UK Web Hosting advice

Can anyone give me some advice on web hosting?

I have my own website, or at least I am rebuilding it. I had a different domain name, but have changed it now - it's for me to sell my hand crafted makes.

I am with Mr Site, and although I find it quite easy to use, and good with customer support (especially now they have live chat) I find it a bit restricting on the shopping cart. I don't think the pro version is worth the extra money, but I would like to add more than one picture for each item, and also to accept card payments as well as paypal. I don't know if that is possible.

I know it will take a while to build the site up to be getting good numbers visiting but I hope that eventually I will be able to get myself up the search engines.

I used raven seo tools before, and iweb to try and get my meta tags etc right. But it was pretty labour intensive. Although I am quite a fast learner I want to be able to use a similar facility to Mr site, in that you just tell it what you want and it does it for you - I wouldn't know where to begin with a blank site.

Can anyone recommend a host for me? I'll look into any recommendations. I could stick with mr site for another year but it seems silly to start a serious build-up of the site if I am going to have to start again when it is just getting going.

Would LOVE some help!

 

Hello Victoria
I am a bit out of touch now so can't recommend a good web host . Years ago when I did run a site getting your tags and front page correct to get a placing on the search engines was very difficult , and when you are searching for something how many people go past page 2 on a Google search ?
Do you have a shop on Ebay ? This can then be backed up by your main site.

 

[size=large]Hi Victoria Plum,[/size]

[size=large]so pleased to hear the news, especially because I am so into crafts myself and I never get tired to look at some craft creations when I see some. To me it it not so much about how splendid or not so splendid or perfect the finished product looks, but the person behind the product and what he/she wants to communicate. So I so look forward to see what you are making![/size]

[size=large]About hosts, "hostgator" has got a good reputation so you could try and address them with your queries.[/size]

[size=large]About building the website, from what I hear "Wordpress" is pretty straightforward to use, although my self I use simple HTML on a notepad, just because I am a dinosaurus![/size]

[size=large]I cannot help you regarding the credit card and paypal queries, but they are separate entities from the host itself, you probably have to address each company directly, and don't think it would be a problem to accept cards along with paypal. (I will let you know more when I have any more info).By the way is it a card in particular that you accept?[/size]

[size=large]Regarding transfering sites to a different host, or to put it online for the first time, it takes minutes. It would probably cost you a little fee ($8 or so), but it is straightforward. It makes no difference if the site is big or small etc. in these regards.[/size]

[size=large]Although there is a consideration to take into account. That it will cost you the monthly fee each month and therefore, if you think of profits, it is preferable to have the site fully ready and therefore able to attract traffic before you do anything with it. All the best and keep us updated![/size]

 

A few years ago when a friend and I went into business together we took out a reseller account with Hostgator. It was very good value, and very reliable. There were a few occassions when the sites went down, but that happens from time to time with all the hosts we tried (they all claim 99.9% up time, and that may be true in the sense that the servers are always accessible, but you do sometimes get infrastructure outages with some of the services).

On the rare occassions when we had an issue, Hostgator were always quick to respond, and you didn't get the usual 3 levels of support before getting to the infrastructure technicians, they just sorted it. I think the longest outage we had lasted about an hour, and to be fair they came clean about the cause. They'd been upgrading their kit and someone had made a mistake when reconfiguring their internal routers.

The only downside is, I believe they are in India. The only reason this would be a potential issue is if you were holding sensitive data on their servers, because they don't have the same strict data protection laws as we do in Britain and Europe. That's not to say they are sloppy, companies there have their own data protection policies, its just that they are not compelled by law to make certain safeguards like we are over here.

Its a few years since I've dealt with them, so can't say what they're like now, but I know they were excellent.

 

Thank you everyone. I will look into HostGator, but my concern is the amount of 'building' they do for you.

The Mr Site thing does it all for you - and hosts it. So I don't need to worry about doing much myself apart from prettying it up!

I have looked at Freeway, as I will be using an imac to do the site, and I have watched the basic tutorial video and I think I will be able to pick it up pretty quickly. My worry is that then I will need to find a 'host' for the site and it all seems to be getting a bit complicated. I have a concern that I will be spending more time keeping the web site running efficiently, when I might have very few visitors for a while, and no time to actually make my items to sell!

Perhaps I should stick with Mr Site for the time being, and concentrate on getting myself up and running. Then when the website is getting a good hit count further down the line I can turn my attention to hosting and rebuilding the site with more freedom.


[hr]
Hmm.. I've just been looking at Mr Site pro again and an annual renewel of £99 just might be tipping the balance for me!!

If I bought a web design product like freeway, I'm not sure how I add a cart. There is one on the package I think but I don't know what facilities I need to provide to make it work. Or the host.

Confusion reigns!

 

Have you thought about setting up an ebay shop? They do all the techy stuff for you, so all you have to do is list your wares. I don't know how much it costs though, but worth looking at.

Using ebay has another major advantage. Everybody knows about ebay, so it will save you a lot of effort in promoting your site. You could still have your own custom site to explain who you are and what you do, but then link from your site to your ebay store. That way you could build it up in stages at your leisure, while still having a good online presence right from the outset.

 

Thanks, that's good advice. I am thinking of using ebay anyway - to kinda get some free publicity, as it were.

I have today bought my own domain name and have found a site called create.net which is similar to mr site but with more freedom to design freely and with more facilities. I have not ruled out an ebay shop as an additional way to sell.

Very appreciative of everyone's help - so thanks for your replies.

 

serif 'web + 4 is a great web building tool, i have just built a site and am using a company called 'simplewebhosting' and at present waiting for the site to go live this week, anyone interested go to www.catspyjamas-farrago.co.uk hopefully at the end of the week 11th Feb 2011 should be up and running...

 

Doesn't seem to be working.

 

[hr]
HI all, since posting about the web host 'simplewebhosting', i have had nothing but trouble with them and thier customer service is none existant.
i have now gone with Serif Web Hosting, and the company i got the web building tool from.
they have been fantastic, couldnt be more helpfull ...as regards the site i referred to as our new site, that is now www.catspyjamasfarrago.co.uk ....and not as was in my original post...the site is up and running, and our little business is on the up.......
Serif are great, and also follow up by ringing you every 3 months to see how your doing...i have had there software before...page plus....draw plus...and are very good