UKC

So I am trying to create a website for a company but I don't really know where to start. I have looked at the build your own sites that are offered and not really found what I am looking for. I have a domain name that I would like and a casual search tells me that it is available. Do I need to pay someone for this domain name? who owns it now?
Is there anyone on here with experience of setting up websites that could help?

In reply to chris687:

Look on nominet to see if the domain is available, assuming uk domain name

You then purchase the domain name, via a registrar, for a period of years from 2 years to 10 years. For 2 years cost is about £7. You then need to buy hosting to store your website pages for your website. Hosting will be around £100 for 2 years. If you buy hosting that supports Php, then you can install Wordpress, joomla, dupral etc. (in increasing order of complexity) to help build and manage your website. If you go for a Linux web hosting package, you'll get Php and MySQL (database) included usually. Linux hosting also often offers one click installs for the above packages.

Have fun.

In reply to chris687:

When I typed "How do I set up a website?" into google this is the first thing returned: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jul/22/self-employment-set-up-website

Seems on first glance to be very much what you're looking for.

In reply to chris687:

Get a professional to do it and get it done right. You wouldn't build your own extension would you?

In reply to chris687:

If a whois lookup on a domain name says it's available, then there are lots of Registrars that you can use to register the name.

I have 4 domains on 123-reg - a few quid each per year, but about £70 per year for a hosting package.

And all 4 sites are "hosted" on that on hosting package.

You may want lots more email addresses for your domain than a basic hosting package costs.

There will also be monthly bandwidth limits, at that price.

Also, it depends on what this company want to do with their website.

If it's just a flat, informational site, with a few pages, then the above is probably fine.


The key is to find your customer's requirement.

Do they want a Contact Management System (CMS) or a Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) ?

If so, those can be quite costly, require a different sort of hosting, and programmers to write code and set up databases.

In reply to Dominion:

Thanks everyone for the advice so far, I will have to work my way through some of the technical points but I think I have the gist of it. I intend to get someone competent to do it rather than have a go myself. I want a site similar to UKC in so far as it will have a bit of media in the form of short films etc. and that it will have forums. I also need it to be able to host advertisements throughout the site. I'm guessing this will cost me?