Starting Your Own Website

[Mr Light]

I'm getting my first short story published in March and I'm thinking about starting my own little website/blog, but I know absolutely nothing about how it works. Or about social media in general. I don't even twitter

I went on some websites and it looks like it costs about $10 a year to have a domain in your own name... but I know nothing about the creation and running of one.

So in addition to paying for the domain name, I also have to pay a fee to a "web host"?

I used to run a geocities website 15 years ago but all I used was Netscape Navigator. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to coding or hotmeal or whatever.

The one page I'm looking at says I could use Dreamweaver for free and its a WIWYG like Netscape Nav?

How does it work? What does it cost? Should I try to do everything myself or is there an easy (and cheap) way to get technical assistance?

 

[Amaris]

I'm getting my first short story published in March and I'm thinking about starting my own little website/blog, but I know absolutely nothing about how it works. Or about social media in general. I don't even twitter

I went on some websites and it looks like it costs about $10 a year to have a domain in your own name... but I know nothing about the creation and running of one.

So in addition to paying for the domain name, I also have to pay a fee to a "web host"?

I used to run a geocities website 15 years ago but all I used was Netscape Navigator. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to coding or hotmeal or whatever.

The one page I'm looking at says I could use Dreamweaver for free and its a WIWYG like Netscape Nav?

How does it work? What does it cost? Should I try to do everything myself or is there an easy (and cheap) way to get technical assistance?

You have a lot of options. If you just want to run a kind of blog/update site, I recommend Wordpress. You can buy a .com domain through GoDaddy for a couple of bucks, and use Wordpress to publish your site. You can use it for free (though there are pay levels if you want extras), and it's easy to use.

You can take a look at my personal blog to get an idea: https://lotusteadragon.wordpress.com/
(Don't mind the rather adult topics )

I have the free level service, and all of what you see there was done with those tools. It's very easy to setup, and adding modules to create links, calendars, and other stuff is super easy.

If you don't want to go the Wordpress route, you can find many free webhost providers. My favorite is http://www.weebly.com, which offers a free service (and paid services). It uses a WYSIWYG editor, and you can have a site up in just a few minutes, all polished and professional looking.

 

[Mary Ann]

This thread would be better served in the Web Sites/Design forum, Mr. Light. I'll move the thread over there.

 

[Mr Light]

Sorry! I didn't know we had one!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Sorry! I didn't know we had one!

I feel so ... unloved

Just kidding. Sticked at the top is Useful links and sites. I hope that will help get you started. After that, hopefully people here can help you further.

 

[Mr Light]

Alidar, it must be in one of the sections I have automatically collapsed I saw "Science and Technology" and thought that was it!

J. Allen, when I went on godaddy.com it was $14 per year ($3 the first year) for a domain name. A couple others were only $10/yr.

And does your site allow you see how many hits you get? I remember with my geocities site back in 1998 I was obsessed with my hit counter lol

 

[Amaris]

Alidar, it must be in one of the sections I have automatically collapsed I saw "Science and Technology" and thought that was it!

J. Allen, when I went on godaddy.com it was $14 per year ($3 the first year) for a domain name. A couple others were only $10/yr.

And does your site allow you see how many hits you get? I remember with my geocities site back in 1998 I was obsessed with my hit counter lol

Yeah, adding a little counter is easy. There's an option to add your own code, so you just toss it on there and put it where you want it. Easy peasy.

 

[tafkats]

I too would highly recommend Wordpress. Although it was originally built as a blogging platform, it's become so robust and configurable that it can easily be used for more static sites as well. There are hundreds (at least) of free themes available that are adequate for most purposes, and also a lot of premium themes if you end up wanting more specialized functionality.

"Hits" are very outdated as a metric. Instead of a "hit counter" that displays to the end user how many times that specific page has been accessed, you should install Google Analytics. It's free, it's very easy to use, and it provides you with tons of useful information.

 

[Mr Light]

So, I'm hearing... buy a domain on GoDaddy.com and use WordPress for free web hosting and programs? So I'm only paying a single fee for the domain?

 

[Amaris]

So, I'm hearing... buy a domain on GoDaddy.com and use WordPress for free web hosting and programs? So I'm only paying a single fee for the domain?

Yes. The Wordpress blog would be free, and you'd only pay yearly (or every couple of years depending on how many you buy at the time of purchase) for your domain. That's it.

 

[Mr Light]

So if I buy trekbbs.com on godaddy I can use WordPress to update it directly?

 

[Mr Light]

Alright, I've got a website! www.derekbeebe.com thanks for the advice all!

 

[tafkats]

Just a quick note: Hosting your site on Wordpress.com does have some disadvantages compared to buying a hosting plan and installing the Wordpress CMS on it. If you go self-hosted, you have a lot more flexibility to mess around with your site.

On the other hand, you also have to pay for hosting then. So if you're content with what you're able to do with the hosted version, you're probably fine with it.

Terminology note -- you might hear people in the Wordpress community make a distinction between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. Wordpress.com is the hosted site; Wordpress.org is how they colloquially refer to the software itself.