I have a pretty simple site that I made for my softball team, basically just a roster with player bios, some stats, news, and a few miscellaneous things. As of right now, I just put it up on some free space that came with my Mom’s ISP, but I now want to make some improvements to it and I’m not sure the best way to do them.
First, I want to get my own domain name. How much can I expect to pay for this, and does anyone have any recommendations on doing this?
Second, I probably want to get the site hosted somewhere else now, so I don’t have to count on my mom’s account. Would setting this up go hand in hand with getting a domain name, or are they two completely different things? What are some good ways to go about getting a site hosted, and roughly how much can I expect to pay? I do not want to have any ads or anything like that, I pretty much want the site to be 100% mine.
So basically I want to know the best way to go about putting up a website for my softball team complete with its own domain name.
Usually when you are a newbie to Web sites, the best thing to do is find a host and let them register your domain along with singing up for hosting. Domain names cost between $10 and $20 a year, depending on who you go through. If you really want
Personally, I have my site on www.addr.com which is $9.95 a month. They give you email, FTP access, no ads, and lots of nice features and good help. They will register your domain, but i can’t find the price right now (likely it’s $20/yr).
Others have reccomended other places they go with. Here is a list of free space:
most of those places probably have upgraded pay hosting as well.
I’ve never used any of those places, but I always like to remember “you get what you pay for” when doing anything with computers. Remember that you probably will have an easier time doing things if you have FTP access to your site rather than some sort of applet that uploads for you.
Beyond getting set up with a hosting company, if you’ve already had experience working with Web sites, everything should be pretty much the same for you, work wise, once you have your new name and host.
For domain names, we use DirectNic. They’re affordable ($15) and reliable. They will also host your site for a reasonable price, and in doing so, will take care of a lot of the hair-pulling details.
If you’re going to go with a budget webhost, DO NOT let them register the domain name for you. Some of these places are pretty fly by night, and if they go under, they may very well take your domain name with them.
For hosting, I use http://www.venturesonline.com. They’ve been around for a few years and have a nice range of apache packages and excellent tech support. I register my names through register.com. They’re $35/year. I like to stick with the name brand places for something as important as the domain name, but YMMV.