Setting up a new website..

[Minifig Lecturer]

Hi there,

I am thinking of buying a domain name and paying for hosting services for a new LEGO related website.

The problem is I am not sure really if there are things to look out for. Cost is my main concern, I want it as cheap as possible but I don't know what is "cheap" for such products. So as a few members here seem to have their own sites, I was wondering if you had any tips, ideas on what is cheap, and whether I should look for specific features or something else?

Also, perhaps you recommend a local based provider or does it matter much? Well if you have any suggestions I'm all ears.

Thanks!

[Thee Pirate]

I registered a website with Godaddy.com a few years ago.. I think it was only about $20. Afterthe first year, I transfered to Yahoo Small Business hosting. I've been paying $12 a month since then. It's more of a personal use site, where I host images for myself, or store files I want o be able to access anywhere. I don't really come anywhere close to the max alloted bandwidth, and I link to it pretty frequently in car forums.

Hope that info helps a little.

[Minifig Lecturer]

I registered a website with Godaddy.com a few years ago.. I think it was only about $20. Afterthe first year, I transfered to Yahoo Small Business hosting. I've been paying $12 a month since then. It's more of a personal use site, where I host images for myself, or store files I want o be able to access anywhere. I don't really come anywhere close to the max alloted bandwidth, and I link to it pretty frequently in car forums.

Hope that info helps a little.

Thanks for the info Thee Pirate!

I suppose I want first to find out how much I'd expect to pay annually just for the site domain name, like for example www.insert-site-name-here.com ...

edit: ok I found this site for example http://www.register.com/titan/index.rcmx

Seems cheap to register a domain name with them: 150$ for 10 years

However, if I got a domain name of them, it is a bad idea to get hosting services of another crowd? The hosting services seems to be the costly part, guess makes sense.

Edited November 13, 2008 by Calvin

[Mariann Asanuma]

Thanks for the info Thee Pirate!

I suppose I want first to find out how much I'd expect to pay annually just for the site domain name, like for example www.insert-site-name-here.com ...

edit: ok I found this site for example http://www.register.com/titan/index.rcmx

Seems cheap to register a domain name with them: 150$ for 10 years

However, if I got a domain name of them, it is a bad idea to get hosting services of another crowd? The hosting services seems to be the costly part, guess makes sense.

I got my domain name from one company, and then I went with Godaddy. My website is http://www.modelbuildingsecrets.com I use it for my freelance LEGO business. Two things I should warn you about if you don't already know:

1 -- Don't put LEGO in your website name, the LEGO lawyers will be on you for that.

2 -- Somewhere on your site you have to put a disclaimer saying that it is an unofficial site and that LEGO does not authorize it in any way. (or something to tha effect).

Go daddy has a nice feature called Website Tonight which is a website builder program. It is pretty simple and comprehensive. I don't know if its the best out there, since I am still pretty new to making a website myself, but it serves my perposes pretty well.

I like Godaddy a lot, except for one thing, their Shopping Cart feature only does shipping for within the US! If you are planning on selling things on your website, I don't recommend them since you are outside of the US.

Hope that helps.

[Minifig Lecturer]

I got my domain name from one company, and then I went with Godaddy. My website is http://www.modelbuildingsecrets.com I use it for my freelance LEGO business. Two things I should warn you about if you don't already know:

1 -- Don't put LEGO in your website name, the LEGO lawyers will be on you for that.

2 -- Somewhere on your site you have to put a disclaimer saying that it is an unofficial site and that LEGO does not authorize it in any way. (or something to tha effect).

Go daddy has a nice feature called Website Tonight which is a website builder program. It is pretty simple and comprehensive. I don't know if its the best out there, since I am still pretty new to making a website myself, but it serves my perposes pretty well.

I like Godaddy a lot, except for one thing, their Shopping Cart feature only does shipping for within the US! If you are planning on selling things on your website, I don't recommend them since you are outside of the US.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tips - noted :)

I got a tip to consider http://www.dream-hosting.co.uk

They do seem to be great value, at £9.99 a year! So far most hosting sites cost about £5 a month so this seems good? Any obvious flaw?

* 500Mb of disk space

* 10GB Bandwidth per month

* 5 MySQL Databases with PHPMyAdmin

* 5 Add-on domain name allowance

* Unlimited POP3 Email Account @yourdomain.co.uk

* CPanel Web Based web site Control Panel

* Fantastico - Including PHP-Nuke, phpBB2, OS Commerce...

* Unlimited subdomains.yourdomain.co.uk

* Web Based Email / Email Forwarding / Email Auto Responders

* Web Based File Manager & FTP Access

* PHP & Perl

* Front Page 2002® Extensions

* Personal CGI-BIN

* 128 Bit SSL Server (you will require a certificate)

* SSH Secure Shell Access

* Pre-Written CGI Scripts

* Complete Web Site Backup Utility

* Detailed Site Statistics

Wasn't really planning on selling anything, but who knows. Not sure if the above features support that?

By the way, nice site you have, those balls out of square bricks look good. I need some to throw at my brother :)

[Mariann Asanuma]

Thanks for the tips - noted :)

By the way, nice site you have, those balls out of square bricks look good. I need some to throw at my brother :)

I'm glad you like my site.

Tell you the truth, I don't know much about bandwidth, etc. I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to computers. But that is why I like the Website Tonight program, its just type and click, you don't need to know anything about HTML. There are probably lots of programs out there like it, but this is the one my friend recommended and showed me how to use.

[Matn]

Dream-hosting looks rather strange to me... I pay 24 euro a year for 1 GB bandwith and 100 MB a month, and I'm going to have an upgrade this month because, strangely, we are getting much visitors lately. 500 MB and 10 GB bandwith a month looks rather suspicious. I don't really know if it's real or not, but I have never seen such a low price. Maybe you could try, or look in computer magazines (there you'll find ads from hosting websites: then you know how good they are (if they can afford an advertisement) or try to get some information of friends with websites or on other computer forums. I'm not saying Dream-hosting isn't playing it right, but don't blame us if you got many costs after you registered your domain (watch the little words).

Then I would search a good layout, if you have PHP maybe you could install Joomla, that's a pretty nice base for your website. Then you could look for some custom (free) layouts and you can adjust them to LEGO style and upload them. Joomla is nice to work with, I recommend it.

[Skinny Boy]

So, will this site have anything to Irish Lego? Hope you get it set up soon anyway.

[Guss]

- Somewhere on your site you have to put a disclaimer saying that it is an unofficial site and that LEGO does not authorize it in any way. (or something to tha effect).

I knew I forgot something in my website^^ *go and modify it*

by the way, to host my website, I'm on a friend server, 750 go , 100mbit unlimited connection , unlimited access to the server ( I can create all the mails, DB I want...) so I can't help you to choose the best host :/

oh ,Mariann Asanuma , I like your website! you have some really cool creations^^

[Minifig Lecturer]

Thanks for the tips guys, although I got them after I registered with dream-hosting .. I was impatient I suppose.

I have registered www.minifigtimes.com as the name for my new site.

Dream-hosting looks rather strange to me... I pay 24 euro a year for 1 GB bandwith and 100 MB a month, and I'm going to have an upgrade this month because, strangely, we are getting much visitors lately. 500 MB and 10 GB bandwith a month looks rather suspicious. I don't really know if it's real or not, but I have never seen such a low price. Maybe you could try, or look in computer magazines (there you'll find ads from hosting websites: then you know how good they are (if they can afford an advertisement) or try to get some information of friends with websites or on other computer forums. I'm not saying Dream-hosting isn't playing it right, but don't blame us if you got many costs after you registered your domain (watch the little words).

Then I would search a good layout, if you have PHP maybe you could install Joomla, that's a pretty nice base for your website. Then you could look for some custom (free) layouts and you can adjust them to LEGO style and upload them. Joomla is nice to work with, I recommend it.

I guess I will wait and see, however, so far things look OK. Unfortunately I am not web wizard so don't know what PHP is etc.. have heard it banded around, might try to see if I can learn how to use it, after I learn what it is :)

Skinnyboy, the site will be my Legoland Times just transferred so not sure it will have anything specific to Ireland apart from the fact that it is where the news comes from :) .. any word on www.brickie.ie or similar site starting up?

Edited November 18, 2008 by Calvin

[Jipay]

It's all about traffic. If it becomes a visited website, be prepared, and plan a budget :pir-skull:. A simple webpage wouldn't cost that much though.

Cheap domain names are normal. Cheap hosting isn't.

As a fan of your previous work, I do hope we'll still get some articles. To say that I never bought my dreamed soccer team

[samthelegoman1]

I am dealing with this problem too. Are there any free sites? I'd rather spend my cash on Lego instead of the internet.

Edited December 11, 2008 by samthelegoman1