Greetings to all…
Well, I no longer wish to be confined to the Forum, WPF, or even Photobucket. I wish to
start a website where everyone can see my photos and videos (though I have none yet).
There is only one problem. I have no money to start a website [sigh]
How can I start a free website that I can post everything on?
If you want to have a true website, obviously, you’re going to need a host. There are a lot of free ones out there but the problem with them is pop up ads are usually attached (and you have no control over them)…
The one I use, is Freeservers.com. They have a free service or you can purchase a domain at a minimal charge. I think I pay $98 per year with a domain name and several mailboxes and a GB of space and no download limit. I use it for several websites, some of which earn me money. I also use it for hosting all my ebay images which in itself, pays for the website considering the cost of posting images on Ebay’s server (15¢ per last time I checked)… When selling, I’ll typically run 10 ads and have at least 50 photos. Figuring the first photo is free (and limited in size) there are still 40 photos to pay for ebay hosting, again, limited to their restrictions… This is done on a weekly basis… 40 photos hosted at 15¢ per $6, typically about 40 weeks out of the year, $240 to ebay. That’s a pair of HO scale Genesis F units saved.
Your milage may vary depending on what you actually do with your webspace.
(nothing is offered for sale here)
http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/index.html
Enjoy the visit.
edit: Forgot to mention… Check with your internet provider. THEY may have space available to you as part of your ISP package…
You need a hosting service, and you need the software to construct the HTML code that is the language of the web.
For the hosting service the best place to start is your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Many, but not necessarily all, ISPs have hosting services for members. Some ISP’s offer free hosting services for small individual websites. Or they may charge a nominal fee above and beyond the basic ISP service fee. If you want a very elaborate web site, you are amost certainly going to have to pay to have it hosted.
As for the coding software, if you happen to have Microsoft Office installed on your PC, it has a minimal web site design function built into Microsoft Word. There used to be freeware available on the web for website design. A quick Google search pulled up this site, advertsing free web design software. I have never used their product, so I can’t tell you if it’s any good or not.
http://www.personalwebkit.com/
I had a website many years back, it was tied to my AOL subscription. I lost control of it when I changed ISP’s and I assume that eventually they deleted it.
I think most providers of webspace (or at least mine does) have website building software avalible with the package… Some are better than others but there really isn’t much need for third party software on a simple website. Some browsers can also be used to build HTML code…
I use 1&1 Internet. It’s very economical, and I host both my website and my own photo gallery there. I think I pay about $50 a year, billed every six months and paid via Paypal. I just make sure I sell off some junk on eBay before the bill is due!
I had a friend of mine design my upload software, but 1&1 has a pretty good free-user program you can download that includes nice templates etc.
Lee
NVu is a good freeware design program for webpages . NVu.com. Komposer is built on NVu, and a lot of people like it too. (It is available from the same link).
The advantage of not using your ISP’s webhosting is that if you change ISPs, an independent webhost will not take down your website.
If you need ftp software, there are lots of freeware options. I like AceFTP, Visicommedia.com. (Find it under Freeware on the site).
My work experience includes teaching web design, and currently providing tech support for a webhosting service for non-profits, and many of our members have done well with these programs.
I like Microsoft Frontpage for my designs, that aren’t published yet. but I may get pelted for it. Also want to throw out Dreamweaver. Please stay away from Yahoo if at all possible, theres a sidebar that can get annoying for the viewers and cover up pictures.
Dreamweaver is great! However, it is pricey (about the cost of a nice steamer) and has a fairly steep learning curve. But hey, if you’ve got access to it, there’s not much you can’t do with it.
Godaddy.com is hands down the best ISP provider You will spend about Two bucks to register you Domain name and about 4 bucks a month to host it. This is what my MMORPG guild uses.
I use freewebs.com for my website. Its free, and you can upgrade for a fee. Not sure on the price, but I like the free one. Heres my website to give you a idea.
great options all,
but as far as getting HTML code, all you need is a simple text editor, such as notepad (free with any version of any OS), and maybe the tutorials at http://w3schools.com. At least for basic things, such as text or pictures on a page. With a little work, you’ll pretty much get a simple black & white text site that looks kind of like http://rr-fallenflags.com. However, dreamweaver and (to a degree) frontpage make it easier to create photo album pages.
As for webhosts, I like GoDaddy and NetworkSolutions. I believe both of them will register your domain for about $10-15 US per year, and will also provide you with a basic webhost package for about $10 per month, and will sometimes have deals where if you pay for a year (or more) in advance they will cut a pretty good deal (on the order $80-100 per year, depending on how long you prepay for)
Why do so many model railroaders claim broke? Everyone says they do not have the funds etc etc.If you plan on being in this hobby the fact is it is not cheap. It will cost money on all corners of the hobby. You want a website yet you do not want or have the money to pay. For example if you want an apartment yet you cant pay well you have to just stay at home and deal with what you have OR take the $20-45 to get a websited for the year or two.
trainmanny,
I hate to burst your bubble, but it’s a lot more than $45 for a website for a year… minus domain fee, you’re looking at about three months of hosting there [;)]
I work for a “company” that does IT work for people (OK, it’s two guys doing computer work on the side of other jobs), and we also do webhosting. While we generally try to beat out other hosts, I don’t think we can even get below $10/month because of all associated costs…
All the more reason to cut costs on websites (or other ancillary parts of the hobby). More money for the trains! [:D]
You are speaking of the websites that are like www.mywebsitename.com but I was speaking of a website that host all my pictures and videos too. for example I just paid $43 for a web hosting site at www.pbase.com and it was like $23 for a year or $43 for two years. I have 500gig or 1000gig of space. It is very nice and the options they give users is cool. I know for a REAL website they are about $4-15 a month. I was almost about to do one until i found www.pbase.com I was going to go with a site that charged $4.99 a month plus $7.95 for the domain name for the year. Is that about the going rate?
Google offers free websites, no coding, HTML, etc. See my photo site in my signature.
You can find prices all over the place for webhosting. The variety of “packages” is large.
pbase looks iffy to me… though it might be some random nagging thing in the back of my mind from something else entirely. $10-15 ish is the going rate for a reputable registrar to register your domain name for the year.
mywebsitename.com is a questionable site for a number of reasons, but the big one for me is the fact that they arent a registrar - they have to go through one to get you your domain name (the only ones I know of that are truly reputable are NetworkSolutions and GoDaddy – ie they don’t have any hidden costs and they’re very upfront about everything). I checked PBase’s site, you’re exaggerating your space by a factor of 1,000 (their current pricing tables are for 500 meg for the prices you’ve stated; with 1,500 meg being $60 per year) – but now I’m getting nitpicky…
The hosting company that i use/work with to provide webspace to customers guarentees 99% uptime, and has 3 or 4 direct backbone gig links to their facility, so their costs are actually very reasonable when you consider those factors (which may not actually matter to a non technical person)…
Actually, most domain name resellers are reputable, though there are some that are not, and not always upfront. Nearly all can point the domain name to wherever the webserver is that hosts the website.
A good price for a domain name can be around $10/year. GKG.net is one source. They are ICANN accredited. We’ve (my company) used GKG.net for years with no problems whatsover. We’ve run across some users offended by GoDaddy’s advertising (churches, for instance) and don’t want to do business with them. But they do provide an economical service.
I’m a bit of a geek here, so I’ll chime in.
I use a host called “Host Monster” and pay about $5 dollars a month, with a free domain name included. You’re going to see a lot of people using “Go Daddy” or some of the other popular names in the industry, and that’s all they are, popular names. Go Daddy is big in market-appeal and hype, but aren’t anything special when you compare what they cost to what they offer.
There are an abundant amount of smaller hosting companies that don’t have huge profits. Many times these places are ran by a small core group of administrators that have an IT background and don’t charge an arm and a leg for their services. One of the first hosts I used was named “HostDime”, at the time they were much cheaper then a plethora of other hosts. They subscribed to the “Five 9s” for uptime etc. That is 99.999 percent uptime on ALL servers, of quoted speeds, availability, etc. They did the job and did it well. Total cost was only 6 or 8 bucks a month plus a domain which was only like $5 for the year.
With many hosting packages, you’re going to see lots of options like “PHP” and “SQL Databases”, CGI scripting, etc. For the novice web designer these aren’t needed. Stick to the basic HTML designed page and you will be all set. All the “extras” are exactly that, just extras.
Edit to add:
For a list of accredited registrars, go to this link: CLICKY CLICKY …
I assure you that Network Solutions and GoDaddy are not the only reliable ones. ICANN accreditation is equal for all parties.