Website & Domain Hosting

[B.S.Kumar]

Dear All,

I'm finally thinking of getting a website for my photo equipment business. I do not want a full-fledged e-commerce site, where one would simply click and buy.
It would be more like a showcase, with photos and descriptions of each item linked on the main page. The buying process itself would be after an exchange of emails, much like what I do now. It feels more personal this way, and I'd prefer to keep it the way it is.

Other than BluHost and GoDaddy, which providers are you using? Ease of updating product pages is critical, and I'd like to keep costs as low as possible.

I do have a photography website that is hopelessly outdated. I need to rebuild that site as well.

Thank you for any insights you can provide.

Kumar

[Richard Wasserman]

Take a look at Squarespace, it's easy to use with lots of templates and can be customized.

https://www.squarespace.com/

[Oren Grad]

With apologies if this is obvious, but I would distinguish between hosting and website software - you're not obliged to obtain these as a package, and obtaining them separately allows more flexibility.

As far as software for a "showcase", since you don't need transaction support, you could probably "roll your own" at zero out-of-pocket cost using a standard blogging/content management system like WordPress and one of its available free "themes". You can download the WordPress software for free to your own hosted space, or choose the free option among the hosted-blog packages offered by WordPress. Each item can be posted as a blog entry, with appropriate title and tags assigned to facilitate search. Custom-coding of WordPress-based sites can get very complicated, but it doesn't have to be for a simple concept like yours. The most basic functions are easy enough to learn and should be able to accomplish what you need.

EDIT: Of course, speaking of free resources, you could also use Blogger. I've done a lot more tinkering with WordPress so am more familiar with it, but if you don't mind your content being hosted by Google, Blogger should serve just as well.

[nolindan]

Custom-coding of WordPress-based sites can get very complicated ...

Along with the accepted rule that work expands to consume all time available to it, I believe software expands until it gets so caught up in its undies that it becomes both unmaintainable and unusable. The only respite is if it goes obsolete before it can climb to this pinnacle of software development.

This might explain my continuing use of DOS 2.11 on a 1987 Toshiba T1000 laptop.

[Oren Grad]

Along with the accepted rule that work expands to consume all time available to it, I believe software expands until it gets so caught up in its undies that it becomes both unmaintainable and unusable. The only respite is if it goes obsolete before it can climb to this pinnacle of software development.

The functions that Kumar needs are bare-bones simple. A free blog-based site implemented a decade ago using either WordPress or Blogger would still be functional and presentable today, even as schmancy pay-by-the-month commercial packages have come and gone.

[xkaes]

There are a ton of options -- everything from inexpensive, where you do the most work and have the fewest features to very expensive where you have all the bells & whistles and do the least work.

I prefer the cheap with a simple website with very few features hosted on a server that is inexpensive because I don't need tons of space -- www.subclub.org

There are tons of free website software, but they don't offer as many bells & whistles as paid software. Much depends on how comfortable your are with the underlying software -- HTML, PHP, PERL, CGI, etc. I can do that, but I prefer to keep things simple. The software I use is AOLPRESS (free & simple but great in avoiding HTML), Visual Page (one step up), Mirosoft FrontPage (another step up), and CoffeeCup (lots of bells and whistles).

And there are a ton of places that will offer hosting services. They vary in price depending on the features you want -- amount of space, email service, ease of use, customer support, etc. You should not be paying more than $100 a year.

[darr]

I have built web commerce sites since 2000, starting with AutomatedShops (defunct), then X-Cart, and for the past ten years, WordPress. One site I built in 2000 started with 7,500 products and went through all three platforms, and continues thriving today on the WordPress platform. WordPress can be simple to set up, as Oren suggested, with their free templates, which is an advantage if you want to stay simple, but you will have the ability to grow in function if you do choose. The amount of customization and plugins available for WordPress is a plus, in my opinion.

If you choose Bluehost, you can have up to five domains on one account. That means you can have your equipment and photo sites on the same server space for no additional costs. I have used Bluehost for seven years with no major problems.

If you build on WordPress and decide after a few years to move your site to another hosting company, it is not difficult with the free plugin I have used multiple times to move new clients to my server space.

The problem I have with sites like Zenfolio and Squarespace and the like is (1) not a lot of customization available under the hood as your site is on their server, and you can only do so much before you realize they will not allow you access to the code, and (2) if you decide after your site has been up and running to change to a shopping cart, they will receive a percentage of each sale.

Kumar, feel free to contact me with WordPress or Bluhost questions. I retired in May and cannot take on any more website work, but I may be able to answer any questions you may have. For all the good business you provided me with over the years, I owe you some gratitude in return.

Kind regards,
Darlene

[j.e.simmons]

I agree with WordPress.
For hosting, I've used hostingmatters.com for many years. I rarely have problems, and when I do, they quickly respond to trouble tickets.

[Tin Can]

https://www.ionos.com/

[B.S.Kumar]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

Oren and John, I think WordPress might be the way to go. Rather than a blog-style site, I'm aiming for a simple, gallery-type site.

xkaes, I will look at your suggestions also.

Richard, I have previously looked at providers like Zenfolio and SquareSpace. I think they tend to lock you in and make moving away very difficult.

nolindan, project creep is also something I'd definitely want to avoid!

Thank you Darlene. If I need any help, I'll certainly reach out.

Ionos looks interesting, so thank you for the suggestion, Tin Can.

Thanks once again. Please keep the suggestions coming!

Kumar