Setting Up a Website - Advice/Assistance Needed

[John Galt]

I'm looking to set up a website for the sale of our home. I'm willing to buy a domain name or use a free service. I want to be able to upload pictures easily and have flexibility in formatting. I also want to be able to do all of this ASAP. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do it. Any advice or assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

[John Galt]

Bump.

And one related, additional question. Does anyone know of any geocities type free websites that 1) allow direct linking and 2) don't have long direct link names? We are planning to list the website link in a newspaper ad, so we don't want it to be too unweildly. Also, if anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[wade moore]

Is there a reason you don't want to use something like http://www.forsalebyowner.com/ ?? I know it costs some money, but for someone who has not done websites before, it seems this might be better in the long run?

[PackerFanatic]

Yeah, I agree with wade...creating your own website just for the sale of your home is a hefty task and probably wouldn't even be worth it in the long run. There aren't too many sites out there that have short URLs that you would be able to use without costing you money. Check out some of the online home selling sites, there are a lot out there and they keep growing with what you can do on them.

[John Galt]

We are probably going to use fsbo.com too, but we aren't sure. We just wanted a website with a little more flexibility for our newspaper ads. Also, a simple domain name (like 1234ourstreet.com seemed like a good idea).

I didn't think it would be too hard to do. Then I realized I have no idea how to do it. The problem with the fsbo sites is that in our area, they aren't used by many people. Most of them only have a couple listings for our vicinity. So, all things being equal, I thought it might be better to make a site from scratch. I was even considering doing something as basic as a blog. I wanted to see if anyone had an other easy suggestions. While I haven't done websites before, I'm pretty computer literate, have made a blog before, and used to know some HTML back in the infancy of the internet. If it is too complicated though, I will probably just end up paying one of the random sites.

[PackerFanatic]

Hey, a blog might not be a bad idea and would be free and easy to customize.

[Franklinnoble]

GoDaddy.com has reasonably priced domain registration and hosting plans available.

If you have something like FrontPage to build the actual site with, that would probably be the quickest and easiest option to create a truly custom website.

[Antmeister]

Sine you want to do this ASAP, have you considered using a service such as Flickr or Blogger. I don't see a need to purchase a domain name unless you plan to use it long after the house is sold.

With Flickr you can upload the images and give short description of the photos. If that is not what you had in mind, you can use Blogger to write in something similar to a blog in which you can write a more detailed description of the house. However I don't know what if you can do that or not with Blogger since I don't know what the license agreement says. But check it out, you might come up with a creative way of writing a blog and selling your home at the same time.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/start

[stevew]

I think you can buy a domain for 8 bucks, and have it forward to something on blogger.com. Would be dirt cheap.

[Antmeister]

I think you can buy a domain for 8 bucks, and have it forward to something on blogger.com. Would be dirt cheap.

Now that is a nice idea. Then after the sale, you can use the domain name for you own personal use. And it also elimates having to use a long screen name. I think stevew's idea may be your best bet.

[John Galt]

I think stevew's suggestion is a good one. I was investigating it, but I was a little confused on one point. This site (http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_use_a_custom_domain_with_a_blogger_account.html) seems to explain the process for linking a blog to a domain name. The one part that confused me was this: "To configure your blogger account to work with a specific domain name, you need to have a Web hosting account with that domain name already set up, an account that allows you to access your files via regular FTP." If I bought a domain name via godaddy.com and set up a blog at blogspot.com, would I have "an account that allows you to access files via regular FTP?" Thanks again to everyone. FOFC is always great for getting answers to questions like mine.

[Antmeister]

I think stevew's suggestion is a good one. I was investigating it, but I was a little confused on one point. This site (http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_use_a_custom_domain_with_a_blogger_account.html) seems to explain the process for linking a blog to a domain name. The one part that confused me was this: "To configure your blogger account to work with a specific domain name, you need to have a Web hosting account with that domain name already set up, an account that allows you to access your files via regular FTP." If I bought a domain name via godaddy.com and set up a blog at blogspot.com, would I have "an account that allows you to access files via regular FTP?" Thanks again to everyone. FOFC is always great for getting answers to questions like mine.
I think you have this backwards. You don't want your blog to connect to an existing website, which seems to be what this is talking about. You want your domain name forwarded to your blogger account. You would do this through GoDaddy's control panel.

[Franklinnoble]

John... PM me if you need details... but I basically set up my GoDaddy account for http://www.sportsdigs.com to forward to http://www.digitalstadium.org

You could do the same thing... you'd have a blogger address (like, http://blogger.com/johngalt) and then you set your GoDaddy preference to forward "123MainStreet.com" to "http://blogger.com/johngalt"

[John Galt]

I may have it backwards. I guess I'm confused as to the purpose of what that site is suggesting then. And so, you are saying GoDaddy's control panel will allow me to use the content of a blogspot page? So, I just need to register my domain name, start a blog, and then link the two? In other words, I don't need any hosting, I just pay ~$8 for a domain name, and I design a blog. Is that right? Thanks.

[John Galt]

Thanks FN, I posted before I saw your response. It looks like you answered my question.

[stevew]

I may have it backwards. I guess I'm confused as to the purpose of what that site is suggesting then. And so, you are saying GoDaddy's control panel will allow me to use the content of a blogspot page? So, I just need to register my domain name, start a blog, and then link the two? In other words, I don't need any hosting, I just pay ~$8 for a domain name, and I design a blog. Is that right? Thanks.


Yes.