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jille
07-07-2010, 07:15 PM
I was wondering if I buy Mr Site and build a website can i then use it with my existing website host justhost which I've already paid for 2 years
thanks
Jill

lesley
07-07-2010, 07:18 PM
I don't think so. Isn't the whole point that Mr Site is the site host?

jille
07-07-2010, 07:38 PM
right, I thought it was site building software
jill

Di Sandland
07-07-2010, 08:13 PM
No, Jill, when you buy Mr Site you get a year's hosting included in the cost. They work together I'm afraid.

jille
08-07-2010, 06:43 AM
Thanks Di, i wish I'd gone with them but it's too late.
Is there an easy to use software package for writing a website, then can I upload it to my host. i don't like what i've done using the template. I tried downloading the template and adding/ deleting things but it didn't work. I'll have to try again. Everything i do on the comp is by trial and error but it takes so long to get there
Jill

Di Sandland
08-07-2010, 07:57 AM
I can't answer that one Jill - I used to use Front Page but it's a little out of favour nowadays because servers need to have special extensions (I don't know what it means either!). Also it was very expensive. I understand what you mean tho - the templates my webhost (Fasthosts) offers are pretty dire and not easily personalised. I'm currently rebranding myself using my own name and I'm searching for something cheap and easy too - if you find it first do let me know!

jille
08-07-2010, 09:22 AM
i wonder if this is any good, I need WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG Web Builder (http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/index.html)

agent_44
08-07-2010, 11:07 AM
You could always see if your web host will forward requests to the domain you have to a Mr Site site. if you have already got mydomain.co.uk you coudl set up mydomain.net with Mr Site, then both URLs woudl go to your Mr Site website.

Di Sandland
08-07-2010, 02:03 PM
Lucinda, that sounds awfully complicated to moi! And I don't have Mr Site...

jille
08-07-2010, 03:29 PM
Well I've spent the whole day faffing with RV site builder and I've managed to create a better template with my own banner. I can't tell you how many times i resized and uploaded the banner, it could still be a bit wider but it's a better looking site now, still needs work tho.
If I go with the name' Fired Art Jewellery' for my jewellery site i can keep the theme going. How does Fired Art Jewellery sound ??? I didn't get a reply last time so I assume it's not gone down very well. My thinking is if it's not been kiln fired it's been torched
jill

andrew_berry
08-07-2010, 03:43 PM
Most hosting companies offer templates that you can alter the colour, banner, navigation and such that are on their server. They are usually free so dont expect too much from them.

Or if you want to go down the ecommerce route then there are free ecommerce software out there. Try Cube or The osCommerce These will offer you a massive amount of templates that are freely available on the web. If you started with one of these, you can set up your site with the option to sell items at a later date.

Andrew

Di Sandland
08-07-2010, 05:38 PM
Jill, I like fired art jewellery!

jille
08-07-2010, 07:08 PM
thanks Di ,i think i will go with it as i can't think of anything better

agent_44
08-07-2010, 07:24 PM
Lucinda, that sounds awfully complicated to moi! And I don't have Mr Site...

Not at all, since your hosting co would do the work ;) You would just ask them to forward requests to the domain you have with them to the one you set up with Mr Site (or any domain at all, doesn't have to be Mr Site!), then it would work automatically :)

orestruck
08-07-2010, 09:19 PM
Have a look at webeden.co.uk. You can use their web package and your own hosting if you want (but I don't think it saves you any money). I am using them to build an ecommerce website and it's going ok at the moment (she says, cautiously....!)

Sarah

wheely
08-07-2010, 09:43 PM
I was wondering if I buy Mr Site and build a website can i then use it with my existing website host justhost which I've already paid for 2 years
thanks
Jill

Just Host has a site builder included, doesn't it?

jille
09-07-2010, 06:59 AM
yes there are several site builders which come with justhost, I was using a standard template but thought it looked boring. I spent most of yesterday playing around making my own banner and a customised layout. Then I must of clicked on something because a newsletter and log in box appeared below the buttons, i can't find a way of removing them so I've sent them a ticket. I'm not sure if they know as they are sending me some wierd questions.
I do all mt computing by trial and error, I'm determined
jill

Di Sandland
09-07-2010, 02:36 PM
the justhost templates are really very boring and I've also found them a pain to personalise. I suppose you can't complain when the come as 'free' but who wants to look like everybody else?

jille
09-07-2010, 02:51 PM
I know what you mean about being a pain. I spent hours making a banner in Gimp then uploading it, the sizes they give don't go right across the top of the screen so I just kept going with trial and error, it could still do with being wider but until i get some site content it will have to do. i've kept the rest of the site plain white and boring but if I ever learn how to make a fantastic banner it would be easy to transform the look
I just bought firedartjewellery.co.uk because I want to build it before I forget what I did with the other sites

Joe
10-07-2010, 02:14 PM
It's ever so easy to replace your old web front page with something that redirects to your new website (see How to redirect (http://www.instant-web-site-tools.com/html-redirect.html)).

But...

If someone bookmarks your new website then you switch back to your old one, that's a customer lost. Generally, it's best to suffer a bit of pain (ok, sometimes more than a bit) to get a website at the address you'd like to stick with and to own everything about that yourself.

Mr Site does support you using your old domain - it's their number 1 most frequently asked question: FAQ (http://www.mrsite.com/faqs.asp)! There's a little bit of jiggery-pokery with your current host to swap the hosting over, but Mr Site will explain all the domain transfer stuff if you sign up.

Lots of people like building websites with Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/). Although originally designed for Blogs, it does a nice job of other things too and there are LOTS of templates!

Di Sandland
10-07-2010, 03:32 PM
I love wordpress and use it a lot in my working life (I'm a web writer) but don't you have to have the paid wordpress to be able to use the templates? I know their back-end stuff is second-to-none and I use it very successfully for SEO stuff (two of the sites I work on are consistently number 1 on google - and yes I am gloating but only a bit). But if I'm already tied into a contract with Fasthost there is no way I can justify then buying extra capability with wordpress. Although I understand writing for the web, I have no idea about the mechanics of site building so any advice and information would be more than welcome.

Joe
10-07-2010, 04:12 PM
Ooo an expert web writer - I'll be after you for advice very soon (css is not my friend :(|)!! Probably you know most of this, but I bet there are readers who don't, so forgive me...

Wordpress is free as are most of the templates (well over 1000 I think) BUT there are a collection of what they call "commercial" plugins and themes. Frankly, the few of these I've looked at are absolutely no better than the free ones, they just come with support so you can get them customised.

Wordpress is just something you load onto your website. Provided your host supports the things that Wordpress needs, you can put it on any host...

It's best if you think of Wordpress (and similar things) as a complicated webpage that someone else has written for you and on that complicated webpage are some secret forms that only you can see that change the way everyone else sees your page. You download it from Wordpress, change the passwords and things and then load it onto your own website :Y:.

But the thing I like best about Wordpress is that the tutorials for getting it going are brilliantly written. There are things you have to do when putting up a new site and they are complicated :'( but Wordpress holds your hand and doesn't assume you know (or want to know) what it's all about!

As for contracts and tie-ins... fasthost.com certainly support all you'd need to run Wordpress on your existing site (you just need PHP scripting and MySql), almost all of them do! You can try it out by setting up a blog page on your existing website and when you like it, just point the main entry-point at Wordpress... there are tutorials on Wordpress that tell you what to do step-by-step in English (well, American).

Now, about my css question...:)

Di Sandland
10-07-2010, 04:23 PM
oh, cheers Jo. And you can ask anytime about the writing side of things - cept for now cos I've had enough and I'm logging out. PM me

Joe
10-07-2010, 04:42 PM
Ooo, a quick trawl about the interweb suggests that this e-Commerce plugin/ (http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/) is considered the top of the tree for making shops on Wordpress... I'll give it a go and report back (in a different thread, sorry for hi-jacking again:">).

jille
11-07-2010, 06:03 AM
Justhost offers wordpress as one of the free site builders. i did a wp blog for a little while but I didn't like the blogroll thing down the side, can you get rid of it? I might have a play and see what i can do with it
thanks

Joe
11-07-2010, 11:30 AM
Yes, all those items in the side bars are configurable - though we might need to beg Di's help with any style sheet mods... :)

I'm not advertising Wordpress btw. I think it's a really good package for people who want to get stuff up on the web without getting all tech-y. I hand edit php, html and sql for my sites because I'm odd enough to think six hours spent trying to get all the words to line up is a good use of my time! :(|

Di Sandland
11-07-2010, 11:47 AM
I think, Joe, you might have given me more credit than I'm due. I am a content writer - so I can get you to the top of google with your content but somebody else does all the style thingies! Any content help you want, no probs whatsoever.

Di Sandland
11-07-2010, 11:48 AM
Justhost offers wordpress as one of the free site builders.

Duh! I hadn't even noticed that! Shows how long I've been sitting on my hands over this. I bought the disandland URL a few months ago now but have done nowt with it. I want to use it for my silver work, which not many people have seen yet to be honest.

Joe
11-07-2010, 12:37 PM
:( another promising css guru hides under the coverlet! I'm going to be stuck using frames forever!

agent_44
11-07-2010, 12:41 PM
Di, Wordpress is free open source software - you can install it on your own hosting or use theirs, and there are thousands of third party templates out there you can use (many also free).

Di Sandland
11-07-2010, 01:19 PM
I've just had a look and found the wordpress instructions on fasthost. Will play tomorrow.

jille
11-07-2010, 04:59 PM
Now I'm lost, what's CSS?

Di Sandland
11-07-2010, 05:19 PM
it's short for 'cascading style sheets.' All I really know about it is that it allows you to make global changes to a site without having to go through line by line or heading by heading. So, whereas HTML (all those brackety things that you put around text to tell it what to do) is about text, CSS is about how the web page(s) look.

That is my knowledge summed up :)

jille
12-07-2010, 06:58 AM
I'm impressed Di, and you certainly know more than me.