Registering a domain and building a website

rmg1

Hi all

I've been asked to build a website for a friend and I'm after some advice (basically because I've never done it before).

I've found the domain name for a decent price on 123reg and it looks like they'll do the hosting as well.

It's not going to be a massive site (to start with at least) but I want to do it properly first time.

It's basically going to be text, a few pictures and a couple of buttons for different types of enquiries.

Has anyone any experience of the hosting by 123reg and is it any good?
Does anyone have any recommendations on some decent software for building the site?

WhiteChristmas

123Reg hosting's as good as any other.

Is it a commercial site? If so, it's worthwhile paying someone who knows what they're doing - an amateurish web presence is worse than no web presence.

If you're determined to do it yourself, there's loads of software. Commercial program Dreamweaver is the market leader for good reason but is very expensive.

Kompozer is probably the best free option with plenty of tutorials etc online, but it depends what you want the site to do.

rmg1

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to doing things for other people so I'll spend the time to make it right.
It will basically be to advertise my friends hand-made jewellery with the options of buying, making enquiries, placing bespoke orders etc.

She'll be doing all the text (making it sound fncy in other words) I've just got to get it out there.

steve1980

You really shouldn't be making a business website if you have no knowledge of what you're doing.

The handmade jewellery business is a cut throat sector and the site needs to be as good as it can possibly be.

rmg1

Thank you for the vote of confidence.

It's not intended to become a million pound business overnight, just something to make her a bit of money.

esuhl

rmg1 wrote: »

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to doing things for other people so I'll spend the time to make it right...

If you don't know anything about web design, just need something basic (text & pictures) you could start by learning HTML and CSS (very basic markup languages) and write the pages by hand. This gives you the ultimate in control, although it's difficult to do anything really fancy. There's a great tutorial and reference guides here: https://www.w3schools.com.

This is a great way to get a basic understanding of how the web works, and is useful even if you then go on to using web-design packages.

The really flashy stuff and complex scripting (shopping baskets and placing orders, etc.) would probably need a bit of good Javascript coding, so unless you fancy learning that as well (and, some might say, re-inventing the wheel) it would be easier to either implement third-party Javascript into your website, or to use a web-design package.

Professional sites would (nearly?) all be designed with proper design and content-management software.

steve1980

rmg1 wrote: »

Thank you for the vote of confidence.

It's not intended to become a million pound business overnight, just something to make her a bit of money.

Yes, but if the website is shocking in the first place then it's not going to earn her any money.

Make sure she registers with HMRC as well as a sole trader.

flakmagnet

(Just thinking of saving you a little effort here) has she considered a site like Etsy to sell her stuff on? Takes a comission, but you can get better advertising, people finding your wares by searches is more likely and it's an established name.

Otherwise, to answer your original questions, 123reg are as good as any other domain hoster, prices seem reasonable. As far as programs, I used Abobe Dreamweaver back in the day, though that was 4 years back now. I just use wordpress now, but that's a blog, not a store.

Good luck!

steve1980

flakmagnet wrote: »

(Just thinking of saving you a little effort here) has she considered a site like Etsy to sell her stuff on? Takes a comission, but you can get better advertising, people finding your wares by searches is more likely and it's an established name.

Otherwise, to answer your original questions, 123reg are as good as any other domain hoster, prices seem reasonable. As far as programs, I used Abobe Dreamweaver back in the day, though that was 4 years back now. I just use wordpress now, but that's a blog, not a store.

Good luck!

Actually Wordpress has plugins for a store. I use WP on all my sites as it's so simple these days.