Creating your own website

The_Dark_Defender · 5 March 2008 at 2:31PM

I've got an idea at the moment for a website but I'm not very computer literate so I might need some advice in this department. The website will be similar to this in that it will have a busy (hopefully) fourm so there may be a small bit of traffic. What sort of costs am I looking at - espeically in registerin the domain name and finding someone to create the site for me (or is the latter possible for someone with no web-building experience?)

Thanks guys.

Tech_guy_4 · 5 March 2008 at 2:36PM

You need to buy the domain name - godaddy.com - is a cheap place for them. You need a webhost to host the website, again godaddy is pretty cheap for this type thing.

You will need forum software, this forum uses vBulletin which costs money but is the best software for forums by far. Free forum programs are phpbb amongst others, but phpbb is pretty popular and so their support forums are busy when you need help.

As for making non forum pages for the site, I've never used any 'make it for you' type programs. Do you have any HTML knowledge? You may be best off describing how the non forum part of the site will work. Static pages are quite eay to make, dynamic database driven pages are more complex.

NicolaC · 5 March 2008 at 2:41PM

you can register a domain name fairly cheaply. Just a few quid in some circumstances.
Then you'd have to find a hosting company... Having it hosted can cost anywhere from £1.99 a month upwards, totally depending on how much space you need and what extras you require.

To have it designed would depend on the designer and the amount of work involved. You would really need to send them a rough brief and get a bespoke quote.
I am a web designer and each quote differs hugely depending on the work involved.

However if you are just looking at setting up a forum, you can use websites like forumer.com which allow you to set up forums for free.

Feel free to PM me with your ideas if you would like me to quote you for some work.

Hope that helps.

The_Dark_Defender · 5 March 2008 at 2:41PM

Thanks for getting back to me.

The site will have a member system, where each member can interact with each other if you understand me. I don't think it has to be overly complicated to be honest.

Tech_guy_4 · 5 March 2008 at 2:47PM

The members will communicate via the site but not just via the forum? That isn't so easy, sounds dynamic, so you'll need a database and use code to communicate with the database. When you communicate it can be various methods, but you will want to keep the users On your site, so allowing them to communicate via email/non site IM's probably wouldn't be the best option.

Like The Dark Defender says, probably best to get a bespoke quote.

EDIT - BTW, building the site is one thing, attracting users is a whole other process. Make sure the people who make it will SEO the site.

The_Dark_Defender · 5 March 2008 at 2:53PM

Well, the email/IM suggestion is the current route I'm looking at - I'm not sure of any other way to do this to be honest.

The_Dark_Defender · 7 March 2008 at 1:30PM

I've encountered a small, common problem. The site name I want is taken (as in the .com domain is taken). The .net and .org variations are available, is it still okay to go ahead with these or should I try and find a .com domain that's available?

AndyD_OHD · 7 March 2008 at 1:51PM

The use of .net is supposed to be for networks, and .org for organisations usually of charitable viewpoint, I think. But I personally wouldn't anticipated any issues if you decided to go for either of them, some might though.

Andy

Creating your own website

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free