beginners guide
OK, you want a website, but you're not sure where to start. Don't worry! A lot of people get in touch with us feeling like that. This page is here to help you understand the basics of what's involved.
You'll need three things to start your site. Firstly, you'll need a domain name e.g. abisti.com. You can buy domain names from us here simply by contacting us. Prices can vary depending on which suffix you have e.g. .com is £30 per year with Abisti, whilst .co.uk works out at £10 per year.
Secondly, you'll need to rent some space on the internet for your website to live. This is called web hosting. Again just contact us and we can sort this out for you immediately. With Abisti, this costs £120 per year.
Finally, you'll need to get your site built for you. Prices can vary depending on what you want - a simple 4 or 5 page site will be cheaper than a 300-page ecommerce site complete with the ability to take credit card payments, for instance. Again, just contact us and we can discuss your needs and advise you as to the best cost-effective site for your requirements. We look forward to hearing from you!
Should you wish to learn more about doing it yourself, we also offer face-to-face one-to-one tutoring at £50 per hour.
A GUIDE TO WHAT ALL THOSE TERMS ACTUALLY MEAN
Web Hosting is a service that provides a space on the World Wide Web for your site to sit. In effect, you're renting a bit of space. For more details on web hosting, see our web hosting page.
...are the names you'll see in the address bar when you visit a site. The domain name of this site is either abisti.co.uk or abisti.com, depending on where you've arrived from. For your own site, you'll need to buy a name, which you can do either via us or with another company. Names can be We recommend that you use the same company (hopefully us!) to rent both your name and the webspace. But if you already own a name, this is no problem. Click here for more details.
Is the building of the site itself: designing it, putting all the text and pictures on etc, then uploading it to the world wide web.
Or CMS as they are increasingly becoming known refer to websites that you can update yourself without needing any knowledge of web design.
Short for Electronic Commerce, Ecommerce generally describes any transactions taking place over the Internet. An Ecommerce site is generally understood to mean a site where people can buy your product(s) via your website using secure credit card facilities. You can read more about ecommerce site design on the ecommerce page.