Dear All,
Some further questions about personal websites. Many of you have already done it all so answers are out there somewhere.
Links. Should links be made to open in a separate window so that the thread to your website is not interrupted? Are these simple one-way links to another website which can be put in without anyone’s knowledge or consent or, are they two-way links to/from another website put in with the knowledge and consent of the owner of the other website? What do links achieve?
Domain Names. Where does one go to get and register a domain name? How easy is it and, how much does it cost? Is it yours for life?
Hosting. Where does one go to get hosting for a personal website? How easy is it and, how much does it cost to set up and to run? What features should one be looking for from a hosting service?
Alan
Building your own website
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
Hi Alan,
How's the winter project coming along?
1 (links) - personally, i would always open external links in another window. This gives them the opportunity to quickly return to your site and continue browsing.
you don't need anyones permission to add an outgoing link to your site, though if you do, you should attempt to obtain a reciprocal link back to your site from them (though if it's bbc.co.uk or similar, it isn't always that easy!).
reciprocal links are the best way of getting your site listed by search engines (a link back from a site already listed with google, will ensure that your site is indexed on the next update) also a good amount of links pointing to your site will work wonders for its positioning (best to stick with a 'theme' though and avoid the requests to link sites that are not relevant).
2 (Domain names) - easy and cheap to set up. You 'lease' a name for a set period (1, 2, 5 years, etc). Upon expiry, you will have the first option to renew.
Personally i always use www.123-reg.co.uk, .co.uk names are 9p and 39p to renew (plus the standard 2.50 UK registration fee).
3 (hosting) - 123-reg advertise hosting for GBP 1.59 per month, but never having used them, i can't comment. There are a few here on the forum who offer hosting, including myself, maybe i should post this on the b2b section, but i can offer hosting and support from GBP 35 pa. Shop around though, see what's available and work out exactly what you need. With the weak dollar, hosting in the US is extremely cheap at the moment.
Regarding 'features', many hosting companies advertise 'unlimited' webspace (you probably wont need more than 20meg) and 20 gig monthly transfer (a personal rental site will be lucky to need more than 250 meg), so don't be enticed by the 'hype'
Things i'd look for ......
pop3 mailbox
mail forwarding option
unix hosting
php
mySQL
free CQI scripts
99.9% uptime
HTH
How's the winter project coming along?
1 (links) - personally, i would always open external links in another window. This gives them the opportunity to quickly return to your site and continue browsing.
you don't need anyones permission to add an outgoing link to your site, though if you do, you should attempt to obtain a reciprocal link back to your site from them (though if it's bbc.co.uk or similar, it isn't always that easy!).
reciprocal links are the best way of getting your site listed by search engines (a link back from a site already listed with google, will ensure that your site is indexed on the next update) also a good amount of links pointing to your site will work wonders for its positioning (best to stick with a 'theme' though and avoid the requests to link sites that are not relevant).
2 (Domain names) - easy and cheap to set up. You 'lease' a name for a set period (1, 2, 5 years, etc). Upon expiry, you will have the first option to renew.
Personally i always use www.123-reg.co.uk, .co.uk names are 9p and 39p to renew (plus the standard 2.50 UK registration fee).
3 (hosting) - 123-reg advertise hosting for GBP 1.59 per month, but never having used them, i can't comment. There are a few here on the forum who offer hosting, including myself, maybe i should post this on the b2b section, but i can offer hosting and support from GBP 35 pa. Shop around though, see what's available and work out exactly what you need. With the weak dollar, hosting in the US is extremely cheap at the moment.
Regarding 'features', many hosting companies advertise 'unlimited' webspace (you probably wont need more than 20meg) and 20 gig monthly transfer (a personal rental site will be lucky to need more than 250 meg), so don't be enticed by the 'hype'
Things i'd look for ......
pop3 mailbox
mail forwarding option
unix hosting
php
mySQL
free CQI scripts
99.9% uptime
HTH
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Tony,
The winter project isn't coming along at all well. I'm still coming to terms with Dreamweaver, when I can find the time which is not all that often. Also, I am trying to give myself a route map of what I need to do, and how to do it, from the beginning to the end of the whole project. Thus the never ending questions.
If I understand you correctly it is only links which point to one's website which have any relevance when it comes to ratings. To get such a link do you just get onto the webmaster for the site in question?
It sounds as thought domain name registration can be a relatively cheap thing to do.
So, web hosting is a matter of taking your pick amongst many chioces.
One of the features I had in mind is an audit of activity, e.g. how many individual hits, etc. Otherwise, how do some people know so much about how many times their websites have been hit, opened and read?
Alan
The winter project isn't coming along at all well. I'm still coming to terms with Dreamweaver, when I can find the time which is not all that often. Also, I am trying to give myself a route map of what I need to do, and how to do it, from the beginning to the end of the whole project. Thus the never ending questions.
If I understand you correctly it is only links which point to one's website which have any relevance when it comes to ratings. To get such a link do you just get onto the webmaster for the site in question?
It sounds as thought domain name registration can be a relatively cheap thing to do.
So, web hosting is a matter of taking your pick amongst many chioces.
One of the features I had in mind is an audit of activity, e.g. how many individual hits, etc. Otherwise, how do some people know so much about how many times their websites have been hit, opened and read?
Alan
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
Hi Alan,
Dreamweaver is a very powerful tool, with a myriad of options (as i'm sure you've noticed!) ... once you learn which ones are 'key' things start to fall into place, and then, once the basics are sorted you'll be able to take advantage of the more powerful aspects offered. Though i admit, I probably still don't use the program any where near its 'maximum potential' after nearly 5 years use!
Links - no one knows for sure how the search engines 'score' a website. It is considered however that any link 'out' to a quality site gives your site 'better standing' (lets call that a +1), a link returned from the site or 'reciprocal link' is better (a +3 maybe). If your site and links page is well presented there is no reason why anyone would not wish to return a link (as long as the site is 'in keeping' with the theme) as it is a 'win win' situation. So it's often just a case of placing a link, sending an email to say you've placed a link to the webmasters site (include a direct link to your links page as proof) and asking them if they would be so kind as to recipricate. You'll either get a 'yes' or no reply at all, as many sites are not maintained as people lose interest.
Hosting - yes, offered by 10's of thousands of companies, most being resellers of space provided by larger companies. If you don't already buy it, there is a magazine that lists all the UK hosting companies in the back section, together with vital information that will make 'sifting through' much easier it's Internet Magazine www.internet-magazine.com
Most, if not all companies provide some sort of 'statistics' package included in their hosting, here's the one from donhost http://www.donhost.co.uk/products/paneldemo/index.html not all encompassing, but you can access the raw logs and use a program like 'webtrends' to give highly accurate reports if this is important.
Dreamweaver is a very powerful tool, with a myriad of options (as i'm sure you've noticed!) ... once you learn which ones are 'key' things start to fall into place, and then, once the basics are sorted you'll be able to take advantage of the more powerful aspects offered. Though i admit, I probably still don't use the program any where near its 'maximum potential' after nearly 5 years use!
Links - no one knows for sure how the search engines 'score' a website. It is considered however that any link 'out' to a quality site gives your site 'better standing' (lets call that a +1), a link returned from the site or 'reciprocal link' is better (a +3 maybe). If your site and links page is well presented there is no reason why anyone would not wish to return a link (as long as the site is 'in keeping' with the theme) as it is a 'win win' situation. So it's often just a case of placing a link, sending an email to say you've placed a link to the webmasters site (include a direct link to your links page as proof) and asking them if they would be so kind as to recipricate. You'll either get a 'yes' or no reply at all, as many sites are not maintained as people lose interest.
Hosting - yes, offered by 10's of thousands of companies, most being resellers of space provided by larger companies. If you don't already buy it, there is a magazine that lists all the UK hosting companies in the back section, together with vital information that will make 'sifting through' much easier it's Internet Magazine www.internet-magazine.com
Most, if not all companies provide some sort of 'statistics' package included in their hosting, here's the one from donhost http://www.donhost.co.uk/products/paneldemo/index.html not all encompassing, but you can access the raw logs and use a program like 'webtrends' to give highly accurate reports if this is important.
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Tony,
Many thanks for all of the information and advice. I am most grateful.
By the way, I have downloaded a piece of freeware which enables one to save to a local drive all or part of any website. I got it from http://www.httrack.com .
I have tried it on my own webpages and it worked like a charm. Using Dreamweaver, one can then look at all of the code, and the methods used, in complete detail.
Alan
Many thanks for all of the information and advice. I am most grateful.
By the way, I have downloaded a piece of freeware which enables one to save to a local drive all or part of any website. I got it from http://www.httrack.com .
I have tried it on my own webpages and it worked like a charm. Using Dreamweaver, one can then look at all of the code, and the methods used, in complete detail.
Alan
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
oh dear ....... with the release of software like this, all i can say is that i'm so glad i don't have to go 'pitching' for web design business anymore!
This can only drive the price of web design down even further than it is now.
I am kind of 'split' however, part of me thinks it can only be manufactured by 'satan' himself ...... then again, i have downloaded it for potential use
My only hope is that people will use it as a 'learning aid' and not to blatently host 'copycat' websites.
This can only drive the price of web design down even further than it is now.
I am kind of 'split' however, part of me thinks it can only be manufactured by 'satan' himself ...... then again, i have downloaded it for potential use
My only hope is that people will use it as a 'learning aid' and not to blatently host 'copycat' websites.
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Tony,
I couldn't agree with you more about the dangers of blatant piracy possible with this kind of software.
On the other hand, if used by the amateur for honest and innocent purposes it is just another tool to be used in the learning process of developing one's own personal website.
After all, DIY will always exist and so will the professionals.
Let me know what you think of it once you have given it a try.
Alan
I couldn't agree with you more about the dangers of blatant piracy possible with this kind of software.
On the other hand, if used by the amateur for honest and innocent purposes it is just another tool to be used in the learning process of developing one's own personal website.
After all, DIY will always exist and so will the professionals.
Let me know what you think of it once you have given it a try.
Alan
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
Just downloaded and viewed a few of my own sites .... and i've got to say it works a 'treat'! Truly an excellent 'find' Alan
It works really well at creating a 'snapshot' of the site that is downloaded as 'static html' files, together with all the necessary Style Sheets and graphics.
One thing it does do, is to convert any PHP or ASP pages to HTML, that means you wouldn't be able to view the links to password protected databases and the like ..... which was an horrific thought that crossed my mind as I was waiting for one of my sites to download!
Certainly though, it will enable people to 'borrow' design tips and colour schemes from sites for use on their own ...... meaning people will produce 'good looking' sites much faster, definitely a 'good' thing.
It works really well at creating a 'snapshot' of the site that is downloaded as 'static html' files, together with all the necessary Style Sheets and graphics.
One thing it does do, is to convert any PHP or ASP pages to HTML, that means you wouldn't be able to view the links to password protected databases and the like ..... which was an horrific thought that crossed my mind as I was waiting for one of my sites to download!
Certainly though, it will enable people to 'borrow' design tips and colour schemes from sites for use on their own ...... meaning people will produce 'good looking' sites much faster, definitely a 'good' thing.
Tony,
I wouldn't worry too much -- these pieces of software have been around for a very, very long time. Back in the days when I was learning plain ol' HTML for the first time, I used one to help me learn snippets of code for a while. And that was back in the days when that rotating silver "e" as a sign for "e-mail" was very impressive, clearly a long time ago!
Would it even be possible for the software to give you raw asp and php pages? That is, aren't those translated on the server when they're called, rather than by the browser? In any case it's a good thing the software doesn't return that -- one of the reasons I translated my page to php in the first place was that there were some things about my site that I didn't want anyone to be able to copy! My stylesheet, I believe, is saved in a location that can't be directly accessed by the user. So if that were accessed by this program that would be very interesting!
Alan,
if you just google "domain registration," there are tons and tons of places that will do it for you. Network Solutions is one that I have used (for my .com ; I don't know anything about .co.uk). However, a lot of hosting services will register a domain name for you as part of your sign-up package with them, though it may still cost the extra US$15/year or so, which is what a .com costs to register.
In general, picking a good, available domain name is far more difficult than registering it!
There are so many hosting services out there that it's really important to do your research on that one. I use PowWeb, which has all of the features Tony mentioned above (unix hosting, PHP/MySQL, e-mail forwarding, 99+% uptime, etc.) and costs about US$95 per year, including free use of MySQL, cgi, and a choice between two webstats packages. If you don't like their webstats packages, you do have access to the raw log files, so you can always install your own.
I've also seen Paolo recommend ipowerweb in other posts... I assume the link to that is www.ipowerweb.com -- but I'm not sure. I believe that costs about the same as PowWeb.
Oh yes, to answer your other question, I always open external links in a new window, but actually I don't have very many links out at all. I don't want to start a "Links" page, so they're mostly embedded in my Frequently Asked Questions page.
I wouldn't worry too much -- these pieces of software have been around for a very, very long time. Back in the days when I was learning plain ol' HTML for the first time, I used one to help me learn snippets of code for a while. And that was back in the days when that rotating silver "e" as a sign for "e-mail" was very impressive, clearly a long time ago!
Would it even be possible for the software to give you raw asp and php pages? That is, aren't those translated on the server when they're called, rather than by the browser? In any case it's a good thing the software doesn't return that -- one of the reasons I translated my page to php in the first place was that there were some things about my site that I didn't want anyone to be able to copy! My stylesheet, I believe, is saved in a location that can't be directly accessed by the user. So if that were accessed by this program that would be very interesting!
Alan,
if you just google "domain registration," there are tons and tons of places that will do it for you. Network Solutions is one that I have used (for my .com ; I don't know anything about .co.uk). However, a lot of hosting services will register a domain name for you as part of your sign-up package with them, though it may still cost the extra US$15/year or so, which is what a .com costs to register.
In general, picking a good, available domain name is far more difficult than registering it!
There are so many hosting services out there that it's really important to do your research on that one. I use PowWeb, which has all of the features Tony mentioned above (unix hosting, PHP/MySQL, e-mail forwarding, 99+% uptime, etc.) and costs about US$95 per year, including free use of MySQL, cgi, and a choice between two webstats packages. If you don't like their webstats packages, you do have access to the raw log files, so you can always install your own.
I've also seen Paolo recommend ipowerweb in other posts... I assume the link to that is www.ipowerweb.com -- but I'm not sure. I believe that costs about the same as PowWeb.
Oh yes, to answer your other question, I always open external links in a new window, but actually I don't have very many links out at all. I don't want to start a "Links" page, so they're mostly embedded in my Frequently Asked Questions page.
Brooke
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
You're right of course .... just as i said, whilst i was still in 'awe' of the software and watching all my php pages be sucked into it, my brain switched off and panic kicked inWould it even be possible for the software to give you raw asp and php pages? That is, aren't those translated on the server when they're called, rather than by the browser?
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Alan,
Is it possible that you have fallen behind on your Lay My Hat newsletter reading?
Luckily I have posted two recent articles on how rental owners should get links and why:
Part 1
Part 2
I would make your links open in a new window, for the reason you state.
I'd recommend paying for hosting and domain name registration in one package, to save you the mild inconvenience of transferring the domain from wherever you bought it to your host.
The host I use, ipowerweb.com, is $7.95 per month but if you pay for the whole year - $95 - you get the domain thrown in. The stats are good on this host, and I am sure there are many offering the same, like the one Brooke recommended. I'll email you screengrabs of my stats report page to show you what you get.
I am using that httrack to download laymyhat.com, so far it has taken well over an hour - I'm not sure I understand what it does but I guess I will find out soon.
Is it possible that you have fallen behind on your Lay My Hat newsletter reading?
Luckily I have posted two recent articles on how rental owners should get links and why:
Part 1
Part 2
I would make your links open in a new window, for the reason you state.
I'd recommend paying for hosting and domain name registration in one package, to save you the mild inconvenience of transferring the domain from wherever you bought it to your host.
The host I use, ipowerweb.com, is $7.95 per month but if you pay for the whole year - $95 - you get the domain thrown in. The stats are good on this host, and I am sure there are many offering the same, like the one Brooke recommended. I'll email you screengrabs of my stats report page to show you what you get.
I am using that httrack to download laymyhat.com, so far it has taken well over an hour - I'm not sure I understand what it does but I guess I will find out soon.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Paolo,
My apologies. You are right! I am never properly up-to-date with my reading which means I ask questions when they have already been answered. Many thanks for the screengrabs - very comprehensive statistical reports.
I think the answer is that with httrack you have to be very careful about your parameters. If you are not and there are lots of links in the website you are capturing you could theroretically finish up downloading the whole of the web. A "normal" webpage, as opposed to a large commercial website, will download extremely quickly.
If you target my webpage at http://www.vacationfrance.com/vf/vf2100_en.html you will find it takes only a few seconds. Admittedly it is short and simple. On the other hand, if you target the main site at http://www.vacationfrance.com/ I think you will find it takes much longer.
Happy Piracy.
Alan
My apologies. You are right! I am never properly up-to-date with my reading which means I ask questions when they have already been answered. Many thanks for the screengrabs - very comprehensive statistical reports.
I think the answer is that with httrack you have to be very careful about your parameters. If you are not and there are lots of links in the website you are capturing you could theroretically finish up downloading the whole of the web. A "normal" webpage, as opposed to a large commercial website, will download extremely quickly.
If you target my webpage at http://www.vacationfrance.com/vf/vf2100_en.html you will find it takes only a few seconds. Admittedly it is short and simple. On the other hand, if you target the main site at http://www.vacationfrance.com/ I think you will find it takes much longer.
Happy Piracy.
Alan
By the way, if anyone would like to look at my web stats they're available from www.experienceburgundy.com/webstats -- someday maybe I'll password-protect these, but I haven't yet.
The only thing that isn't working right now is the whois function; I get a list of IP addresses that visited my site, but it isn't telling me what countries those IPs are from.
-Brooke
The only thing that isn't working right now is the whois function; I get a list of IP addresses that visited my site, but it isn't telling me what countries those IPs are from.
-Brooke
Brooke