Bob and All,
This is a topic of interest to me.  I've been thinking about setting up a
website for updating our trip as opposed to sending emails to all the friends
and family.  I'm not sure where to start.  How do you find an inexpensive
host?  Do they do the website layout?  Who updates? And on and on and on!!
Regards,
Randy Pickelmann
hard aground in Clearwater, FL
MORNING STAR
currently in Solomon's, MD

First of all, I'm cheap, er, thrifty and this is what I have used/done
over the years.

#1) You'll need to select your own domain/name -- one that is not used.
I would not recommend using a free site because, well, I like
controlling what's mine. I don't want to build something that later can
be taken from me/have the name changed, etc.

So, you want to find a name. For that:
http://www.godaddy.com
This is the least expensive/been around forever registrar. A Registrar
is the company you pay to record your name.
GoDaddy charges $9 a year -- I bought my name for ten years -- think it
was $70 or so...
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES have your web host (below) register your
name, even if it is "free" because (deep breath) think about the hassle
you will have (not "might" -- WILL have) when your company decides to
raise the price and they OWN YOUR NAME because you paid them to buy it
for you?!?!!!!)

Sidebar Suggestion: become a dot-com... folks who know you will

automatically write yourname.com
GoDaddy has a domain search feature so you can see if the name you want
is taken. Use it.

Once you find one you want, follow their instructions and buy the name
through them.

STOP. Inhale deeply.
You only want GoDaddy to be your registrar -- the other services they
offer are expensive. More accurately, you can find better prices than
those GoDaddy offers.

Now, you've bought your name. You'll need a host for your site. That's
the company you pay so that you have a place to upload your pages. There
are many wonderful, always dependable companies that charge a fortune. I
have gone with cheap -- okay, thrifty. HOWEVER, I know that on occasion
my site will disappear for a few minutes or even hours. I can deal with
that as the price is less than $30 for a year. "Dependable" is about $25
a month. I don't need dependable at $300 a year.

So, you've got to find a decent, inexpensive host.
Go here: (be prepared for pop-ups, pop-unders, etc.)
http://www.findmyhosting.com/

You'll want the smallest site you can find -- seriously, 100 megs is
plenty. More than plenty to start with... until you discover how much
you actually need, go small, go cheap and go now! (sound familiar?)

In the selection section, (*center row) these would be my choices:
USA (domestic company)
Super Cheap under price (less than $5 a month)
Any Platform is okay (all will work, but if you select Windows your
prices are going to be higher)
Any Amount is okay for all the rest of the choices

This time I'm using http://www.webhostingbuzz.com but each time I've
switched hosts my costs have decreased. I'm not loyal except to the
price. Because I have my entire site on my hard-drive, changing hosts is
easy.
That said, no one but me knows I've had multiple hosts. To you (the
folks who might visit my website) I'm in the same place I've always been
(Blatant Site Plug: http://www.janice142.com/) but the reality is my
site has been hosted by a multitude of companies.

For the site itself, I use FrontPage. I wanted WYSIWYG (what you see is
what you get) and now, after so long I understand FP. Any webpage
creation program would suffice -- it's experience more than anything so
pick one and practice.

Good luck, etc.
[If you use FrontPage and need a bit of guidance with the program, feel
free to IM me (janice142) -- if I ignore you, I'm not really here. Yahoo
IM has an interesting quirk -- if you request a contact and the person
clicks the space bar your request is denied. I'm not an expert at this
stuff, but am a fairly proficient user.]

I highly recommend www.pair.com.  The offer one stop shopping for
domain registration and web hosting.  They are competent, honest and
will be in business for the long haul.  They now host over 190,000
web sites. The basic account is six bucks a month.  You may find
things slightly cheaper, but you won't find a hosting company that is better.

Best,

Steve

Steve Dubnoff
1966 Willard Pilothouse
www.mvnereid.com
sdubnoff@circlesys.com