Help....I want to build a website for my lights...

JonSidneyB

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 22, 2001
Messages
3,423
Location
Greenfield In
What I really want to know is who I should start with hosting. Any recomendations as to where I should put my website I want to build...and what kind of costs I will face??? and recomendations would be appreciated
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
Re: Help....I want to build a website for my light

Oh man, there are all kinds of hosting possibilities, hosting places come and go like hot dog vendors.

First recommendation is get your own domain name. That way you can switch hosting providers whenever you want, without having to change your URL. The domain name will cost you about $10 a year. I've been happy with jumpdomain.com for domain registration (just visit www.jumpdomain.com and fill in the forms). They will forward your domain to the URL of your choice for free (that is, people can type www.JonSidneyB.com into their browser and the browser will automatically redirect to www.your-isp.com/~JonSidneyB if your ISP doesn't give you a virtual host or wants to charge you extra for it). They also have a clever way of de-spamming the email for your domain contact addresses (you normally get enormous amounts of spam from those). So, I recommend them.

Hosting can cost between zero and infinity depending on what services you want. Since you seem to not be strapped for cash, I'd say typical free hosting isn't worth the hassles and restrictions. I'm imagining you want to put up a fairly typical users' page, static content with some pictures, not planning to get millions of hits. You should be able to get good hosting for $5-10 a month, maybe less. Jumpdomain itself offers hosting that looks pretty good, though I haven't used it. I think it starts around $8 a month. www.ion-web.com has hosting starting at $2.95 a month but I have no experience with them at all. There's tons of other such services as well. www.65535.net looks promising at $20/year (you may need to go to their $45/year plan if you have a lot of pictures). Try to avoid high setup fees and long-term contracts until you know you're happy with a provider and you think they'll stick around. Otherwise, take short-term deals and switch providers if you don't like what you're getting.

I assume you know something about the mechanics of writing html pages, uploading images, stuff like that. If not, your best bet is to get a book about it, or get someone to help you.

Finally, if you want professional assistance (I hope it's not too commercial for me to say this) I have a friend who's an extremely good HTML artist, designer, illustrator, etc. and is available for any kind of work like this (she's a dotcom casualty and is getting by on whatever she can find). That's probably going overboard for a hobby site, but if you want to do something commercial with your site, it's worth the investment to make your site look sharp. PM me if you want her contact info.
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
Re: Help....I want to build a website for my light

Those are actually both the same thread...
 

jtice

Flashaholic
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
6,331
Location
West Virginia
Re: Help....I want to build a website for my light

Thanks alot !!!

All of you had great advise. I agree completely with you about the CRAPPY free hosting. I use geocities now, its not great, but I thought it was alot better than some other free ones I saw.

I graduated from a computer IT school. I am pretty good at HTML, webdesign, graphics and the like. My home page - www.geocities.com/johntrotto - was made in about 4 days. So its not the best in the world.

Spelin and Gramer::: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon6.gif oh, come on guys! OK, I admit, Im not tthe best speller in the world. But I have to admit, I dont take ALOT of care when posting messages. Now, on a website its different. I spell check things, and look over them. (yes I know this forum has a spell check button ) but hey, thats another 15 seconds! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Free Stuff: My main goal was not to get free stuff. I guess it did sound like that alittle in my original post. I was just wondering what it took to get to that level. And I was right in my thinking, from what you all have said. Lots of good reviews, lots of pics. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Pics: Thanks for the complimentts on my pics! Knowing me, my reviews will have TOO many pics. LOL

Same testing over and over: : : I agree, that while doing the same test on every light is good for comparison, each light has its place. And should be tested that way. As I said before, I am very hard on things, I would put each light through its own, unique testing, best suited to its features. And,,, in the real world. Sure, some testing will be done indoors, but alot will be done in the woods, water, ice, rain, dirt, and mud of the real world.

Well, to start with, the site will be on geocities. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif Hopefully alittle later I will be able to pay for good hosting. But this should be a good start.

I hope to start soon. But it will take a few weeks to start every thing up.

Thanks again for all the advise !
 

Tree

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 2, 2001
Messages
1,384
Location
Louisiana, USA, Earth
Re: Help....I want to build a website for my light

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
Those are actually both the same thread...


[/ QUOTE ]

DOH!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif I copied the same link twice.
 
Top