Website/hosting Advice Wanted

[Shinryu]

Was wondering if I could get some advice on this subject. To give a bit of a background, I've been given the pleasure of making up a website for a company I work for, but none of us basically has any knowledge of programming and what you need to launch a website. I know you need like a domain name a host and such, but other stuff beyond that we're not really knowledgeable about at all. If anyone has like helpful advice on what goes into that, it'd be much appreciated.

Ideally we'd like a host or something that has...I guess basic tools to work with or templates in website creation, kinda like how the old free websites back in the early 2000s let you drag/drop text boxes and pictures around, with no real need to know programming I guess. If there's a way to support online orders with it, even better.

Again, we're basically total noobs at this, so any and all advice is welcomed. Thanks!

 

[Fluke]

I don't know anything either (except for designs). Maybe this helps?

http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/startwebsite.shtml

 

[Cresselia~~]

If you want to be able to make websites too, you can try Wix.
It's easy to make a website with Wix, and they do host and give you url YourName.wix.com

 

[The Requiem]

I'm no good with CSS, so I went with Squarespace. They have a WYSIWYG editor that's pretty intuitive, and a lot of nice themes to pick from to start you off. Depending on the subscription package that you choose to go with, you can inject some custom css in the page to make it stand out a little bit more. I think they have a free trial offer too, and a coupon code to make things a bit cheaper is a google search away.

 

[jumpluff]

If there's a way to support online orders with it, even better.

If by online orders you mean the payment is handled online, you don't want to be handling online transactions with just any form. I don't know what's easy to suggest for online transactions tbh, as I have literally never thought about it, but this sounds like a very very easy way to go wrong if you do not think about security. I am guessing your company is pretty small, since they won't pay for an actual web developer, but it's not something you should ever ignore. I would honestly recommend using something like WordPress to create your website (you don't even have to install WordPress manually with most shared hosting services, and most of these services have a tied-in domain registrar). Firstly because it's easy to use even if you don't understand any of the backend stuff and secondly because it's pretty extensible and there's a large developer community for it, so it's very easy to seek help and find solutions for things you want to do, and you can probably hook your ecommerce system into it. A cursory search reveals there are many ecommerce plugins for WordPress actually, although I can't attest to any of them.

I can't really suggest stuff for the selling end because I don't know shit about running a business online and it also depends on what you're selling (products vs. services, wholesale vs. retail, etc.)