Off Topic: Web Page?

[CaptMatt]

Most of my business is by word of mouth. I want to start a web page for my business and don't have the first clue about where to start and the cost of starting it. I know some of you do "the computer thing". Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[JackM]

Capt:

You must have server space somewhere to host the page and you need a piece of software to create an html document. If you know html code, you can actually create a page in any text software such as Notepad, which is a part of Windows. Learning html however is not easy. As a part of Microsoft Office you may have a copy of Frontpage, which is an html editor. It has lots of advanced features, but you need only learn a few. If you have this, play around with it. If you don't, maybe find a friend who has it and would be willing to help you out. Professional web page builders will definitely put a nice page together for you, but it may be pricey. Of course, as a business expense, you can write it off and reduce the cost by your tax rate anyhow.

When you look into server space, consider the cost against switching your service to Comcast. With Comcast cable internet, you get the use of up to 125 Megabyte of server space with your basic service. I can explain how to take advantage of that if you go that route because Comcast won't encourage you to do that and will instead try to sell you specialized services.

 

[CaptMatt]

I looked at go daddy.com and the prices were not too bad. They offered several packages and I didnt know which one was the best for my needs. The comcast idea is def. worth looking into thanks.

 

[mute]

Go with site5 hosting. They're the best around shared hosting if you ask me. I use them myself.

http://www.site5.com/hosting/

The $5 deal special is the way to go.

 

[CaptMatt]

Okay, So if I build a site following these directions how accessable is it? For example, If you google fishing destinations how do i ensure my page shows up?

 

[mute]

That Search Engine Indexing, very easy to do, thats all having to do with google, yahoo, all the search engines indexing your site in their results

 

[CaptMatt]

Thanks Jacks and mute. I'm looking into all that information.

 

[jayL]

If I had any way to get to florida (and the time/money to do so), I'd make you one for a weekend of fishing. Perhaps you can find some young college kid down there to do the same...

 

[Chaz]

Matt,
Send me a PM I may be able to help. But first you will adomaina name, which you get from network solutions. Most people use their name if it is a personally held company or the company name. As for the code itself, I use dreamweaver and notepad, notepad is integrated into windows dreamweaver is sold separately and costs around $400. If you don't know anything about designing a web page there is a learning curve, but it is all that steep for a simple web page.
Things get more involved though when you start talking about selling stuff or dynamic web pages, which are the type of web pages most of us see on a day to day basis.
Front Page is another design program that a lot of people use but I don't recommend it. There are a lot of issues involved with using Front Page, that you just don't get with other programs. The others also have issues, but are fairly simple to learn the basics on so look around. Hiring someone to write the code is another option and isn't always real expensive.