Starting a business website

[Shadowknight]

Hi,

I'm trying to start a business website, but I have NO idea where to begin, or at least, how to accomplish it... domain registration, hosting, forum software, business registration with the government, getting advertising for the site, getting advertising ON the site (google adsense?), registering through a website (or is that automatic?).

Budget is low, and any LEGAL free stuff (like forum software) is good. Oh, and if someone could recommend someone who's willing to do some simple art, I'd appreciate that as well.

Thanks.

[jfeldt]

Well, I have started a for-profit website before. I don't know how much help I can be, but you need to buy a domain name. There is one body that manages them, but there are many middlemen that will sell you one. You can buy names from Yahoo, GoDaddy, etc. Then you have the right to that name as long as you are renewing the yearly costs. But, this doesn't get you an actual site. You then need to find a place that does hosting (or run it from your own computer at home or at a co-lo). Often hosting places will set you up with a domain name as well, but don't let them make you think the two are tied together. I use HostPC and like them. They are cheap and pretty friendly. I have also used ipowerweb, which seemed fine although it was more expensive.

I used Google Adsense for a while which was very easy and classier looking than banner ads. phpBB is the standard forum software (I think), and it is freeware, along with many things you might want. Do you know HTML, perl, or PHP?

Someone else did the business registration and legal stuff. Alas, personal conflict splitered our LLC and we brought the site down after a short time.

Good luck

[Shadowknight]

I used Google Adsense for a while which was very easy and classier looking than banner ads. phBB is the standard forum software (I think), and it is freeware, along with many things you might want. Do you know HTML, perl, or PHP?

I don't know any html, though I have a book on it in storage, and there's always the library. I was planning on starting with a WYSIWYG editor, and then optimize it later. I'm currently looking for a decent editor, and have dowloaded a couple I'm going try tonight/tomorrow. Someone on another forum has offered to hook me up with some free webhosting, when I'm ready for it.

ETA: you referred to google adsense in the past tense. Did you dump it for some reason and switch to another method, or were you just referring to when your website was still in operation?

[peteamer]

If you don't know HTML etc yet, a good and easy way to start would be to search for free templates for your basic site. It's also a good way to learn as you can look at the HTML and see how a particular thing is done.

Though it's got a gopping background, www.lissaexplains.com isn't a bad place to gen up on the basics of websites and HTML.


Pete

[floffe]

There are quite a few open source content management systems (CMS), most based on PHP/mySQL, which I think is easier to get running on linux than windows (probably already setup if you get linux hosting). Many of these include a web-based WYSIWYG editor. SPCR uses one of them, drupal.