Starting a Website

[ben4633]

Those of you that have a website, I have a few questions. I have found free software to make a website, but I know there is software that I could buy to make one as well. Has anyone used the free software or are most of you guys buying the software? How much is it going to cost me to get a host for the website? Other than domain name, software, hosting, are there any other costs I should be aware of? Any tips would be greatful as well. Thanks

[tracknut]

There's a ton of possibilities for creating a web site, as you're finding out. If you're going to write the html and css, HTML-Kit (http://www.htmlkit.com/) is a free editor, highly recommended as an alternative to Expressions or Dreamweaver. Another free editor is Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) that’s pretty popular.

Of course in the "pay" editor category are Dreamweaver and Expressions Web.

Then for those not planning on doing the creation themselves, starting with a template like those from BluDomain (http://bludomain.com/) is another (not free) alternative.

Personally I use Expressions, but I see no reason one shouldn't go the free route for editors. There are tons of options I haven't listed here, maybe others will have ideas too.

For hosting, you can get a fine host with great uptime and customer service for $4/month - I wouldn't pay more than that; it's a commodity business.

Other costs you haven't listed might include the actual development (this is not necessarily easy stuff - folks have careers built around doing it professionally), and SEO (which is a separate ongoing activity related to getting eyeballs on your web site).

Dave