable with it. You can download a trial program.

[Jill]

Thanks for sharing what you used, that helps me a lot! I have no idea about the counter and the guest book...I had tried to put in the counter code by (don't laugh) just copying and pasting on the page! See I am Way over my head on the html/coding stuff! I have to give it a try though, but will use (and learn) a new program that is more up to date....mine is 5 years old/second hand... so new will be good, I am going to check out the homesite link right now, thanks for that! If you don't mind another question....what kind of ftp uploading (thingy) do you use? I had signed up with the free cuteftp but got a bunch of junk mail from it and wonder what others use?

[Vikki]

For FTP, I use WS_FTP95
It's an old no nag shareware that works great.

[digraphicx]

checked out your site and pretty good I might add! I do agree that you should be using Dreamweaver! great program, user friendly, but can do the sophisticated stuff as well! may be scarry at first when you see it, but in all great and best program to use!

keep up the good work! watch that white space and your slip!

[NancyJ]

oooh necrobumpy digraphicx

I have to say the site made me cringe - the fact that it was done in publisher was a double cringe - but I guess for a 3 year old site its not bad.

I cant stress enough the importance of a well built and designed website. A site that looks like 'I made this' makes your company look cheap. A slick website that looks good - but more importantly, works well and efficiently will make customers more likely to entrust their images (and money) to you. Not to mention the search engine ranking improvement.

You really should get a professional to do this sort of thing. You know when you see someone whos tried to restore/retouch their photos themselves and just looking at it makes you cringe because you can see all the 'newb' errors and lack of attention to detail... that how I feel when I see companies that have obviously built their own website - or got their 13 year old nephew to do it...

With all these WYSIWYG editors - there is very much an image that anyone can make a website - which is true. Anyone can make a website, but it takes a professional (or someone with that level of experience and understanding) to build a good, cross browser compatible, accessible website that will be indexed properly by search engines.

...sorry for the rant but its something thats important to me. Its my desire to purge the WWW of ugly, inaccessible websites

[Jill]

This isn't a very helpful responce. Some people can't afford to have a "professional" do the work for them and are happy with what you consider cheap looking.

[NancyJ]

My response was honest and informed. TBH I dont care whether you think it was helpful or not, I know what I'm talking about and my advice still stands. Would you rather I lied and said its all wonderful and great... good job! There is that more helpful?

You may be happy with your website, but your opinion doesnt count for much - its what your potential customers that count.

If your car broke down and needed fixing and you had two choices of garage to take your car too - given similar prices and as far as you can tell they're both getting the job done - remember you're the consumer in this scenario, not the expert. Would you pick the clean, smart looking garage with professional shop front or some guy in his 'hole in the wall' shop with a broken, hand painted sign? Who would you hand over your car and keys too?

Image is very important when it comes to people trusting you with their prized posessions and particularly, money. Presenting a professional image makes you appear instantly more trustworthy online.

I'm a professional web developer responsible for several high profile eCommerce sites.

10 days ago we launched a new online store as part of an existing website, in 10 days it has brought in over £10,000 in sales with a very localised target market.

Your google ranking is 0. So despite being google listed you're going to be way down the list when potential customer come searching. searching on google for your domain I get this listing:

Past & Present Photo - Graphic/Image Restoration & Design
#1 PC Computer Wizard.

Your meta tags describe your site as being about PC repair and web design. While meta tags arent used by most major search engines these days they are still important.
Your keywords only list your web address!

Further investigation shows that your site is a rip off of http://www.1pcwiz.com/ now it could be that you own both sites but it doesnt look like it, different phone numbers and domain registrars.
Your corner graphic is hotlinking to a .rm file on their webspace, your site code is a copy of thiers and there are other parts you didnt change too.

I'm not even going to mention the site accessibility problems. Although most people dont know it, there are laws that web developers and designers have to follow with regards to disabled access. In the UK they are part of the disability discrimination act, in the US they are called section 508. Although there has only been one case brought to court on the matter - the laws still stand.

'Cant afford' is no good excuse for a bad website these days. There are numerous grants and business loans available for startup companies for building websites. In the UK £200 can get you a decent website from a freelancer, which is a very small investment in your business that can have massive impact on your sales.

[Photo678]

nancy, lol....i think you have too much time on your hands.

JUST AN FYI original poster.......not sure if you are using a mac, but rapidweaver is the cheapest, simplest way to get a professional looking website. Its pretty much as WYSIWYG as is possible...lots of drag and drop functionality and uses a good amount of css which is all the craze lately.

But also allows for a ton of customization to really push the envelope.

Edit: Also, doteasy is a decent host, free hosting with a good amount of space and no popups....the catch is you need to register and pay for your name through them, bout 20 a year. Also, frames are a no no anymore in web design

Good luck

[Jill]

Thank you for the advice photo678. I will give that a try. I do need to try it again.
And Nancy I have had a friend who is www.1pcwiz redo my site. I was happy with what he did and that's all that matters... he tried. I use my site as a quick reference for folks that want me to do work not to get jobs from the internet. It works for me. I am glad your so successful with yours.

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by Jill

I use my site as a quick reference for folks that want me to do work not to get jobs from the internet. .

...you just made my point for me.

You posted asking for advice on building a website, I gave my informed, professional opinion, albeit 4 years late, it is advice that may be useful to others.

One has to wonder why people bother posting if they're goign to get all worked up over anyone who doesnt just tell them its perfect.

[Photo678]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

oooh necrobumpy digraphicx

I have to say the site made me cringe - the fact that it was done in publisher was a double cringe - but I guess for a 3 year old site its not bad.

I think it was just the way you approached it is all.....websites are big nowadays and pretty much everyone wants one, but not all people can afford a pro to do it for them. In fact, some people just want something up to have a reference point for contact info and what not. And most people do not have access to dreamweaver or go live. Ya know?

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Its my desire to purge the WWW of ugly, inaccessible websites

However, i do have to agree with you, there is a ton of puke out there, and really poorly coded sites that just do not work. I'm on a mac, so when i come across something that is just all sorts of effed up on safari, i get angered. It is really NOT that difficult to cross check a site to see if it is compatible with as many browsers as possible, at the very least, check to see if its safari compatible and explorer compatible.

And just as an aside nancy, if it is indeed your desire to rid the web of ugly, why not offer some design advice/help/coding to jill here pro bono?