Advice For Newbie

[Bob]

I found this site from Joe's active participation on FW. I need some advice about what service to sign up for.

Situation: My wife started her own one-person indexing business (you know -- professionally prepare indexes at the back of a book). She wants her own web site, a few pages long, that will describe her services and credentials. Please advise on the steps I need to take to create this relatively simple web site for her.

1. Register her domain name. I understand that I can register the domain either here at hostpc.com. I found where I can register elsewhere for slightly less ($5.95), but why bother if I'm going to use hostpc.com?

2. Choose a plan. I wonder if the Budget A Plan would be overkill? If I went with the TidalWave program, would I later regret it? What limitations might I run into? Please answer using everyday English words that I can understand.

3. Software to prepare website. I have MS Frontpage 2000. Do I need anything else to create the website? Is there other software I download from hostpc.com for creating the webpage? Am I supposed to buy some other software to create the webpage?

4. Search Engines. Typically, she will direct people to her website. However, we are curious what is involved in having her website listed when someone uses google or other search engine to search on the subject matter of her webpage.

Remember, we are thinking simple and inexpensive. Thank you for any guidance you can share, including directing me a website where all these types of questions have already been answered.

[caddickj]

I'll give you my opinion on some of that:

1. Registration: It's completely up to you where you register. It has no bearing on who your host is (it seems you understand that already, just trying to be clear). I'm sure Joe's service is great so go for it if you're happy with the price. Personally, I use GoDaddy. It's a little bit cheaper and makes the paranoid side of me happy since I don't have all my eggs in one basket. Service quality is important, though. I know some registrars make it really hard to work with them -- I know GoDaddy is good, and like I said, I'm sure Joe's is good too. Get feedback on the registrar before you make your choice.

2. It depends on how quickly you intend the site to grow. For what you have described, it doesn't sound like you're looking to do anything beyond flat HTML pages, or maybe a mailing form. For that, the Tidalwave plan sounds fine. I'd go for what you need right now and upgrade later if you find you need it. Joe loves upgrades... :)

3. Software: Frontpage 2000 -- yeah, you can use that, and it will work for what you want to do. Frontpage gave me more headaches than help when I used it years ago, but I was trying to optimize stuff and Frontpage is incredibly bad at letting you touch the code. If you want to get into things, I'd suggest a tool more like Macromedia Dreamweaver, or if you know HTML well enough, a text editor like Notepad (not sure how comfortable you'd be with that, though). I'm not too up on other editors so someone else may give you better suggestions.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Well... I pretty much gave you all the information I can about that already -- the abbreviation. I don't know enough to even point you at good info, except to say a search for "Search Engine Optimization" will probably help you, once you weed through the consultants.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Vov]

Thanks, Caddickj. You've answered my basic questions and assured me that I haven't overlooked anything essential. I appreciate your response.

[thevillageinn]

I would have to agree with the Frontpage analysis. It's easy to make a page 'look nice' but if you are picky or have strong opinions about how things should look, I definitely recommend a different HTML editor. If you are new to HTML and webpages in general and don't want to learn HTML code, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor is probably your best bet. I use various different ones, but I would suggest that you look for a freeware one that you like, or if that doesn't work out too well, try a shareware version, and if you like it, register it. Programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver are fully featured and possibly more complex than you need, and likely more expensive too.

Try:
www.snapfiles.com (http://www.snapfiles.com)
www.tucows.com (http://www.tucows.com)
www.download.com (http://www.download.com)

there are many others, but these are a few off the top of my head.

[eugene]

Regarding #1 Domain Name Registration:
Be wary of some of the cheap sites as they are often difficult to deal with. I have heard many complaints from users regarding the lack of support and difficulty in updating DNS records. GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com/) is a good service.

Regarding #3 Software:
You may want to look carefully at how often you intend to update the content of your website. If your site will remain relatively static, then FrontPage, Dreamweaver, or a host of other products may work well for you. If, on the other hand, you will be updating the site content on a more regular basis, i.e. weekly or daily, then you may want to use a Content Management System (CMS) like Mambo (http://mamboserver.com), PHP Nuke, PostNuke, Xoops, eXoops, or one of the many other fine products in that realm. Some people prefer the "blog"-style approach, using a product like MoveableType as their primary site architecture.

[dbmasters]

Regarding SEO, I recently wrote a quicky article about it for my web site: http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/new...ew_story&id=392 (http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/news.php?action=view_story&id=392)

you may or may not find it helpful, just figgered I'd share.

I will, as well, agree with most of the point of FrontPage mentioned above. It's for people that just "want a web site" but have little to no interest in anything of the art of behind-the-scenes. It creates bloated, nasty code (though each version has gotten a little bit better) it does not like working with any server-side language that isn't an MS language, such as ASP. It will work with PHP with care.

FrontPage is also does not run to it's fullest capabilities on Unix/Linux servers as some of the extensions are not perfectly duplicated and are meant to run best on Microsoft servers.

There are many good editors out there, for free there is always FirstPage at http://www.evrsoft.com/ and for pay editors, Dreamweaver is expensive but very good, HotMetal is decent last I saw it for less money...and there are dozens of lesser cost ones available anywhere.

[Bob]

Thanks for everyone's help. I registered the domain with Hostpc.com and signed up for the tidalwave 12 month plan. I'll play with some of the software suggestions over the next few weeks and study the SEO article when we have something up.

[Barry]

If you would like any help with building a website, I'm a freelance Graphic Designer, and I just signed up with HostPC.com today, as a matter of fact. I've been in business for about 10 years, and I would be glad to help you out inexpensively if you need design help.

Barry

http://www.digcserv.com

Jeremiah 29:11