...start my own website?

[RuthG]

I am not technical at all, though I have someone near who can asisst when necessary. I need a website that I can build myself (know the basics for that) but dont know what would be the best domain name to have. I dont mean the name of the site, but whether I need .org, .net, .co.uk, .info, etc. I also need to know what is the best hosting package to have, bearing in mind, I would like a chatroom function, a forum, email capability and things like mySQL, PHP etc.

The website is not for selling stuff in the first instance, but could develop that way in the future. It therefore is not a business site and is really for me to talk about my favourite subject(s) and perhaps develop an income from.

Can anyone with some techy knowledge help me out here, as I have searched on the net for help, but have got more confused the more I have read.

ETA: I am looking at Hostgator for hosting, but dont know if it gives all the functionality I will need (mainly because I dont know what functionality I will need!)

[pelmetman]

Blimey...............You seem to know more than me and I have a web business

[Susie]

I seem to remember joomla perhaps being helpful and also having chatroom and forum add-on things. However I am now scraping so far at the limits of my knowledge I am going a bit cross-eyed so I will just wish you good luck, Ruth ;-).

[Sky]

How about this one http://www.proboards.com/

[RuthG]

How about this one http://www.proboards.com/

Thanks. I already have the forum; now need the website to add it to.

[RuthG]

Anyone use Page Breeze? If so, what do you think of it?

[MKG]

I'd be careful with that one, Ruth. PageBreeze, although having a free version, is certainly not free if you are thinking of commercial use - as it appears you may be in the future.

It might be worth your while having a look at Amaya, Joomla, or KompoZer, all of them open source - therefore free - applications.

I have no great interest in website production so I have no idea if they're of any use to you. But certainly worth a look, I would have thought.

Mike

[Durgan]

WordPress is almost as easy as most email programs to manipulate.

I use Wordpress for my garden journal and have a web host for about seven dollars a month. I HTML all my pictures and keep at the site. It is almost effortless to keep up to date. An external link to blog (Journal) pictures keeps the blog neat and tidy. For handling the pictures I use Breezebrowser. I have over 30,000 pictures on the site. Suffices mean nothing, since they can be almost anything with recent changes to the internet organization. Use existing software, which is cheap, effective and easy to use, with proper selection. I also have a shot URL program, which reduces clutter, since URL's are often long.

The learning curve is short, but some application is necessary.

Journal example: http://durgan.org/2011/

[RuthG]

Thanks, Mike.

[John Headstrong]

oh, I have just spotted this thread.

yes, wordpress, it is very easy to use and install on shared hosting, the main site here uses it and so do many of my other customers. #
In fact I can provide you a place to try out wordpress if you want.