Website for Beads

[Katie Gee]

I am wanting to finally get some business cards printed, but I don't want to list eBay and Etsy and Artfire and any other place I might be listing and/or thinking about listing my beads for sale. I'm looking to have a website that I can have a gallery of my best beads and links to all the places I am selling my beads. I'm wanting to be able to own the domain name for this website. I'm thinking if I do this, I can just list my website on the business card and then my info will always be up to date.

Can anyone recommend a good site for me to do this that is nice, but also fairly inexpensive (or even free) that would be easy for me to maintain myself (with little "website design" knowledge)?? Or am I dreaming on this one?

[parisgal]

In my mind there's two parts to your answer. There's the domain name and the web hosting. The domain name is what you type in - like "thisismysite.com". The web hosting is a service and it's where your documents are stored, and the two don't need to be connected. Think of the domain name as your telephone number and the web hosting as Verizon or AT&T.

My recommendation would be to sign up for you domain name yourself because you know you own it then, and if you ever have problems with your web host it will be easier to move if you have have problems with your host. I think Godaddy.com is one of the cheapest, but I'm sure you'll get several suggestions. Sometimes if a web host registers your domain, they register it under their name, which means it's theirs.

The for web hosting - you can get a host that has online software and templates and do everything that way. Other people will have lots more suggestions than I will.

I use Dreamweaver software to make page layouts, then upload them. With dreamweaver you don't need to know much, because you can do the layout graphically. then the program creates the code for you. But I do end up learning a bit each time because I go back and forth from the graphic layout to the code.

[SteveWright]

You might consider a Wordpress blog as a web site. That is what my second site is. I have a free tutorial on that site that will take you through the process.

If you want a HTML based site, there are loads of free templates you can modify, and most hosting sites offer some form of web site builder.

Steve

[AvenueBeads]

You can never go wrong with having your own website. When people see a real website on a business card rather than something like "yourname.hostname.com" it's just more professional looking.

[Katie Gee]

Thanks you two for the advice. I don't know anything about this stuff, so every bit of info I can get is great.

Also, does anyone know anything about register.com - good or bad??

[SteveWright]

I don't know anything about register.com, but I would recommend that you find a host first. Many hosts provide discounts or free domains with sign-up.

Steve