Building A Simple Informational Website

Terrysdelight

Hi


I'm looking for some information about Website Building. Particularly, once website is built and hosted, I really want to know if there are any other costs to factor in?


Firstly, I have bought/registered a domain name. I am looking to have a website with 4 or 5 additional pages which are to include a few photos, data and perhaps some hyperlinks. I also want to have a contact page with an email address.


What costs can I expect to incur? I know there is a monthly hosting fee but I don't know if there are any other hidden charges, say for example - have emails forwarded to me?


Also, are there website building packages with templates to fill in your own info, photo's etc?


Many thanks
Terrysdelight

UKSBD

Domain registration: approx. £5 a year

Hosting: approx. £30 a year

Site Builder: Using Wordpress is free but depends how much you value your time.

If you are prepared to learn and do yourself, it just costs the time it takes, which is ideal if you like doing that and can be treated as hobby.

If you want someone to just set up for you, create the 4 or 5 pages, then just leave the rest to you it shouldn't cost anymore than £50 to £100

You will need to learn basics for updating, keeping secure, etc. or whoever helps you set up should charge no more than £50 a year.

Terrysdelight

UKSBD wrote: »

Domain registration: approx. £5 a year

Hosting: approx. £30 a year

Site Builder: Using Wordpress is free but depends how much you value your time.

If you are prepared to learn and do yourself, it just costs the time it takes, which is ideal if you like doing that and can be treated as hobby.

If you want someone to just set up for you, create the 4 or 5 pages, then just leave the rest to you it shouldn't cost anymore than £50 to £100

You will need to learn basics for updating, keeping secure, etc. or whoever helps you set up should charge no more than £50 a year.

I do have plenty of time so I'm happy to give it a go. Is Wordpress a decent product?


I think some hosting sites have software for you to create your own website, but I wonder if at some-point I decided to change hosts, I'd have to completely rebuild the website? Would WordPress be the better option?


Would I be charged for receiving emails? Are there any other costs involved other than the hosting fees (I already have domain name)?

ThemeOne

Another product you might look at is SharePoint. Access to the product is not free but you can get it very cheaply via an Office 365 subscription.

A lot of companies now use SharePoint to build their intranets and in some cases their public websites too.

Terrysdelight

ThemeOne wrote: »

Another product you might look at is SharePoint. Access to the product is not free but you can get it very cheaply via an Office 365 subscription.

A lot of companies now use SharePoint to build their intranets and in some cases their public websites too.

OK. I do have an office 365 subscription.


Can anyone rate the product is it better than WordPress?

ThemeOne

I've not used WordPress so can't make a comparison.

Another option, since you've said you have time, is to learn to do your own coding. Basic HTML and CSS are not that hard to learn, and there's a learning curve with products like SharePoint and WordPress anyway.

There are a lot of online tutorials, but a book I would recommend is Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS.

Terrysdelight

I thought I would do a practise run of building the website on Wordpress as it is said to be free.


I've registered so I can build a website but it looks like a 'blogging' website is free, but for a business website you have to pay £85.00 per year. I guess on top of this, I then have to pay a company such as GoDaddy to host it.


Am I doing something wrong? So many people have said it is free.

esuhl

If you just want to set up a basic site for non-business use, then you could do that using HTML and CSS. This site has some good beginners' tutorials:

http://www.w3schools.com/

I also registered a domain for my site. I have free web hosting, and free email hosting, so other than the £3 a year (or whatever) for the domain, it doesn't cost me a penny.

bod1467

You can "theme" a Wordpress blog to make it look informational rather than a blog.

UKSBD

Terrysdelight wrote: »

I thought I would do a practise run of building the website on Wordpress as it is said to be free.


I've registered so I can build a website but it looks like a 'blogging' website is free, but for a business website you have to pay £85.00 per year. I guess on top of this, I then have to pay a company such as GoDaddy to host it.


Am I doing something wrong? So many people have said it is free.

Wordpress can be free, but you are far better off going down the self hosted route where you set up your own hosting and install Wordpress on it.


Wordpress was originally a blogging tool but is fine for normal websites too with thousand of themes to choose from (some free, some you pay for)


Wordpress can be overkill if you only want a 4 or 5 page site, but it is great for learning on and can make image galleries, contact forms, etc. simpler.




The important thing is to always have control, so many people set things up but lose control and become dependent on 3rd parties which makes moving trickier if problems occur.


Register the domain in your own name and understand how the control panel works so you always have control over tag owner.


Set up hosting in your own name and understand how the control panel works.


The important thing is that you should have control over nameserver settings where it is registered, so you always have control over the hosting.


Well worth getting the basics right at the start, and learning how things work.

UKSBD

Not sure if I'm allowed to post links to my own stuff so apologies if this is wrong.


Here is a post I wrote some time ago that may be useful
http://www.uksbd.co.uk/how-to-set-up-a-new-website-from-scratch-using-wordpress/


It's a bit long winded, but it's the cutting corners at this stage that causes potential problems in the future.


It mentions one host and one registrar, but there are loads of others to chose from and the instructions will be very similar.


That's just the start od the process, but get this bit correct in the 1st place is important.