Do I need a web site?

[George Brown]

so I designed the look, but the webmaster did the hard work (links, tags, animations, maintenance, etc.).

Design is the hard part, setting it up is not that difficult.

[Doug Griffith]

Design is the hard part, setting it up is not that difficult.

I agree and disagree. A website can be as simple as HTML with a few graphics to dynamic database driven content using a Flash AS3 front-end with "AJAX" interaction and beyond. It is what you make of it. I would never go static because then it is purely a presence tool that doesn't gather valuable marketing information. But then design is difficult because while a pretty website can be easily made, it may not be intuitive and serve it's purpose. It's all subjective.

[Carrol Fleming]

If you do decide to go for a websites, here is my little opinion:

I strongly dislike badly designed websites with too many fonts, flashing or streaming text and fussy backgrounds. If it takes too long to open it better be jolly good for me to go back. I have a slow internet connection but, because of my relative isolation, I am a regular online shopper and buy most of my laser supplies as well as books, CD's, gifts etc online so don't aim just at first world customers with fast, reliable connections - sometimes we in the third world have no other options, if we want it, we have to buy it online!

I design and maintain a few sites so have a vague idea of my likes and dislikes

And most important, get someone else to visit the site and check it for errors, you will almost always have had an attack by the gremlins!

Carrol

[Bill Cunningham]

Mozilla SeaMonkey will get you started. It incorporates the mozilla composer html editor. You can set up your site WYSIWYG, or directly edit the html and FileZilla is a great Free tool for uploading and managing your files on the site. Most free FTP programs are next to useless but this one is 'very' good

[Dan Hintz]

If you're going to use Mozilla (FireFox), there are free seamless FTP plug-ins at http://addons.mozilla.com

Better than many pay-for FTP programs I've used...

[Andy Tripp]

What is the opinion of having your domain registered with a different company than the one that actually host your website - advantage or disadvantage?

Andy

[Dan Hintz]

One is irrelevant from the other unless registration is required by the hosting company... if that's the case, I'd find another company as they can hold you hostage at some point in time (jack up fees). My site is registered at Register.com, but I'm hosted by Jumpline (previously eMax). I have considered moving my registration to a cheaper place, but the savings is so small the money hasn't made it a priority on my to-do list... kind of tough to argue when you're already paying <$30/yr for registration.

[Darren Null]

I disagree. NEVER have your domain name registered with your hosting company. They can go bust; hold the name for ransom or mess it up in some other way.

Once you start, your domain name is your most precious online asset...all the rest can be replaced. But you're spending the advertising money to associate your services with the domain name. If somebody else has control of that, you're over a barrel.

My $0.02:

Domains: namecheap.com Also do $10 SSL certificates. I'm finding them better than mydomain.com for price and services at the moment.
Hosting: http://www.1websiteshostingpromotions.com/ $10 a year and the limits are pretty reasonable. You get a proper cPanel and you don't have to count databases if you fancy trying extra toys out. $50/year for an IP address which you'll need for a SSL certificate which you'll need if you want a shop.

Software recommendations: If you're a beginner, use Fantastico in cPanel to install Wordpress if you just want an online presence. You never need to go near code and you have the added bonus that Wordpress is VERY Google-friendly. Add pages for a contact form, open times, a few pictures of your products and there you go. Should be doable in an evening for a complete novice.
If you want a shop: don't attempt it if you're averse to code. Plan to spend a lot longer than you were originally estimating on the project.

[Tim Bateson]

Shopping Carts are a whole other beast! I dropped mine for 3 reasons.
1. Too much time to maintain.
2. Instead of using the shopping cart, 99% of customers called or emailed me.
3. The cost of running credit cards/PayPal was not reasonable for the bit of business I do.

[Dan Hintz]

Darren,

Who are you disagreeing with?

[Darren Null]

What is the opinion of having your domain registered with a different company than the one that actually host your website - advantage or disadvantage?

One is irrelevant from the other unless registration is required by the hosting company

I was disagreeing with the above, as it would seem to imply that it doesn't matter if you have your domain registered with the people you're using for hosting. From personal experience, I would say that keeping your domain name separate from your hosting is one of the most important things you can do. OK, some of my worst experiences were back in the early days of the wild, wild, web and things are a little better now. But at the very least, it puts you in a better bargaining position with the hosting company when you can move without requiring permission from them.

[Dan Hintz]

Yeah, I probably wasn't too clear. What I was saying is there was no reason to have them both with the same people as they are not tied to each other (i.e., irrelevant to each other).

[Darren Null]

I'm easily confused, so apologies for my misinterpretation.

In physical and functional terms; who your domains and hosting are registered with are entirely unimportant. It'll work the same wherever they are.

In a business and tactical sense, I can't stress enough the importance of keeping your domain and hosting separate. If you are building any kind of business through the web the domain name is how people find you out of the grillions of competitors. EVERY SINGLE PART of your internet setup can go wrong; and if you walk out of there with control of your domain name you can be back in the game an hour or two later. Albeit in a limited fashion. If someone else controls the domain, then all your efforts and time and money spent in marketing have been wasted. Worse- it goes to some other sod. Who will probably add insult to injury by just putting ads on your domain and reaping the click-through benefits. There is a whole industry devoted to this. Google "black hat marketing" for a clue (and don't try anything you see there to promote your own site...you can get delisted as well as getting more visitors in the short term).

...but I digress a bit. There are lots of things that can go wrong with a website: gouging/bankrupt/sold hosts; webdesigners going mental/blackmail; fraud; hacking; just to name a few. Keep control of your domain and you can recover. If someone else has it, you're stuffed.

[Damon Hoxworth]

I have 2 domains that I registered for my laser business that never quite got off the ground.

I think it's a pretty good and brandable name for the budding internet entrepreneur, better than Ponoko anyway

etchya.com has a tiki installation for boards just like sawmills but you could put just about anything you wanted to on it, assuming your host is cool with that.

I can help move stuff over and setup as well, would even consider hosting.

Sorry to offend anyone's sensibilities if this post did.

message me if you are interested.
d

email is already setup as well using google apps,