Personal Web Sites and Web hosting

[tonyg]

I would like to pick the brains of those forum readers who have their own web sites.   
I am planning a new web site ... or two.  I currently use a free site provided by my isp but this is limited in several ways.  I would like to make an improved Crocus Pages site which I can easily update and add to.  I am also looking to have a personal site to promote my own interests ie Lecturing, plants for sale.  It could be that both live under the same umbrella site but I would welcome any advice you can offer.  I am not an expert on making web sites so keep it simple and I'll be on a strict budget. 
If anyone has experience of 'Simplesites' I would be especially pleased to hear from you.   If you know of other providers who offer a similar service let me know.

[mark smyth]

hi Tony, can I offer my services? I can do a simple/easy design for you at no cost

[tonyg]

Ahh .. but who hosts it?  Can I edit it at will, frequently and easily?  What will be my web address?  I'm going to put a lot of content up but am viewing this as a long term project.  I could be a very demanding (annoying ) customer
Give me more info in a PM Mark - I could be interested but need to know more.

[Lesley Cox]

Can you email me with the same information/advice Mark (or anyone?) I too would like to start a website of my own, a sort of blog I suppose, that I can edit and change by myself and for a plant/seed list and pics.

[Hkind]

There are two problems in Tony’s question:
1.   How to make and easily update a web site
2.   How to host a commercial web site

I use Dreamweaver for web design. But that is a rather expensive program. There are probably cheaper or even free shareware programs.
Free hosting of none-commercial web sites is quite common – at least in Sweden.

Hosting commercial web sites is expensive. I paid about 400 euros/year for my web hotel. Now I am looking for cheaper alternatives. One thought I had is, that several persons with the same problem could share a site. That still would involve some costs, but it would be cheaper. Another thought I had, was to publish my plant list at my none-commercial web site, asking interested  people to send me an e-mail for further information.

Plant/seed lists without prices I could offer to host at my web site.

[Susan Band]

Dear Tony,

It doesn't cost much (free or up to £10 year ) to registar your own website name, such as crocus.co.uk ( provided it hasn't been used. Then you can have as many emails as you want such as tonyAT crocus.co.uk
Most hosting companies will do this for you.
I use 1 & 1.co.uk for my emails and webhosting ( home packages cost about £5-£10 month for everything I expect you will need) they include templates to build your site although I use Publisher and upload it using a shareware programme I got ages ago called 'flash'. Using this method you have to upload any changes. For the shop part of the website I use a hosting company which has a lot of templates and various payment methods, recording facilities etc , more than you need. This is changed online, easier to do, but much more expensive. You can add paypal buttons quite easily if needed on your own website.
The choice for you is to decide whether you want to change it on line ( easier but more expensive) or upload it from you own computer ( cheaper but slightly more complicated.

Hope this helps.
No doubt others will give details about costs etc. from other companies.

Susan

[mark smyth]

When I finish work I'll email you both

[Brian Ellis]

I too would like to start a website of my own, a sort of blog I suppose, that I can edit and change by myself and for a plant/seed list and pics.

I haven't done my own Blog Lesley, but if you put Blogger into Google it takes you to a Google Blog creation site which is free.

[John Aipassa]

Tony,

You might want to check www.one.com. They offer cheap hosting with also several services inlcuded, like web editing, bloggs, virus and spam filters, etc. They were the #1 UK budget web hosting provider in 2007.

Cheers,
John Aipassa
Aalten, Netherlands

[ranunculus]

Just one small grain of advice Tony - please do not be tempted by sites such as 'MrSite'.   I constructed my own fledgling site through them and have had no end of construction problems, design issues and maintenance headaches ... not all the fault of the company I must stress ... I suspect you are, like me, a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to design and presentation and these sites do not allow for this type of creative mentality.
I have become so disenchanted with the experience that I have given up the project with so much waiting in the pipeline.
Hope you enjoy a better experience.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Brian, and everyone else for advice and suggestions. I'll definitely be doing something about something, soon I hope. If Roger asks me what I'd like for Christmas.........

[Lampwick]

I have two websites that I have developed myself with Dreamweaver..

The first one was launched about 7 years ago, and during the first 5 years it was hosted by my (then) Internet Service Provider (ISP) who provided free web-space to customers, most ISP’s offer this. But it does have its drawbacks, if your ISP goes bust – which mine did – you lose your website. I also had a forum, and this was hosted by a FREE forum host….another big mistake!

These FREE forum hosts let you have a free forum because they can then flood it with advertising, and that is where they make their money; but the FREE forum host went bust, and I lost thousands of posts that forum members had submitted. I built it up again, and I now have the website and forum on my own domain name(s). This is a much better and more secure way of doing it, the website and forum is backed up regularly, and both pay for themselves with cash to spare by me having AddSense on both my website and forum. These adds are not at all obtrusive, and it is a something you will have to decide to have or not have on your website/forum. The main thing is – GET YOUR OWN DOMAIN!

This is the URL of my first website http://scalemodelhorsedrawnvehicle.co.uk/ it has nothing to do with alpine plants and I only include it here to show what can be done with Dreamweaver! I have no knowledge of web design and am self taught. I do understand if admin or moderators remove the above URL, and I do apologies if I have broken any rules by including it. It is, as I say, only included to show what a complete novice can do in creating a website.

My second website is to do with alpine plants, and again has been developed in Dreamweaver. It was only launched about 10 days ago and still needs a bit of work and additional things included to get it just right. It’s not high in the Google ranking yet, but will hopefully start getting there in a few months time.

Here it is: - http://portraitsofalpineplants.com/

I currently use a free site provided by my isp but this is limited in several ways.
I'm going to put a lot of content up but am viewing this as a long term project.

May I humbly offer a bit of advice hereTony? (Learnt from bitter experience!)
As you say, you are limited when using your own ISP on which to run your website, especially when you say you are viewing it as a long term project. If you ever, for whatever reason, want to change your ISP your website URL will change, and it will take time for the new website URL to move up in the Google ranking. If you are really serious about having this as a long term project, then do get your site on your own domain. My sites cost me £80 a year (£60 for the hosting and £20 for the .com domain name) I have the freedom to backup my website, and if for any reason I was to change my web host, my domain name would never change, I can change my ISP if I wish, and this won’t affect my websites in any way.

So you have to ask yourself – “What is all the time and effort worth that I have put into developing my website, Is it worth £80 a year or £6.66 a month?” You may be able to get it for less than what I have done Tony, but I feel I have got a good deal and am confident that my sites are secure and will hopefully build and run for many years.

Let me know if I can help further.

[tonyg]

Thanks to everyone who has replied.  Don't stop sharing your ideas and experience though if you have yet to contribute!
The various experiences you have related have already helped to challenge my initial ideas and give me a much better sense of how to go about it (and how not to!)
I will be in touch with a one or two of you privately soon to get some more details.

BTW the portraitsofalpines site is excellent.  Well worth a long look.

[Rafa]

Also Blogger, from Google could be a good idea