Can you all please walk me through this website stuff?

[annettemarie]

I know it's probably been asked again and again. I even searched. I guess I just need small words and short sentences, LOL!

What I want:

I have a website:
http://naturalfamily.50megs.com/index.html

I have a blog:
http://natural-childhood.blogspot.com/

What I want to do:
Push it all together. I want my blog and website all hooked on one site.

Change the name of both to Seasons of Joy. Unfortunately this domain name is taken, so I'm looking at ourseasonsofjoy or myseasonsofjoy.

Update the blog template. Definitely get/make a new header.

Same with the business site.

I would love to hire someone to do this stuff for me, but really have no money. I'm going to have to struggle through and do it myself. There aren't any web designers who do this stuff for free or for discounted rates like doulas who are being certified, are there?

Anyway, I don't know where to start. I'm on godaddy. Do I buy the domain name? Do I use them for hosting? I have no clue what I'm doing here.

[JamieCatheryn]

You'll want, at minimum, to buy the domain name and have it open your 50megs.com site when they go there. You can have matching styles/layouts/graphics and the same set of links up top on both sites (if blogspot lets you customize that closely?), one of the links opens the blog part and the rest go to the main site so you click back and forth seamlessly as if they were one site.

You could get a domain name and buy new hosting if you want to switch who hosts your site, but it looks like you already have ad-free pages. I think if you like using blogspot you shouldn't change the blog setup, just link between the sites and make them the same layout.

[Ame]

1. buy the domain

2. you can use godaddy for hosting, but there are other companies that are probably better & cheaper. I use http://www.waterswebhosting.com & https://www.deerfieldhosting.com/

3. I think your best bet is going to be setting up the store with a new design & adding a blog to the site. If you use one of the hosts above, I can help you get it set up.

4. There are people who will do some of the work for free or low priced in exchange for a link crediting their work or to help them build their portfolio - you just have to ask.

[annettemarie]

OK, I bought the domain--ourseasonsofjoy.com--go me!

AND I have it so that the domain name goes to my current site.

Amie, I think you're right. The 50megs site just isn't meeting my needs anymore, so I'm going to explore going with something fresh and hosting the blog right there. I can't really match the designs--50megs has predesigned templates.

I don't want to lose my old blog, though, which is a new problem. Is there a way to do all this with Blogger? Or a way to transfer the old blog if I get a new one?

JamieCatheryn, I'm going to PM you back now!

[Kristine233]

You'll definitely want a new host so you canmeet your needs fully. I love Watersweb. If designing is an issue and you prefer templates you could use Waterwebs SKP cart program. You could chose to use or not use the actual shopping part, thats up to you. But it would make it SUPER easy to manage your site.

Blogspot is not a hosting site, they only do blogs. So, you would be unable to move your website there. And you really want your blog and your website on the same host if you want the maximum SEO benefits. So my suggestion there woudl be to go with the Watersweb SKP and add a WordPress blog. Then, port your blogspot blog posts into WordPress. Then you get to keep your old enteries but your blog and website are in teh same place and running under your domain. I believe Watersweb tech support could even help you do that all.

When I switched from GoDaddy to Watersweb they helped me a TON. I had to move a cart system AND a blog to thier host and they walked me through it and made sure I was set up correctly. I do web design and coding but backend hosting stuff I'm kinda dumb at, so having them be able to help me saved me a bit of sanity, lol.

[be11ydancer]

So what exactly does hosting mean? Like the op, I have a new godaddy account and am trying to build a small site and design it on a budget. Free is best - don't want to pay for anything else. I know zero about web design. eulessdoula.com

[Kristine233]

Hosting is your space where you hold your files. Its like having an apartment, ou rent the apartment to hold your stuff. (website) The domain URL is the address to get to that space, or the address of your apartment.

Free has its drawbacks though. On GoDaddy, the free hosting that comes with your domain has ads across the top of it.

Just a heads up with GoDaddy accounts: They filter their mail for you and don't allow you to decide for yourself what is and isn't spam. I got into many arguments with them over this because clients were unable to email me a good amount of the time because GoDaddy mail servers had deemed any embedded links as spam and dangerous. So if someone linked me a website there was a good chance GoDaddy would just delete it and I'd never know. This is why I switched to Watersweb. Cheap doesn't always equal the best deal. GoDaddy also screwed up my domain renew on one and my website got hijacked. Another time they screwed it up and wanted me to pay $90 to get back a domain they accidentally took off my account.