I'm Flippin' Confused

[Emmalou]

Please someone help.
Before you read this please be aware that I do not know much about 'making' my own website.
I was in the process of buying my mr site package when a well meaning friend of my other half decided to inform me that it would be easier to get someone to personally design my site because on top of the mr site package there would be all these extras that I will need to buy.
I was under the assumption that if I type in the web address that I want to use,if it is free then follow the on-screen details to purchase and register it?
Then when I buy my mr site package I just need to transfer this address to there so I can use it but as I own it I can take it with me if I leave mr site.
But this well meaning friend then told me I would have to pay a monthly connection fee,monthly hosting fee plus all these other things.
I am totally confused,can anyone shed some light on this for me please!!!
Sorry if its a bit 'rambly' but it is sunday afternoon and I am feeling completely dippy today.

Emma

[Roseberry Crafts]

If you buy Mr Site then you can register your domain name through the package and the cost is included.

You don't have to pay for anything extra until the renewal date a year later. I don't know how it works beyond the first year because I haven't got there yet!

Hope that helps a bit.

[silvermaid]

If you haven't yet chosen a website name make sure you google the names you are interested in to check out any competition or odd sites that may be using similar names. Although it costs a bit more I got the .com and .co.uk for my name so no-one else could grab the other one, but both are linked to the same site.

Melanie

[The Soap Fairy]

Hi
must admit I am absolutely useless when it comes to the ins and outs of the computer. I have Mr Site and think it is brill - so easy to use and design your own site. As the others have said you can register a domain name through them and there is no cost. It is also free for a year and I think it only costs about £3 a month after the year. I personally would say go for Mr Site as to get someone to do this for you would probably cost £200+

Donna
xx

[Pebbles]

Hi
must admit I am absolutely useless when it comes to the ins and outs of the computer. I have Mr Site and think it is brill - so easy to use and design your own site. As the others have said you can register a domain name through them and there is no cost. It is also free for a year and I think it only costs about £3 a month after the year. I personally would say go for Mr Site as to get someone to do this for you would probably cost £200+

Donna
xx

oh, and the rest.... professionals cost loads - I paid my website designer in jewellery though

[justoneoff]

I think its best to buy your domain name from an internet domain company, i.e. 1and1.co.uk, (this is who I use) also buy your hosting at the same time, the smallest is usually acceptable, then approach a web designer and see how much they would quote for how many pages you want your website to be.

*A little tip always have an idea how many pages you want as this normally allows a lower quote from the start.

I got my website done by www.batteredbug.co.uk

It wouldn't hurt in asking them for a quote, you can quote me, as I am sure they will remember me, as I am always amending my site!!

Any questions you can PM me.

[Jangle]

I don't know about mrsite but I know you have to pay a yearly hosting fee for the domain name, I have 3 sites and I pay approx £80 per site.

[elzi]

hello,

your domain name (blah blah dot co dot whatever) and your hosting are two separate entities. you can buy them separately but it often makes sense to buy them both from the same place.

the use of "buy" is a bit silly as actually you are "renting" both.

when you pay for a domain name you are the registered owner. this means that as long as you keep re-registering (paying!) you can move it between providers (from and to mr site presumably).

when you pay for hosting you are just renting some space on a machine (a server) somewhere. you change some settings in your domain name control panel to point to that space. this is why getting them both from the same provider makes sense as they usually do all the setting up of this for you.

both domain names and hostings are usually payable every year (or 2 or 5 years) but some providers quote their price monthly just to confuse you.

website prices vary according to how complicated you would like the site to be. a basic site will start from £50 but i would say for e-commerce (selling your stuff) you're probably looking at £300 up. business link's start-up guide puts the price at more like £1500 !!!

as a freelance web developer i charge £15 an hour... but that said I've done sites much cheaper when I need/like the work!

if you are thinking about getting a professional developer to do it for you then you should consult them before you buy your hosting as they are often able to make suggestions or host the site for you at cheaper rates than the prices you could find for yourself.

hope this has helped.

[Bath-Bomb.Com]

I'd really recommend you do it yourself - it's really not as complicated as it seems - just go through it step by step and you'll be fine. Hosts that include a site builder are perfect for beginners.

The downside of getting someone else to build it is that, when you want to update it or you notice a mistake or you run out of a product you have to get the person who built it to make those alterations. They may charge you for this or, if they are busy, it can take weeks - I have a friend whose friend offered to build hers at a 'good' rate but it' a nightmare for her trying to get anything altered and, meanwhile, the site is always out of date and there are errors on it that he just never seems to fix.

Good Luck

[Autumn Faerie]

I've just bought Mr Site and it's quite straightforward, I had my hubby (computer geek) on standby in case i needed him, but to my surprise I was able to get on and do it. the hardest part, I found, was what to say & how to say it, not the techie side at all.

All the best & if you get stuck, shout, someone on here will be able to help I'm sure

[Kist Jewellery]

Hi Emma,

I have a Mr site website and can tell you that you don't have to buy anything other than the actual package which is about £30 (cheaper from amazon etc) you get your domain name included and they do your hosting so its all sorted. You also get paypal integrated already so you just need to open up a paypal account.

I am not sure if you own the domain name if you buy it elsewhere and then transfer it so I would check with Mr site first to find out otherwise you are paying twice for the domain name as its included in mr site price.

It may be that you have to pay to get your domain name back from Mr site if you leave but I haven't needed to do that so you would need to check that too.

I have renewed my Mr site this year and its about £34.

Hope this helps.

Donna

[CeeGee]

I use Mr Site as well and think it's really good value - haven't had to renew yet though. When I first started out I registered the domain name CeeGeeJewellery.co.uk through Fasthosts and had it pointing to my (now extinct) eBay shop. Once I decided to do my own site and bought the MrSite package, I registered CeeGeeJewellery.com through MrSite as I still had 18 months or so to run on the .co.uk address and it didn't cost me anything more to claim .com through MrSite. Both addresses now point to my MrSite website.

[fairynuffy]

Alternative Site Maker

Mr Site looks really good, but as an alternative (if you want to look around), I use Moonfruit. The very basic sites are free (although without domain names) and give you a chance to mess around with it. Even the basic packages, you can use your own name and your suffix will be a choice of moonfruit endings (I didn't explain that very well). The basic (free) package doesn't include ecommerce but you can upgrade at any point and you get loads of extras including ecommerce (Paypal bits). With their 'standard' package you can build 5 sites I think and get a free domain name.
Might be worth a look, although I know a lot of crafters support Mr Site.

Cx

[matt.chatterley]

oh, and the rest.... professionals cost loads - I paid my website designer in jewellery though

Definitely. In quite a good position to comment on this, since my business is web design / web development - and eCommerce is one of the core products which we are focussing on!

Mr Site offers very good value for money, for what it is - but I'd encourage anyone using this type of package to bear in mind that it is built with mass appeal in mind - therefore you may run into limitations (particularly if you have any unusual 'business rules').

Ultimately I am biased, and will always say that a custom built solution is best.

However, if you are just starting out, have a low turn-over, sell items as a part-time venture OR really want to do things for yourself yet do not have the technical skills to do so, this sort of product is good - as it makes the facilities and technologies you need very accessible.

I think everything you need (including domain name) is catered for within this single box - which is definitely good for new starters (just make sure the "domain owner" gets registered as your name or business name, so you can easily move it later).

If you need to register your own domain separately, I would personally recommend freeparking.co.uk, but there are loads of companies out there who offer this service (domain registration)!

All the best in getting your site set up!!

[beadsbydesign]

I can only echo what others have said, Mr site is an excellent package.
I run one site with an online e commerce site that costs £32 a month. I started out with that and have been far to lazy to move it. I have another site on Mr site. I took that on about a year and a half after the other site and would highly recommend it. it offers me everything I need with the inbuilt flexibility to expand and develop.
There is a lot of help available online both on mr site and also on this forum, where we are proud to have Mr site staff members as site members.
The benefits of doing the site yourself is that you can instantly update and develop the site as you require, you don't need to wait for designers to update and make changes.
I would study sites you like before you just go at it like a bull in a china shop. In the long run, a little bit of planning means less mistakes etc.
Start with good old pen and paper and map out how you want your site to work. The features you want, the layout etc.
With Mr site, you can automatically link to paypal, google analytics etc. get counters and numerous other features at the click of a button.

Can you tell that I love it?