set up a website

Butlers1982

MSE's

I wanna set up a website and ive no idea what to do.
Can anyone help me with step by step instructions.

Basically its a site that you fill in details and get a call back, no idea where to start though!

Cricri

Well, since I assume you have no knowledge of HTML, I'd suggest you use something like FRontPage to write your website pages (although I hate it myself).
In order to collect information, you'll need to use some code written in PHP, ASP or something like that. Since you probably know nothing about that either, I'd suggest that you get a ready made code sample that you can just paste into your website.
Next, choose a domain name which suits you AND (the hard part) which is available!
Then you'll need to host your website. Find a host that offers the bandwidth you need, at a price which suits you, and of course which supports your pages (e.g. PHP or ASP between others).
Finally, you need to upload your pages to the host server. You need to use a FTP program for that. You can use FileZilla, which is free.

The thing is if you want to write your pages by hand, including the code to do what you need, it can't be explained in few lines on a forum.

Wombat

Here are a couple of starting points:
http://www.bigbluehost.com/get-started.htmhttp://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/instrmats/BasicDesign/Begin.html
http://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/instrmats/BasicDesign/Begin.html
But, as has been said, it's a huge topic to cover in a Forum.
Might be best to do (a lot) of reading first.
Google for "website design basics" or something similar to get a feel for what is required.
If you don't fancy learning a programming language, there are several wysiwyg website design programs around for free.

0rsen

A free web-authoring program at http://www.nvu.com/index.php No HTML knowledge required.

lazaplaya

MSFT had a deal recently to get a free website, and they provided some reasonable (but basic) authoring tools

ben.bull

I'd give these guys a go for your webspace -> 99chosting.com
They'll even help you get your site together i.e. scripts and things. They even have their own online site builder.

michael_p_4

If you want to set it up and code it all yourself because you'd like to learn, then don't be daunted, it is all straightforward. It will, however, take you a bit of time depending on how technical you are. If you're not learning this out of curiosity/interest, you might want to consider simply paying someone to do this for you. Web design is a very popular market and therefore keenly priced - if it is only a few pages with minimal graphics and a form submission it should only cost a few hundred quid all in, and save you a couple of weeks of hassle (and, crucially, not look unprofessional). If you know anyone who works in IT, see if they know a web designer who could do it in their spare time for some extra cash (which they will naturally declare in a self assessment tax return ).

If you're interested, the areas you need to research/consider are:

1) domain name choice (like Cricri says, the hard part is to find a name that is both good and not already taken )
2) domain name registration and hosting (what someone needs to type in to see your website, and making it actually appear) - I've used www.virtualnames.co.uk a few times, and have had no problems
3) website design (what the pages will look like)
4) HTML coding (writing the simple language to describe what the person sees - you could avoid having to use anything more complex than HTML by simply having the users submit an HTML form that gets posted as an email to you (all hosting companies provide this)) or a web design tool like FrontPage
5) search engine registration (getting your site to appear if for example someone searches on google for it)
6) later on, you will want to consider search engine optimisation (making it appear higher in the search engine rankings)

Hope this helps.

Michael