Build Website - Hosting - Domain Names etc

Scooby_Saver_2

Hi all,

Looking to develop a website that offers no nonsense telecoms rates to small to medium business users.

Can anybody give tips like:

Domain name buying
Best hosting companies
How would you get customer to pay – pay pal
Web design

Is it better to get one company to do all the above or buy separately?? ::)

All information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

rwgibson99

Domain names: https://www.oneandone.co.uk

Web hosting: https://www.oneandone.co.uk

For customers to pay you: you're not going to get medium businesses using anything other than bank credits. PayPal is for eBay and novelty items like that, the commission rates don't make it economic for medium-volume transactions. OneAndOne offer a shop facility, allowing credit card handling, but no-one seriously pays their utility bills by credit card.

Web design - you could do this yourself. Remember that any potential customer will be asking what's behind the attractive shop window: are you a serious player in it for the long term, or a here-today gone-tomorrow (and leave your customers in the lurch) lightweight? This is what you'll need to communicate through your site.

Browntoa

I'd recommend https://www.freeparking.co.uk for the domain

You retain the control of where the domain points so you can change web host quickly to another if need be at no charge...been a lifesaver for me on a couple of times when host have been off the air !!

get 10 free email redirection accounts as well

ie sales@yourdomain.com, [email]dave@yourdomain.com...can[/email] all be directed to an emaill address of your choice and changed whenever you like

Mr_B_13

I would recommend Hosting Unlimited for hosting - I have had excellent service and very reasonable prices since transfering to them in April.  I currently host 10+ domains with them and have had few problems (where minor problems arose, these are pretty much sorted within the hour).

Cottoned on to a great bargain - they offer their top of the range package (all bells and whistles that most people could ever want) through ebay at a fraction of the price (£17.95 as opposed to £59.95).

See: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=194&item=5149914655&rd=1 (direct page link, not an affiliate link - current offer ends 29/12 but they have been renewing this offer since at least March when I started investigating).

Full package details on their ebay page, but if you would like to compare to their main site, see:
http://www.hosting-unlimited.net/elite.php (also check their detailed discussion board on site for an idea of the company you are dealing with, I did before signing up).

The servers are in the US, but as this is the internet and you are probably talking microseconds difference which most people will not notice (I am sure some technical whizz will question this, but it depends on what you want!).

I buy my domain names through Cheapdomains.uk.com (a trading name of Primus Telecom/Planet Domain in Australia).  Sale now on .com @£5.95 per year, .co.uk @£9.95 for 2 years, .org/.net @ normal price of £8.95 per year, .info free for first year with any order.  Their web address is: http://www.cheapdomains.uk.com (note that they have other routes in to their site but this is the cheapest - they also offer discounts when ordering more than one year or more than three domains, plus they accept transfers in).

I spent weeks shopping round and checking discussion board before settling on these two and have not been disappointed up to now.  The domain hosting is set up in around 15 minutes (all pretty much automated - instant sale on ebay, e-mail to you, click the link and complete your details, an e-mail comes back very quickly with details of how to access your account.  If you already have a web address (also known as domain name/url) then this should be entered on the Hosting Unlimited application form - worth considering this (they also offer the option of buying the web address from them but I found the other company quite a bit cheaper).  Setting up the web address is again almost instant, but takes around 24 hours for it to appear for all to see.

Hope this helps

Mr B

paulspenceley

Mr B

That all sounds like very good advice, I have one question:

Once you have setup a domain with CheapDomains.uk.com, when you then setup the hosting with hosting unlimited, do you select the option "Transfer My Existing Domain" or "I will use My Existing Domain and update My Nameservers only"?

Thanks
Paul.

Mr_B_13

If I recall correctly, I did the latter (nameservers only) so that I could keep the renewal for the domain name with Cheapdomains.uk.com as cheaper. You need to fill in the domain name with HU though so that the package is associated with your domain when it is set up (if you get this wrong, they can quickly change it and were very accommodating when I got it wrong :-[).

Kind regards

Mr B

paulspenceley

Thanks for the info.

I just have to wait for my prefered domain to become available now. Its expired with the company that owns it, but apparantly they are allowed a 30 day grace period to renew. ::)

Scooby_Saver_2

Thanks to every one for there input ;D