how to create your won website?

[DivineMrsM]

i want to start a website to promote my photography. but i don't have a lot of money, so either cheap or free is best! lol

i'd like the name to be my own, not like nam.freewebs.com or whatever. i want it to be name.com. how do i go about doing this??

thanks!!!

[annettemarie]

Moving to the WAHM Well (I'm making the assumption that you're promoting your photography for profit)

[annettemarie]

BTW, I use 50megs.com and it's all been very easy to deal with.

[shepremiers]

I got my website for $.99 from godaddy.com. it is a .info instead of a .com but it works! I use weebly.com for free hosting because it has really easy interface and a built in store.

[Night Owl]

If you're wanting your own domain name and no advertisements for other people's businesses that you can't control, then I recommend you stay away from the free or insanely cheap web hosts.

There are hosting accounts that are very cheap (like $3 per month) from reputable hosting companies (companies that offer hosting as their primary business). You can do a search in this forum to find some of those companies that are run by WAHMs.

Here is one thread in particular that lists several options.

Before you buy anything though, make sure you know what software you're going to use for the site and any payment processors you're going to use if you're wanting to accept payments online.

If you're not sure, we also have several web designers and business consultants here who can help you figure out what you need.

[Doll]

I was in the exact same position last year!

Here's your solution.

Register your domain name with godaddy.com.

Head on over to this absolute gem - www.portfoliositez.com. They specifically cater to photographers, and they're WAYYYY cheaper than most places like that. You will get a SUPER professional website, with full hosting, SOOOOOO insanely simple to set up, for like $16 a month (plus I think a $20 setup fee). Peanuts for what you get. Provided you have the skills to compete in your photography, you'll attract way more customers than $16 worth due to the professionalism of your website, which is VITAL in photography.

Hope this helps!!

[shepremiers]

weebly has no ads except for one small sentence at the bottom of the page. a link to weebly. you can put your own adsense account too

[katiemfree]

I used Go Daddy too for the domain name (though the bikini-clad women on their homepage annoy me), and use Squarespace for web site design and hosting. I pay 14 bucks a month for Squarespace (there are cheaper options) but I LOVE the design software Squarespace offers. I use it for my website and blog. I use e-junkie for a shopping cart program. It's 5 dollars a month. I like that too. I think it's worth it to pay a little and end up with something really professional looking.

[shepremiers]

I just found wix.com and you can design a site for free, then copy the code onto a free domain host like weebly.

[Kappa]

I think that godaddy.com is good, they have good customer service and they are cheap. I think namecheap.com is popular for domain and web hosting. I use Wordpress themes to create my affiliate blog websites, Wordpress is truly amazing and user generated widgets and plug ins. There is a learning curve, but it can be the difference between getting 3 and 300 hits a day.