How to and costs of getting a website

[spaced]

I am thinking of designing my own website, in flash, for a business I am thinking of starting.

My knowledge on how to get it on the web and costs is very very limited. Once I have designed it, how to I get it on the net, registered and running? What are the costs involved??

Any help would be fantastic!!!

[fo3nix]

1) Don't do it in flash!! Small parts in flash, sure, but otherwise it's a terrible idea.

2) You need to buy hosting for your website (some computer has to store the site somewhere), and you also need to buy a domain name (the dotcom address).

That's basically all you need. It gets more expensive if you want to let people buy from your site. This involves setting up a system to process the payments, as well as paying for a certificate for your site, etc. It's why smaller companies tend to just use Paypal or similar.

you can buy your domain from somewhere like this...
http://www.123-reg.co.uk

and hosting is available from many places. My host is Joyent, but Dreamhosts are ok, and lots of cheaper places exist (web-mania.com for one).

once you have those two, you go into your domain control panel and change the DNS entries to point to your host's DNS servers, so that your website appears when you type in its address.

to send your files to their computer to put online, you use a ftp client such as filezilla.

[spaced]

unfortunately I only know flash. Dont knwo HTML or anything else. Why is falsh such a bad idea?

[rojash]

Flash is a bad idea because:
Not everyone can display flash.
Not everyone WANTS to display flash, and some deliberately bar it.
Not everyone wants to sit through a long download before they can view your site.
Flash can present security problems and so is baned on many corporate browsers.

You don't need to know html in order to design a web site, any more than you need to know the underlying structure of a Word document in order to type a letter.

Try typing WYSIWYG web design software into google and have a look at some of the free and paid for solutions to producing a web site with either no, or a limited, knowledge of html.

[vehelpfulguy]

It could also be argued you are better concentrating on the BUSINESS you are starting than creating a web site.

Find a small local person who will do the web site for you and you can concentrate on what is really important, the business.

[Llamatron]

I agree entirely with the previous posts.
There is little more annoying than a totally flash based website.

[spaced]

this really is fantastic advice guys. Rojash - can you recommend a free website designer??

thanks so much!

[compusoft]

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