Creating/hosting a website

[Nick1236]

hello all I need some help.

I recently decided I wanted to start a website and sell some stuff online. I purchased a domain name through godaddy.com

I only bought the domain, no hosting or whatever else they offered me.

I have some questions now though. I know I need to host the website somehow, either through my own server or a hosting provider. Do I need to host through godaddy or can I find another hosting provider that may be cheaper? I've never done this before so i dont know how it all works.

Do I need to use godaddys website builder to publish/create my webpage? I've heard of other webpage publishing programs such as dreamweaver and others. Can I create the webpage on my computer during my free time and then upload it to what ever hosting provider I choose? How would I go about doing this and what website publishing programs are best? I have used dreamweaver before but that was 8 years ago, I'm assuming things have changed since.

Since my website is going to be pretty basic, maybe 5-10 pages would it just be easier to pay for and use the godaddy website builder they provide? I need to be able to allow purchases directly from my site through paypal or credit card. Is there a special process to setup CC payments?

I've looked online for most of my questions but the problem is I still dont understand it. Can someone explain it using easier terms?

Thank you,
Nick

[Dark Paladin]

If you are technically savvy enough, you can build your own website along with the shopping cart functions in order to offer products for sale.

Otherwise, GoDaddy (or any hosting company of your choice) should have pre-constructed packages available for you to customize (to an extent) before publishing to the web. Just ask the hosting company if they offer e-commerce packages for your anticipated sales volume.

Disclaimer: I run a small hosting business on the side, and e-commerce packages come included.

[Nick1236]

how much is your hosting service you offer?

[Dark Paladin]

PM sent.

[bigbearbear]

Another option would be Amazon Marketplace. I use Amazon.com a lot and I think it is a pretty successful model by them.

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3247953011

[GraySquirrel]

Use Bluehost or Hostgator to start out your hosting adventures. Especially if you're just starting out. They have site builders with their packages but you should really learn some HTML. Not that hard. WordPress is also a very good way to get good looking sites too.

As for processing payments, get a PayPal merchant account. Very easy to add buy buttons and such to your site and process CCs as well.

[ocabj]

Bluehost is garbage. Performance is horrendous. No lie. I manage a website for someone who is using Bluehost. Here's the load average on their shared host right now:

22:23:39 up 54 days, 13:01, 1 user, load average: 31.78, 36.78, 40.95

Dreamhost isn't much better.

I use a VPS with Linode for my own domains.

[fredridge]

use paypal buttons, e commerce stuff can be costly.

I am an amateur, but like wordpress and have built a couple nice sites with them

[eaglemike]

Godaddy has a very decent and easy to set up ecommerce program. They have a few levels available. Magento is pretty popular, but more work to set up.

[Subotai]

I would keep my domain registration with a separate company from my hosting provider.

[milk242]

I would also take into account the content management system. Popular ones are Drupal/Wordpress/Magneto. These have the advantages of user created modules to give you more options for e-commerce.

[sfwdiy]

Bluehost is garbage. Performance is horrendous. No lie. I manage a website for someone who is using Bluehost. Here's the load average on their shared host right now:

22:23:39 up 54 days, 13:01, 1 user, load average: 31.78, 36.78, 40.95

Dreamhost isn't much better.

I use a VPS with Linode for my own domains.

Damn dude, I'm on webfaction and my load average is less than 3 across the board.

--B

[Darryl Licht]

I 2nd the godaddy response... they are big, give good support, and their shopping setup is easy!

These days it just doesnt make sense to host on your own server... too risky with all the hackers and ID theives looking for unsecure servers to exploit.

[Darryl Licht]

I would keep my domain registration with a separate company from my hosting provider.

frankm... just wondering what your reasoning is here? Why???

[ocabj]

These days it just doesnt make sense to host on your own server... too risky with all the hackers and ID theives looking for unsecure servers to exploit.

Just update your system regularly and keep an eye on security bulletins. Run host based IDS and audit regularly.

After that, the only way they're getting in is you if write bad/exploitable code or install applications with bad/exploitable code, all of which can happen if you host on someone else's servers.

And I argue it's more secure to host on your own server. With shared hosting, you have a larger surface area of attack because of the larger number of different users (accounts) on the system you are on, who attract a larger subset of consumers. e.g. there's way more accounts that can be exploited for a shell in which local exploits/attacks can be launched and if they get root on that host, they just got into your account, too.