[A Demon Llama!]

Hey,

I have decided to start up a website for myself. Nothing business related, but just to promote myself and work and have it growing alongside my own abilities and the stuff I create. Has anyone had any experience doing something like that? Two of my main concerns would be the type of hosting I would need and where and what to look for and the other is the domain name. I am looking at a .ca domain but am uncertain if I should go with my name ( first initial and last name) or something really simple ( initial, number, initial). Both of these are available. My name is somewhat unusual so would be hard for people to remember/spell out and I feel like option 2 would be easier and I have a logo that would fit with it in mind. My only problem is that the .com version of that is registered to some mortgage company and I just don't want to be in a situation where I'm being sued or I have to take it down. No idea how this stuff works. Also planning to build the website by myself, whatever that entails.

I'm new to this so if anyone has anything interesting to point out or know of things I should be looking at that would be great.

Thanks.

[Gnaw]

A Demon Llama!, on 01 September 2014 - 12:20 AM, said:

Hey,

I have decided to start up a website for myself. Nothing business related, but just to promote myself and work and have it growing alongside my own abilities and the stuff I create. Has anyone had any experience doing something like that? Two of my main concerns would be the type of hosting I would need and where and what to look for and the other is the domain name. I am looking at a .ca domain but am uncertain if I should go with my name ( first initial and last name) or something really simple ( initial, number, initial). Both of these are available. My name is somewhat unusual so would be hard for people to remember/spell out and I feel like option 2 would be easier and I have a logo that would fit with it in mind. My only problem is that the .com version of that is registered to some mortgage company and I just don't want to be in a situation where I'm being sued or I have to take it down. No idea how this stuff works. Also planning to build the website by myself, whatever that entails.

I'm new to this so if anyone has anything interesting to point out or know of things I should be looking at that would be great.

Thanks.

Registration:

I use a French company for domain registration. http://www.gandi.net/ I've not had a problem for the 15 years I've had a name registered with them. I chose them because back then the only US based registrar was Network Solutions and they were claiming that the domain name was their property and you were just leasing it, like a telephone number. Gandi flatly stated that as far as they were concerned the name was property and you owned it. They were also much cheaper.

There are a couple hundred top level generic domain extensions now (gandi sells 242). You're no longer stuck with the com, net, org + country code.


Name considerations:

• Shorter is better. Especially if you're going to use the email boxes. (more on that later.)
• I would recommend staying with the com or org extension due to their familiarity. It's going to take a long time for people to get used to the concept of .sports, .lawyer, .pro, etc
• Spell it out loud.
  • How easy is it for the person on the other end of the phone to understand?
  • Don't use numbers. "The number 4 not f-o-u-r." That was my biggest mistake I think.

Hosting:

I use powweb. They're 'meh'. I've not had any downtime but it irks me that they're constantly offering half rates to new customers but won't cut me any slack for being with them for 15 years. I plan on switching my hosting to gandi when I get around to buying a new domain; they're slightly cheaper and they include a database which powweb charged a one time $25.

All the hosting companies have website design software that will make setting up the website pretty simple. As long as you don't plan on credit card processing, pretty much any of them will work.

Email addresses:

My domain was for a computer services company that never grew out of the dorm room. But I've kept the name for the email addresses. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to set them up but once done they're well worth the effort. Unlimited aliases simply rock and they massively reduce spam if you use them.

• verizonbill@
• creditcard@
• powercompany@
• amazon@
• newegg@
• etc

I'm fairly certain that most companies have an automated filter that clears those types of names from the "we're selling these addresses" lists. The only one that I've ever had to call and complain was verizon. "Sir how do you know we sold your email address?" "Well, ma'am, look at your computer screen and read my address to me." "Verizonbill at 4-g-e-e... oh. I see." I got a couple of months bill refunded and never got any more spam at that email address other than the ones I was already getting.

Edit: Storming here so I hit post just so I didn't lose all that to a power blink.

The email aliases are why I've been considering a new domain. Mostly due to the length of my domain name, I've gotten out of the habit of setting up aliases using it and simply using gmail and its filters. Bad mistake as it turns out. Google may not be evil but they'll sell your email address to anybody and their targeted advertising is getting creepy.

This post has been edited by Gnaw: 01 September 2014 - 01:09 AM

[Gnaw]

Some of the new domain extensions that might work for you

.graphics
Description: the registry has not yet determined the specifics around the purpose of the .graphics extension. $21.17


.photo
Description: .photo is an extension dedicated to professional photographers $21.17

.photography
Description: The .photography extension is dedicated to the world of photography.

.photos
Description: .PHOTOS is a generic Top-Level-Domain (gTLD)

.pictures
Description: .pictures is a generic extension $13.64

Gandi's information page on the new extensions: https://www.gandi.ne.../new-extensions


Edit:
And ICANN's list of live extensions. http://newgtlds.ican...legated-strings

Apparently .art is in dispute. Looks like there are 8 companies trying to get the rights to it.

This post has been edited by Gnaw: 01 September 2014 - 01:52 AM

[A Demon Llama!]

Hey thanks. I was looking at getting it through namecheap but will check out gandi. Also dont really care for number in the name esp 4 or 2 but I dont have many choices while keeping it short and relevant. These aliases you are mentioning you are using for what? Is it for the set up or personal use? I was also wondering if I will get bombarded by spam if I link my existing gmail account to it.

[A Demon Llama!]

I'm in Canada so I want .ca since it looks legit.

[Gnaw]

A Demon Llama!, on 01 September 2014 - 01:49 AM, said:

Hey thanks. I was looking at getting it through namecheap but will check out gandi. Also dont really care for number in the name esp 4 or 2 but I dont have many choices while keeping it short and relevant. These aliases you are mentioning you are using for what? Is it for the set up or personal use? I was also wondering if I will get bombarded by spam if I link my existing gmail account to it.

A Demon Llama!, on 01 September 2014 - 01:51 AM, said:

I'm in Canada so I want .ca since it looks legit.

Yeah, the .ca is good for that. And people are used to it.

At powweb I can have 10 (I think) email boxes. Unlimited aliases. An alias address, which is a true email address, is forwarded to the box of my choice. That's done internally on their website.

Screenshot of my mail setup at powweb:

Spoiler

 Screen Shot 2014-08-31 at 9.58.44 PM.png (21.57K)
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the "arendt" is a mailbox. All the others are aliases. The aliases are forwarded to whichever mailbox I set them to. (Again, all done internally on powweb's server.) A bunch of the mafia alts have email addresses on my domain simply for password resets so we don't have to bother Silencer when/if a password gets lost. Silencer actually has a mailbox on my server which I really doubt he even knows.

Spoiler

 Screen Shot 2014-08-31 at 10.06.59 PM.png (46.92K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Gnaw]

The powweb control panel:

Spoiler

 Screen Shot 2014-08-31 at 9.57.14 PM.png (114.21K)
Number of downloads: 0

It's simple to use and you can see they have 3 or 4 different pieces of software to help you set up your site. Any of the hosting companies will have similar panels.

[A Demon Llama!]

Cool. I'm going to need to read up on a lot of stuff probably. I also have an idea how I want the website to work and be laid out so hopefully il be able to do that stuff myself. If anything I'll learn something new.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

If you're not into coding up the site yourself, check out Squarespace.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 01 September 2014 - 02:52 AM

[Xae]

Gandi is a good registrar. Other options are iwantmyname and GoDaddy, just steer clear from the latter's hosting. Your TLD ought be either .com or a local one, so .ca is fine. If you're promoting yourself, your domain name should be your full name or an obvious abbreviation of it. Lowercase letters only (a-z). No numbers, dashes or underscores. Your domain can quite safely be up to 20 characters in length. You don't have to worry about using a domain name similar to someone else's. There are no laws against that and you can't be sued for it. The exception to this is domain squatting.

For hosting, it depends on how much you're willing to do yourself. On one end, you can get a $10/month box from Linode which will give you arguably the highest performing server possible for that low a price but you'll have to install and manage everything yourself. On the other end, you've got managed hosting providers which will do all that for you but for a significantly higher price and lower performance.

Choosing a managed hosting provider has a lot to do with which CMS you want to run. The safest option is WordPress and it's what I would quite strongly recommend. Stay away from Joomla and Drupal. Check out Media Temple or Copyblogger. WP Engine is also an option.

[Gnaw]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 01 September 2014 - 02:51 AM, said:

If you're not into coding up the site yourself, check out Squarespace.

They are pretty. I wonder if setting one up is as easy as they're claiming. And I could see an artist outgrowing the 20 page limit rather quickly. Depends upon how they are defining a 'gallery'. If a gallery can contain multiple images then that's not so bad.

Demon, I'd say they're worth looking at.

[Aptorian]

Squarespace advertises on a lot of the podcasts I listen to, like Roosterteeth, Giant Bomb, Idle Thumbs, etc. Of what I hear, Squarespace is very user friendly and a good place to start if you're new to the whole concept of building a website.

[A Demon Llama!]

Yeah I will check it out. Have to see what type of limitations it has.

[Gredfallan Ale]

Xae, on 01 September 2014 - 08:20 AM, said:

Stay away from Joomla

Why? I think Joomla is pretty decent and easy to set-up. I would prefer it over WordPress, as, in the long run, it still offers more as a CMS.

[A Demon Llama!]

I've decided to just go with my name. Probably better for promoting myself. Maybe I will put some rough drafts of the logo and get some feedback to see if its decent. Also Gnaw, didn't you want to ask something about a domain name?

[Xae]

Gredfallan Ale, on 02 September 2014 - 06:47 PM, said:

Why? I think Joomla is pretty decent and easy to set-up. I would prefer it over WordPress, as, in the long run, it still offers more as a CMS.

To put it bluntly, Joomla has lost to better software, and I wouldn't be surprised if it went into disuse. It's been losing market share for years and it doesn't have any advantages over WordPress. As such, I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. WordPress is more user-friendly, has a much larger community and it's spearheaded by Automattic.

[Malaclypse]

What then is going to happen with the homepage and all the work I put into the image-rotation?

Because I did that using Joomla.

This post has been edited by Malaclypse: 05 September 2014 - 07:23 PM

[Xae]

The landing site doesn't have to change.

[Gnaw]

Bump for Hetan