I want a website, what do I do?

[DarkEcho]

where do I start once I have decided on an available URL?

[gsilbers]

there are several ways. for the type of question you pose... it seems u dont know much about it. therefore i recommend buying an .mac account for 60 buck a year annd you get mail and server space where you can put your website.

to make a website you use the iweb application in your mac and just drag and drop stuff in there, hit upload and thats it. you have your website.

as for the name/url just got to yahoo or godaddy and buy a domain name for 9 bucks a year or less and then do whats called a "domain name foward" or masked foward. that will make that domain/url be foward to your iweb page (your.mac url will be someting long and confusing). masked foward means you dont see the name changing from your url to the .mac/iweb name. it all seems that its a normal website named .. whatever you named it.

bad side of it is that you do your pages from templates and will do a normal site and not advance stuff, still its pretty good.

you also dont have to deal with a 3rd party web programmer or u learning html code which is not that dificult but still a pain in the ass if u wanna do simple stuff. thus, iwebs' drag and drop just rocks for getting the information out there.

[Savernake]

How could someone set up a system for selling music?

[Randall]

1&1 Internet Inc. - Web Hosting Services and Domain Name Registration

[DarkEcho]

I am mostly concerned with where I should go to register my URL firstly. thanks for the help so far!!

[amba]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

where do I start once I have decided on an available URL?

Domain Names, Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Network Solutions

Use image cafe...

[A LaMere]

Godaddy.com can help you with all of that....

and will give you great prices also..

If you have a macbook pro you can use iweb to create a website and post it via "cyberduck" to the domain that you've registered at....

Just do a search on google... a website is super-easy to setup inside of the mac..

Best of luck.

[johnbohn]

Check out the Web Hosting service in my signature. It's the best service I've ever seen. SITE 5 ROCKS!

[indie]

Do it with iweb, that's what i did.

[Heartfelt]

All of the above is true but what is also true is that most musicians are migrating to myspace - music. You can say all you want to say, host some of your songs and advertise... all for FREE and... it is pigeon simple. You can get started in 10 minutes.

You can then search on CD baby and Itunes to see how to sell your songs there. Also, myspace is advertising a music selling ability.

point being, this is the simplest, it is the trend and it is free. Right now, there is a thread where legendary producer Bruce Swedien just opened his own myspace page. Check it out....

Lastly, there are many tutorials and templates that over time, you can learn to use and decorate your page... again for free.

Point is.... free?

[Mayor999]

+1 for godaddy.com!

I have all my domains through there!

[gsilbers]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

I am mostly concerned with where I should go to register my URL firstly. thanks for the help so far!!

i already said it in my above post but .. as many here do.. including me.. wont read the whole thing..


godaddy.com

yahoo.com


those and others will let u see if the name u want is taken.


you register with them and in their control panel you can select DOMAIN FOWARD >


with DOMAIN FOWARD you can select that your domain name FOWARDS your URL to your website.

you website can be hosted in any place. like .mac or any other but usually will be a generic name like .mac/yournameplusabunchshit98459845459854

and thats OK. you do a MASKED DOMAIN NAME FOWARD which will re direct the URL you bought with godaddy or any other to that other URL without anyone noticing.

[gsilbers]

from my above post...


this link below will show you what you can do with iweb and yahoo domain (URL)

http://soundminer.com

[johnwayne]

I've been studying internet marketing for a while now and here's my advice. Get a myspace. Put some promotional videos on youtube if you can do video, or any other video sites. Also get your own site. As for the hosting, I would suggest Bluehost. You get alot of space, bandwith, and more subdomains for developing other sites.

Here's the clincher. Use a wordpress blog. Google will rank you faster, you will be able to post everyday about your band. Create good content with links, a podcast, and submit your blog to every blog directory you can find. You should learn how to bookmark your posts with social media sites such as digg and delicious.

Wordpress is such a great tool with great plugins. Use flicker for photos, or maybe divshare.

There are alot of options for bands nowadays. In reality you could easily spend 4 hours a day marketing your band.

Here's my blog www.learningguitarnow.com/blog

Hope that helps. Oh yeah Wordpress is FREE and you don't need to know html.

[DarkEcho]

what is the difference between godaddy and yahoo and network solutions? Why go with one over the other?

[Heartfelt]

They are competitors and do the same thing.

your decision with them would be features vs pricing.

but again, seriously, check the myspace route.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Heartfelt

All of the above is true but what is also true is that most musicians are migrating to myspace - music.

MySpace may be a valuable or even necessary promotional tool, but it is no substitute for having your own website and domain.

having your mail come to "you@you.com" is priceless

having gigs and gigs of room to upload stuff for your clients or for yourself to to retrieve is not going to happen at myspace

and didn't we just have several threads of slutz who had their myspace summarily deleted? All your networking down the tubes in an instant with no warning?

[Heartfelt]

Excellent point. ;)

I stand corrected. <visits godaddy>

However, for someone starting out, it can be a bit too much to learn in time to be immediately constructive.

[rackdude]

godaddy is great as long as you don't want to do buying and selling of domain names. But, as I got out of that, I realized how easy it is for a nobody to create a website there for about 10 bucks. Watta deal...

[DarkEcho]

myspace will be done as well but I want a website absolutely. I want to make sure that I go with the right company so that I don't run onto issues on hgr future. Once you buy a domain through one site can you transfer to another? Incase I don't like the features of godaddy or whatever.

[gsilbers]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

what is the difference between godaddy and yahoo and network solutions? Why go with one over the other?

price and some features. they are about the same.

5-10 bucks is normal. you can upgrade to have stuff like a email account that has your domainname and other stuff like that.

[rackdude]

you can, godaddy has some features to kind of stop it though, but godaddy is the only one with really, well, features. You can transfer for a small fee or if your smart you can get your authorization code and do it for free if you decide to put it on sedo or such. But, if you don't like there features, you can just turn to their hosting, turn on frontpage and start editing. or if you get an website builder, he can using the hosting. or if you get your own dedicated ip, you can use that. godaddy has a lot of options.


Plus, godaddy gives free hosting, a free email account, and 50 free email forwarding accounts for your website, with a catchall email. The free hosting does have an add banner, which costs $5 a month I think to get rid of, unless your smart and use containers to cover it...

[Heartfelt]

I will agree that Godaddy is a great vendor to deal with. I have had zero issues over 2 years. Domain based email rulz.

[rackdude]

There issues are recorded pretty well with website professionals:

There authorization codes are hidden

You have a small fee *like a few bucks, which I hate for large folder sales* for transfers if you don't do the unlock yourself and such

You have to pay to park your domain

Their auction site, well, they take a big cut and sales take forever

Heres the deal: all this hate about godaddy from these guys, but does this matter to you?

I don't think you'll ever park, auction, or move mass amounts of domains


O yeah, you can buy domains cheaper with the gift card codes. I forget the code, but there is a code running around online to get 10% off your entire purchase. Works everytime like a charm

[peterwild]

I use CMSmadesimple. It´s very easy to install and use. Here is my two photo sites made with it.

Camera tuning - Macro2
Virtualtour Finland - Lahti

it's free, opensource
CMS Made Simple - Welcome to CMS Made Simple

[Chris Williams]

Internet marketing and web design is my day job :)

godaddy have a bad rep at ripping people off or stealing your domain name. Do a search for godaddy problems and you'll find tons.

The best bet is to go with Namecheap.com - Domain name registration, renewal and transfers - Cheap SSL Certificates - Web Hosting - Free URL Forwarding, Free e-mail forwarding and Free DNS services are included with our cheap domain registration service for your domain name and then HOSTGATOR WEB HOSTING - cPanel, Reseller, and Dedicated Website Hosting for your website hosting. Both are solid companies and you won't get ripped off.

You might see deals of domain names and or web hosting for a few bucks a month but as with everything you get what you pay for.

There are many different delivery systems to sell music online automatically from our own site including building a list of people who have bought your music and delivering them the tracks automatically. The easiest is to set up a paypal button and then redirect them to a download link once they have paid.

Any questions feel free to pm me.

[Graham Tobias]

I'm a namecheap user.. they're fantastic.. and iweb has a new feature that lets' you integrate with domain hosts very very easily so it works instead of having the same domain for every page and not being able to link people properly.

[gregohb]

Originally Posted by A LaMere

Godaddy.com can help you with all of that....

and will give you great prices also..

If you have a macbook pro you can use iweb to create a website and post it via "cyberduck" to the domain that you've registered at....

Just do a search on google... a website is super-easy to setup inside of the mac..

Best of luck.

I found Godaddy to be more expensive and full of traps to get more money out of you, than some other ones like namesecure.com which was simple and effective. godaddy has to pay for all those tv ads.

[Vandergraf]

First off, finding a reputable web host/ domain registrar, that does what they say, can be a chore. I have been through more that 8 web hosts in the past three years. Many are lieing, cheating bullsh*tters with sub-leased servers, with hundreds of domains jammed on each server. So everyone has their web host stories. Anyway, with that said . . .

I use godaddy for domain registration and bluehost.com for hosting. I tried 1&1.com, and hated their service. Support is non-existent, and they are just too big, slow, and proprietary.

Namesecure screwed-up my domains for more than a week, before I finally had to move all 60 domains to godaddy. Namesecure was entirely clueless when they lost all DNS, and never reponded until I called them with a "secret" phone number I was able to google. BTW, Namesecure is (or was) in "partnership" with Network Solutions. Nuff said.

The biggest thing with a host or registrar isn't IF their servers will go down (they ALL go down eventually). It is how well the host responds in times of emergency, and how quick they act to limit your site's down time.

Also, You might want to consider something more "turn-key" if you want to sell stuff, like broadjam.com or one of the many other new musician web sites.

To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson: "The web hosting business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. "


Good Luck.