Info On Your Business Website, Hosting, Etc...
Business By CakeMasterG Updated 13 Jun 2007 , 10:01pm by MichelleM77
I am wanting to get a website up and need some info from someone who has been through it. So far from what I found godaddy.com has good rates on hosting and registering a domain name. I just need info to help tie everything together such as how did you design your page and get it all up and running. Please give me your input and also a link to your page.
Tnx
I don't have a page yet, but I am currently working on that as well. I have someone helping me who is quite familiar with website hosting.
He did tell me that it is a good idea to have one place register your domain name and another place host your site. Something about if you tried to discontinue your hosting and change to another - some could possibly give you a hard time about taking the domain name with you to another hosting location.
It all seems so complicated to me. Sorry I can't be of more help.
REgister.com is $4.95/month for 5 pages (I pay $14.95 for 20 pages). PLUS my 14-yr old showed me how to set up a photo website on Flickr.com where I have the bulk of my photo's, with a link on my biz site to take people to the Flickr site .... way cheaper than buying more space!
I did the site myself. (Some pages really look it, I know!) My son-in-law took the register website for our cookies and applied his magic to it for a fan-tabulous look!
I saw on another thread a sample of web pages at homestead.com and those looked fabulous!
I used 1and1.com after someone on this site recommended it. I'm loving just about everything about it right now! I know just enough HTML to be very dangerous so I wanted something where I didn't have to use any and I don't have to w/ 1and1. I didn't care for any of the main graphics on their layouts but it didn't matter to me much as they allow you to upload your own main image which is what I did, making mine in photoshop. I have the $10.00/mo one (they bill quarterly). I got 18 pages and a lot more space than I would have w/ others.
The thing I love the most about them is there "form builder". It allows me to create forms that look very professional w/o having to know much about how to make them! The info from the form is sent to one of my mailboxes when they hit "submit". There is also a mailing list feature but they're having some issues w/ that right now.
My site is very under construction right now. There are a bazillion typos and I do not have any pictures up right now, but besides that most of the work is done. It's www.papercakes.net. I dont' have it in my info here yet because it's not really ready for the public yet.
hth
I'm in the same way with you, still working on my website. I'm using Yahoo! Sitebuilder and so far as I can tell, it's pretty easy to use. I haven't published it yet, but I soon will.
The best advice I can give you is to start out with small and less costly. Once your business is successful, you can have your website professionally done and pay a little more for more exposure.
surfergina, wouldn't you want to spend the extra to make a really great first impression? I think days of phonebook advertising are going away and you really have to grab the attention of the savy internet shopper now.
.... Once your business is successful, you can have your website professionally done and pay a little more for more exposure.
As you move toward this, I would suggest that you take care and really look at how you are billed for add'l services. For example, I NEVER pay for "per clicks" on my website. Observe your own internet surfing .... how many sites do you go into just to leave because it's not what you were looking for, you entered just out of curiosity, you entered quite by accident? Do you want to pay for "window shoppers" or do you want to pay for those who actually are interested in coming into your store and buying something?
I'm not on any search engine, but because of careful placement of my ads, of links on other's websites, my calendar is full. As I told one service who was trying to convince me how much better I'd be if I bought their service, I said, "My calendar is full right now. Tell me again why I need you???"
Just approach with caution.....
I used 1and1.com after someone on this site recommended it. I'm loving just about everything about it right now! I know just enough HTML to be very dangerous so I wanted something where I didn't have to use any and I don't have to w/ 1and1. I didn't care for any of the main graphics on their layouts but it didn't matter to me much as they allow you to upload your own main image which is what I did, making mine in photoshop. I have the $10.00/mo one (they bill quarterly). I got 18 pages and a lot more space than I would have w/ others.
The thing I love the most about them is there "form builder". It allows me to create forms that look very professional w/o having to know much about how to make them! The info from the form is sent to one of my mailboxes when they hit "submit". There is also a mailing list feature but they're having some issues w/ that right now.
My site is very under construction right now. There are a bazillion typos and I do not have any pictures up right now, but besides that most of the work is done. It's www.papercakes.net. I dont' have it in my info here yet because it's not really ready for the public yet.
hth
Well, you may not be "ready for the public yet" with your website, but I love the way it looks!
I am developing a free site for myself, and it is really in the very early stages: alloccasionbaking.zoomshare.com. I like this site because (1) it's free (always a plus); (2) I can have up to 99 pages (I believe) of content (another plus); (3) I can put lots of photos in, listed in separate albums, and organized according to my wishes; (4) I get an e-mail address; (5) there are calendar organizer and blog pages that are incredibly helpful and can be customized, too.
Yes, maybe the "free" site thing is not the way to go, but for now it will work for me (especially in light of the fact that I'm just computer literate enough to be really dangerous to myself!! 
).
HTH,
Odessa
I use Dot5hosting.com I paid $75 for a year. I had someone else before that (can't remember their name) but I couldn't get my gallery to work so I changed my hosting company. They use the same system though (Vdeck) so I'm more familiar with working with it. Now I have had a few quirks with my gallery here and there but they are really fast with fixing things if there's an issue. (May or may not be comforting to know) I have templates to work with but you can put your own pages on there as well. I work through Frontpage. I'm not an expert with designing pages so I do have a few Dummy books LOL. I would like for my site to be exciting and mindblowing (you know cupcake cursors, flying cakes, cake fairies....you know, the whole works 
) BUT for what I'm doing at this point, my site is good enough for me. And actually, I'm pretty proud of what I've done on my site. I've learned alot. My web hosting service offers alot (I guess)..shopping carts, e-commerce etc. I can't say mines is the best but until I upgrade or need much more than what they have, I'm good and its been easy for this Dummy!
Odessa - Thanks so much! I work FT and have a young son so I have been slaving over that thing pretty much every night for a week and a half. Who needs sleep lol?
my dh set up the hosting for me as a 'good luck on your new venture' present, so i can't help there. but i use microsoft frontpage to create and maintain it. it's really easy to use. good luck! how exciting!!
(here's a link to my page, if you'd like to take a look: www.saltboxcakes.com)
I use www.1and1.com also. I didnt need to know any html as they have premade templates that is very easy to use. I used a premade template to make my site but I added my own pics. Only thing now is I need more pics of different cakes, but I cant bake right now because of emergency surgery I had a couple weeks ago. 
I cant wait until I can get back to work, baking, and my normal life!
~Sonya
I use Homestead and my prices are about the same as indydebi's. Very easy to use, very professional in my opinion. They bill monthly.
I also have Google analytics so that I can see (at least where in the state they are and how they got to my website, etc.) who was on my webiste. It's very useful and fun to check every day!
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