[Monterrosa-24]

I'm turning to Freepers because I've learned that FRiends know about virtually everything and know it better than anybody else.

[Mariner]

Use a local provider for hosting. godaddy or any other for DNS.

But usually your DNS can be arbitrated by your hosting provider.

[grateful]

I do not recommend godaddy. Personally, I’ve had issues with them. I would have recommended HostGator (one of the largest), but their quality had gone down and they’ve had major outages in the past year. I currently use knownhost.com and have had no problems. Tech support has a fairly quick turnaround. I hope you find something that works well for you.

[Hang'emAll]

Make sure you purchase the domain name so it can move with you to another host if you have to.

[grateful]

Oh, and for domain registration, I’m happy with both NameCheap and Dotster. I definitely recommend them.

[prisoner6]

Bumping for later.

I’m looking around for a hosting service as well. Back in the day...WAY back - W95 or before...I had several websites. Eventually partnered with a friend and got and EXPENSIVE service. After maybe ten years and watching my community oriented website grow to nearly a hundred pages it became too much. Took way too much time.

One of the things I warn friends about is some think they can set up a website and watch the cash roll in.

IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND MAINTENANCE!

Meanwhile mrs p6 started a high school reunion band website on Homestead back around 2000 and it was fine. Still up and running but the band has moved on.

Now I’m thinking about a local weather/webcam archiving website and so far have found NOTHING I like.

MEANWHILE >>>>>Monterrosa...when you do get your website up FReepmail me. >great lines of Belgium chocolate and value-packed gift baskets with teas, coffees, chocolates, and premium cookies.

That sounds GREAT! Would love to try!

[TexasBarak]

I’ve been using Hypermart for years. Started out being $5 or so a month, now it’s $15 or so a month. I made my own (very simple) website, and it’s worked just fine for years.

[seeker41]

I used Blue Host in the past, was happy with it at the time.

http://www.bluehost.com/?gclid=CPzH3M6MvMECFaZj7Aodb0gA0A

[Vermont Lt]

I used Ipower for years. No complaints. And that is really what it’s all about. It works. It’s never down. I programmed my own site, so any mistakes were mine.

[bestiq]

Talking about where to put a storefront, check out bigcommerce.com

[Jeff Chandler]

You don't want to host your own eCommerce site unless you have need for complicated customization. I recommend a hosted solution such as Volusion.

[Jeff Chandler]

IF you decide to self-host, I have used 3rd St. Webhosting for all my websites and my clients' websites for ten years now. The tech support is excellent.

[GeronL]

Personally I would avoid godaddy.com just because of their perverted ads.

[PilotDave]

Wix.com is pretty simple and good for beginners.

[Ted Grant]

Register your domain at NameCheap, which is easy and very good. I’d host at Hostgator. Both are inexpensive and reliable.

[Katya]

So the easiest website to set up is using Wix.com... they can also host with a fairly low monthly fee, set up email through google etc. They have templates you can choose for free and some pay... or at least the last time I used them that’s how it worked.

If you’re at all proficient with design, you can go the webflow route and set up your hosting through them.
If you want something truly unique... you can also hire someone for cheap off elance, to design it. Best of luck!

[dadofgage]

Take a look at HostGator, decent service and a nice price - probably less than $10 a month.

BlueHost is also good.

Stay away from hosting at GoDaddy - keep them for domain registrations and email.

[silverleaf]

bookmark

[dennisw]

Are you on facebook? I would start with them. Upload your best representative photos and menus of your business. Let your customers know you are on facebook and to check for coupons and special deals there

[EternalVigilance]

If you’re not a coder, the best platform I know for a simple site is at Weebly.com. Cheap, effective, and simple.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

I am a web developer and have run a small successful business since 1999. I am not going to mention my business name since I am not trying to promote it here, just wanting to give you the advice you requested.

I use my own dedicated servers for my clients because of the headaches, and problems at GoDaddy, as well as on many of the big commercial servers. Their business model is to cram thousands of websites on a server, assuming that they will not all be opened by viewers at the same time. Consequently their load time is slow but not too terribly slow until certain high column times. E-commerce stores will find that heavy shopping times, annoying to their visitors. Also email queues will be long so your mail will be slow going out and coming in. You run the risk of someone on your shared hosting IP sending spam and then all emails boxes on that shared IP are blacklisted for a few days, causing. Your mail to get rejected by people using mail filters.

There is a good reason that serious businesses do not host on goDaddy. Thus the casual ads they do, geared towards the masses of casual users who are their target.

So who to choose? My advice, NOT GoDaddy! Other than that, find a company that limits the sites they put on a server, to avoid overcrowding. Listen to people who have had good experiences, try it, and if problems crop up, move and try another. I finally gave up trying in 2002 and started using my own dedicated servers for my clients to avoid the problems.

Advice on doing your own site........ Use a WordPress platform, it has very good SEO ..... Search engine optimization ... built in, and you need SEO! There are free Wordpress templates available, or very nice ones for $60 or so dollars. If you can’t afford a custom site built by a professional developer, WordPress is the next best option. If you have trouble figuring out how to install and use WordPress, then I guess Wix ... www.wix.com .... Is okay.... Not great, but okay.