Want to start a website. Need help

Gday all. I want to start a gallery-based website for my photography.
I've got firm ideas on how I want it all to look and work, but I've simply got no idea where to start.
How do I buy a website? Can it have the address I want? How much will it be?
Is there a 101 guide to this sort of thing?

Thankyou!

godaddy.com you can get a url.


now you need a place to host your site, does your isp offer you some webspace?

I think it would be easier to get it independantly hosted.

I don't know about a 101 guide but I'll give a try explaining how it works.

First you try to find a good hosting company. If you google around a bit you can find out what's been written on several hosting companies and thus find out if they are okay.

Once you've found the host you'll have to decide on what package you want. In your case you need a domain name, which usually costs you a certain amount per year.

You'll need serverspace. You don't require a dedicated server or anything fancy I assume so you can get the cheap solution. The serverspace determins how much you'll pay for it.

Than there is also traffic. Sometimes you have to pay extra for more traffic. So take a look into that.

----------------- that was step one, now on to step two

Once you have your contract with your hosting company, you'll receive a code to login to your server. You can login by ftp (this is the software that transfers your website to your server) or trough the hosting company.

If you login trough your hosting company you'll get to a c-panel. Here you get to arrange some settings and make your email adress etc. Just look at everything and see if there is anything that needs modification

------------------step three

Construct your site offline with a piece of software of your liking. It's best to test it completely before uploading.

------------------ step four

Configure the ftp software with the log in data from the server and upload the files from your local website to your server



I hope this helps!

Good luck!

Thankyou!
But . . . that looks mighty confusing and time consuming. I would be prepared to pay someone to do it for me, at least the intricate design parts of it. How much would that usually cost?

Well it differs a lot. It usually costs lots if you do it trough a design team.

Starting fees are about 400 euro (I'm sorry I'm not into dollars....lol). I am a freelance webdesigner and don't have startingfees and charge 10 euro per hour. But that's still a lot of money for a private person to pay.

But when you ask a friend or aqquaintance with some knowledge of webdesign it can save you loads of money. Gallery software is freely available so it won't have to be costly on that part and it sure doesn't require a lot of time to put together. So if I were you I'd search for your friendly neighbourhood wizzkid

If you also wish to sell your photography I can reccomend zen cart (which is free). Combined with image handler (also free) which has built in watermark, resize and enlarge on hover options.

Ive got ideas in my head about what I want, and I definately dont want to display my pics through some site set up for the purpose. I'm not looking to sell them at the moment either, just have a place to showcase em.
The specific website address I want, when you type it in, forwards you to the website for some local newspaper in the states. So because it's not used as such, is there any chance I could buy it?

As for the friendly neighbourhood wizzkid, I was kinda hoping I'd find one online . . . I suppose I could do it myself, if the program is really simple, i.e. the button to insert hyperlinks is labelled 'insert hyperlink.'

You can try to buy a used domain adress by contacting the owner. www.networksolutions.com...

If the owner is not willing to sell the domain you could try the name with another domain. Say for example you want mysite.com but it's not available and not for sale than try mysite.org or mysite.ca or something like that.

Now I have to go on holiday the comming week and have a client at the moment where I have to finish up some things before that, but after that I want to help you further if you like. Since it's only little work I will do it for free, but I would like a link in return for it.

I'll send a u2u with my email adress in it

I bought a domain name with hosting and space from one server at once for $1 a year. Could hardly do anything with it, because of the lack of space, but I used a redirect in my index so I could get 100k visitors a month..
I think you can get a semi pro website for around $20 a month, from www.strato-hosting.co.uk...
You can use dreamweaver to create your website, It will take you some time to understand the software, but that's also the fun part of creating a website imo.

you can always host it yourself. if you dont wanna get into the nitty gritty of it you can download a full lamp stack (linux-apache-mysql-php) or wamp which is the windows variant. there tons of cms and portals you can put on them too, takes alot of the coding off your hands. i set up lamp servers all the time, its not hard.

Thanks, but I reckon I'd prefer not to host it myself. Downloading a wamp then putting cms and portals on it (If I said that right) sounds a bit complicated. But BcnDiamond, 100k visitors per month is a lot of hits. You did this buy buying two domain names, and having one redirect to your main one?
Ta for the link, btw.

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


Try craigslist to get some help:

geo.craigslist.org...

Go to "Services / Computer" or post under "Gigs" and you should be able to employ someone really cheaply -- do the whole thing via e-mail. I see there are some good classifieds in Sydney.

You don't go to Craigslist to post your services unless you are really really hungry for work, I think. I've known some people who did this with great results. Worth trying anyway.

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


mmmm, cost in Australia is usualy starting at $400ish. Depending on who you go through.

$400!! I am but a poor moderator trying to make ends meet. I can afford, say, 1/4 of that.
I'll figure it out somehow. Just wondering how much it would cost to buy an unused domain name off someone . . .

edit to add:

source
Current Observed Minimum Wholesale Price (regardless of letter combo) as of July 1, 2008:

* 3-Letter .com - $7650 (+ $50 since June 1, 2008 report)

:bnghd::bnghd:

[edit on 14/7/2008 by watch_the_rocks]

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Thankyou!
But . . . that looks mighty confusing and time consuming. I would be prepared to pay someone to do it for me, at least the intricate design parts of it. How much would that usually cost?

why dont you just get a photobucket account and host everything there. it is free and doesnt require much work.

you could always invest in making websites for dummies.

Basically after you get a domain name. here comes all the confusion.

basically its like a tree.

You have to upload your webpages to a ftp site. that means everytime you add a new image or take one down you will have to change your pages.

so basically you have a front page
then if you put links to pictures you have to put links to pictures that are in your ftp site or another site. it is basically like posting on this forum. I dont know how the ATS guys make changes so easily but i am a basic net guru.


a cool program to use wich i am not sure if it is still available are pagemill or sitemill one is easier than the others.

i would get a dummy book though because after you read it wich should not take a while you will have a full understanding and will not waste time referencing or asking questions.

www.dummies.com...

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

dont get one of the books about html

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

getting a website is easy its just a matter of how much you want to spend on it. i do a lot of freelance and i'll tell you that i charge 100 per html page that equals out to a page or word using singlespcae and size 12 font so that its fair. and another 100 for the graphic design part so basically this of course does not include any coding of server side languages or _javascript or flash action script

iand when it comes to slideshows i charge 20 dolars per 50 images i have to put on it sometimes more if i have to alter them significantly to get them in right.

but if i had to capture them as well, well then ou're looking at 20 per image which will come out to a lot very quickly.

so why am i sharing all this you might ask, well its to give you an idea of how things are done i normally quote 1200 for a website due to the customer coming and asking for all of the falshi junk they see on other sites, but as the relationship progresses i show them that flashy images is not all that a website needs, instead a balance of flashy and content must be attained for your site to be a sucess otherwise its not worth the time and money.

you want people to spend time at your site and not come in look around at whats cool and leave.

getting a doamin name is usually free when you get a webhost dont pay more that 10 dolars for webhosting. ask for a control panel so you can do your own updates and always negotiate the price of a wesite with anyone who comes up to you.

Originally posted by Maybach Hanson
you could always invest in making websites for dummies.

Basically after you get a domain name. here comes all the confusion.

basically its like a tree.

You have to upload your webpages to a ftp site. that means everytime you add a new image or take one down you will have to change your pages.

so basically you have a front page
then if you put links to pictures you have to put links to pictures that are in your ftp site or another site. it is basically like posting on this forum. I dont know how the ATS guys make changes so easily but i am a basic net guru.


a cool program to use wich i am not sure if it is still available are pagemill or sitemill one is easier than the others.

i would get a dummy book though because after you read it wich should not take a while you will have a full understanding and will not waste time referencing or asking questions.

www.dummies.com...

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

dont get one of the books about html

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Maybach Hanson]

are you for real even now i still have to go online to look stuff up it never ends

Hello.. Im a website designer.. just randomly came across your thread. This is actually the first time have been to BTS.. I usually just check out ATS. For some reason I can post using my username though.. I thought maybe I have to register for BTS but when I go to register it takes me to ATS. Anyways... if you need your site built I can do it. Email me at [email protected]

-Dan

Before you get too freaked about the fees, there are plenty of web hosts that offer shared web space (which means you are sharing a server with as many people as it will physically support) for less than $100 per year, including registering your domain. Most of these offer a control panel that lets you control every aspect of how the site works, along with tutorials to learn how everything works. I am sure you can also query friends and people on this site as you get confused.

When it comes to setting up the site, if you are only worried about displaying your pictures to the world, then just set up a simple gallery site (which you can download for free). Search: free web gallery

If you want to do more, get a CMS (content management system; also the search criteria). I am sure you have heard of Mambo, Joomla, PHP-Nuke and more, as examples. Some are simple, some require more knowledge. With a CMS, you will want to know some PHP (what the majority are written in) programming, or find someone that does to make changes to the core.

All of the information in this thread can come across confusing. Trust me, your first site is going to be just that...very confusing. It is a learning curve just like everything else you are good at and it takes time.

Since money seems to be a concern, I wouldnt suggest getting someone to set it up for you, because even though most of the stuff that will run on your site can be d/l for free, a designer will charge you hundreds to just set up the basic site before you put a single image there. From registration to "ready for images", a CMS or Gallery site will run you at least $300-500 USD (its late, I cant convert right now) up to the cream of the crop full blown flash sites that can run as high as $12000-30000 USD.

It is great to want to share your art with the world. I wish you luck and hope you will link it here when you get something working.