crowcity

If you’re looking for a web host then I can heartily recommend Supanames. They’re based in the UK. I’ve got four domains hosted with them, including an e-commerce site, on various different packages. Their support is great. I’ve always had a response within an few hours, and usually sooner. The support crew are both helpful and knowledgeable, which is always a bonus.

The cheapest package is the Linux Value, which is currently £13.99 a year, including a UK domain (you can either buy one or transfer one in). You get 150MB of webspace and unlimited data transfer, so you won’t be stuck with any unwanted bandwidth charges. This is a pretty rare feature. Downside is you can’t host music and video files, but you can host flash, so you could always put your songs and videos into flash files. You also don’t get any stats on this package, but you can always use Google analytics instead. You get one free email account for your domain. You also get one free MySQL database, great for installing Wordpress to build and manage the site, or a forum for example. This is a great option for a personal site, and I run crowcity and another site on this.

Next up is the Value Pro, which has the same file restrictions but does give you 500MB of space and visitor statistics. You still get unrestricted bandwidth and a free MySQL database. You also get 100 email accounts for your domain, so this is well suited for a small business. I run an e-commerce site on this. Currently £23.99 a year.

Then there’s the Mid, which has a stack more webspace - 1.5GB. You can host music and videos on this, but there is a maximum bandwidth (data transfer) of 10GB a month. If you use this up (I never have, despite having plenty of music and video files) they don’t sting you with extra charges. You can either buy more bandwidth or just leave your site down until the next month. You get 500 email accounts and 5 MySQL databases. I run machinima.org.uk on this. Currently £39.99 a year.

There are other packages as well, but I’ve only recommended the ones I have personal experience of.

I’ve been running Wordpress (web content management system) on crowcity for about a week now, and I’m extremely impressed with it. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to any level of user looking to build and/or manage a website. It’s incredibly easy to install, configure and use.

Customisation
Configuring the look of the site is a breeze, either by:

• choosing a theme, downloading it, uploading it to your webspace and selecting it (easy), or
• creating your own using css (some knowledge required), or
• a combination of the two.

Adding text
Adding pages and posts is also very simple and works perfectly. You can either:

• use the word processor (no need to know the coding) to type or copy and paste from elsewhere, or
• do it all with code in the code editor if you prefer. The code editor will also validate your code automatically.

Posts/Pages
It makes a lot more sense to add posts rather than pages most of the time. The most recent post goes to the top of the home page, which has the added benefit of your home page being updated constantly. They are also accessible through the site search, or by browsing the different category archives. You can set up any categories you wish to. And there’s built-in RSS support, so anyone can subscribe and track what you’ve added. Search engines (if you choose to be submitted to them) pick up the new posts and pages incredibly quickly (a few days), helping to drive traffic to your site.

Adding Graphics, MP3 and Video

• You can just add images to your post or page as you go, and Wordpress will upload and display them for you.
• I use the Audio Player plug-in to stream MP3s.
• And for video streaming, you can just embed something from Youtube, although you will need to change the code slightly and maybe get rid of the white border. Sorted.

Plug-ins
Plug-ins are extras that people have built and made available for anyone to use. I’ve added a few plug-ins:

• Audio Player - streams MP3s through a little flash interface
• Counterize - analyses your traffic
• Search Pages - includes pages as well as posts in the site search
• Google Analytics plug-in - analyses your traffic. You also have to set up an account at Google Analytics website

Do it!
If you’re looking for an easy way to create and/or manage your website then give it a go. If I can be of any help, please feel free to contact me. Truly anyone can have a decent site they can keep updated themselves now.