Webhosting
There are several ways to get a site up and
running cheaply. One is to go to
the sources of FREE websites (see www.detailshere.com/freewebsites.htm)
and use their webwizards to build one with and put up with THEIR advertising on
YOUR website in the process for getting it for free (you didn't really think it
was free did you). Usually this is pretty aggravating, unprofessional, they have
few website templates to choose from and the methodology to build your own site
is crude at best. A better way is to go with an inexpensive GOOD webhost and
have your own website with no one else's ads on it to detract from what you are
trying to accomplish.
A good inexpensive webhosting system starting at only $6.95/month with over 1700 website templates to choose from for easy building and 500 megs of space can be found at http://allhostingsolutions.com/g.o/detailshere ,click on "hosting packages". It would be hard to use up 500 megs of space. My website is eight years old, is hundreds and hundreds of pages, lots of pics on some pages, and it is still only 48 megs. This is a good deal folks. This is one of the best "build it yourself "website packages for a professional look that I've seen without having to do a lot of learning as with using Frontpage 2000.
My webhost, John Cardinal at http://zwebhost.com/ has several plans to host a website for you (at less than $3.50/mo if you pay annually) and he will build a website for you as well (but that part costs money). Otherwise buy a copy of Frontpage 2000 and build it yourself easily without having to know about html (the html is all created behind the scenes for you in Frontpage 2000) and be able to post it yourself and make changes to it using ws-FTP which you can download a free copy of from www.twocows.com
Be sure and tell him Berry Ball - detailshere.com; sent you. And he promised to give you a good deal. Go to http://zwebhost.com/ and click on webhosting. He has a very inexpensive 50 meg plan for only $39.95/year (that's less than $3.50/mo folks) with one email account and one autoresponder. Or a 50 meg plan for $8.95 a month with 2 email accounts and two autoresponders. Or a 100 meg/month plan for $10.95/mo. It doesn't get any cheaper than that for good service folks. I've been with them now for several years and I highly recommend them not only for lowest price but for consistency of good service. I chose his which gave me 300 megs of space I could sublet any way I wanted, and each 10 megs above that is only a $10 one time setup fee, and $4.50/ per month. How much space is 50 megs?? My whole website at www.detailshere.com is less than 19 megs but would fill a 1" notebook if printed out. It would be tough for me to use 50 megs. If I didn't own 6 other sites I maintain, such as the church's, camping club's, friends, youth group, etc; I wouldn't need a corporate site. And they are very good at keeping the site accessible even with large numbers of hits, keeping the site active itself with very little downtime, and in helping you get started posting your site using ws-FTP if you choose to build your own site using Frontpage 2000.
You definitely need to have your own domain name and www.yourname.com address. John at http://zwebhost.com/ can help you register your domain name with the internic. First you have to go to www.networksolutions.com and choose a name that has not already been taken. Then go to http://zwebhost.com/ and let them know what that name is and that you want them to register it with the internic for you. It costs $70 for 2 years for your domain name with the internic. http://zwebhost.com/ doesn't charge you to help do this. I chose "detailshere.com" because it covers a lot of ground. When people go there they expect to get the information on whatever it is I advertised to them with, whether it be an investment, bible information, currency exchange, phone service, whatever. It's generic enough to cover them all.
So how do you get to the design part? You can have John build it or you buy a $99 copy of Frontpage 2000 and start reading and experimenting. Look at sites like mine to pattern after. I don't consider my site very good aesthetically, but it is easy to navigate, has ALL the information on each item, provides accurate instruction for each item, and is quick to load. I spent two days once making the neatest buttons for all those links but when I installed them I picked up 30 seconds load time for my page. No deal; buttons had to go, and banners on homepage had to go. I won't wait on other people's fancy shmancy websites to load and I don't expect people will wait for mine either. Know also that pics sacrifice a lot of load time. Find a tutor for an hour or two to get you started. Keystone Learning Systems (http://www.keystonelearning.com/ ) has three videos for sale to walk you through the functions of Frontpage 2000. And Microsoft provides excellent tech support for Frontpage when you get stuck. I ALWAYS get through quickly. I must warn you though. I would go to my 2.9 Cognigen Telcom link and sign up for iPhone long distance service first. My last phone call to microsoft was 45 minutes long and cost me only $2.43. That's a tough deal to beat on phone service.