How do I set up my own website?

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I registered www.rickleestuff.com with GoDaddy, but don't know where to go from there. GoDaddy's website is so cluttered with countless offers of stuff I don't need or understand. I'm leaning toward their Premium Hosting Plan, since it costs a tad more than I currently pay for my email alone and I'm getting sick of Earthlink. I figure I can use that for my own email and then all the rest of the stuff they offer. I just set up an ebay store and am trying to get a blog and some affiliate marketing going. I'm totally illiterate with this stuff. What's the easiest way to get in?

TimT · 05-30-2008, 08:33 PM

quick and dirty method?

copy one you like..

click "view>source" then save the text file.. make the mods you want presto..

this wont work with most commercial sites... you will need to learn some html and php coding.. the learning curve is flat and short...

you can use things from my site to begin if you want

check my sig

kstar · 05-30-2008, 08:49 PM

GoDaddy's Website Tonite is pretty good, browser based and makes decent code, IMO.

I'm building a simple site for a buddy now and find the builder app is acceptable, although somewhat limited. It's perfect for the site I am doing now.

They have a blog module and many others. It takes a while to learn your way around GoDaddy, but I think the tools are pretty good.

The other way to go is to learn a site/page building app like DreamWeaver, but that learning curve will be much steeper, especially if you are adding programming into the mix.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Thanks guys. Since I started this thread, I just ordered WebSite Tonight and got it started on the phone. I want to be able to store a lot of non-public stuff on there, but also have a public page. How difficult is this to do and how secure is it? I doubt I'd have anything on there of use to anyone else, but I don't want people messing with my site or settings. I have some work to do now. Not trying to set the world on fire with this. I just want a place to do some product reviews and affiliate marketing, maybe some blogging too.

kstar · 05-30-2008, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Thanks guys. Since I started this thread, I just ordered WebSite Tonight and got it started on the phone. I want to be able to store a lot of non-public stuff on there, but also have a public page. How difficult is this to do and how secure is it? I doubt I'd have anything on there of use to anyone else, but I don't want people messing with my site or settings. I have some work to do now. Not trying to set the world on fire with this. I just want a place to do some product reviews and affiliate marketing, maybe some blogging too.

Rick:

When you are in the WebSite tonight builder app, click the menu "Manage" then select "Password Protection" - you will then see a list of all of your pages. You can then click the pages you want password protected and set it up.

I can't vouch for how secure it is, but I'd guess that it is fine for most folks. Perhaps there is better explanation in a FAQ somewhere?

Good luck!

id10t · 05-31-2008, 08:38 AM

I'm dirt broke now, so you could always hire me to host it and/or do the coding

... you'll need to make it look pretty (I'll do the code around your design basically) or I can suggest a few folks.

But basically, you've got a name, so you need an address to point to it (someone to host the sight). On that address, you'll need disk space, etc. to store the files. If you want to get into blogs, wikis, etc. then you need database space (and a db server, possibly on the same machine) and a db account, etc. You'll also need either CGI bin (old fashioned) access to run server side scripts or the webserver will need to support some type of scripting language - PHP, ColdFusion, etc.

If you want to use email on your domain, you'll need a mail server to accept it so you can download it to read (you always send mail via whoever is providing your connection at the moment - the reverse of postal mail). And you'll need the email accounts set up, or aliases created to send the mail to some other address.

For actually creating pages, I like a plain text editor, but then, I'm old fashioned that way. I do recommend both Nvu (decent, free, open source) and Dreamweaver (great, expensive, closed source but runs on mac and windows), but there are litterally hundreds of other HTML editors out there. You also will need a graphics program - I like The Gimp (free, mac, windows, linux, open source), PaintShop Pro (costs but not much,windows only), Fireworks (ties in well with dreamweaver to do cool stuff), Photoshop (expensive but "the standard" when it comes to professional graphics design). Again, there are hundreds of others out there. You'll want to be able to create/edit JPG, GIF and PNG files.

Don Plumley · Don Plumley's Garage

You can set up a blog for free on Blogger, et al and just point to it if you don't want to go to the hassle of building into your website.

There are a million small website hosts that use simple browser-based control panels and will let you set up your email accounts, ftp, wiki's etc.

As to the point above about manage your site and password protect - you want to have a secure password for your control panel login. If you password protect pages on your site, then people won't be able to see them.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

id10t, thanks for the offer, but I'm not just ready to pay for a professional site at the moment. I will PM you about it when the time is right though. For the moment, I think I'll go with Don's advice and set up a free blog. While tinkering with my site last night and loading some photos, it really struck me how many directions I could take thing in. But I really only care about having landing pages for my affiliate marketing ads and eventually trying to build traffic to my site in order to drive sales via my affiliate links and eBay store.

I haven't signed up with any dropshippers yet, as I'm having a hard time finding any with low enough prices to turn a profit on eBay, including all the fees. I don't mind buying and housing my own inventory and doing my packing and shipping, since I work from home for my day job and have the time. Until I get the dropshipping going, I just want to keep a few items in my eBay store at all times to both declutter my house and keep my store alive. My longterm goal is to make enough this way to quit my day job. But I'm still feeling my way in the dark.

Rich76_911s · Rich76_911s's Garage

Rick I am not sure exactly what you are looking to do, but microsoft has a place where you can set-up a website for free: If you want a specific domain name it does cost something though:

http://www.officelive.com/

Here is the very VERY rough beginnings of my site as an example. I have no clue what I am doing setting up a website, but I was able to do it fairly easily. You can store documents, photos, etc, and keep it all private if you like.

http://rmshaner.auto.officelive.com/default.aspx

I actually made a website on pelican a long time ago, but have not been able to get on and edit it for over a year:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/rmshaner/

Rich