Stumped!

[caseykt2008]

Ok - I already had my domain name registered w/ GoDaddy.com before buying the SAH. I decided to go w/ one of their website design/hosting packages and am now struggling with their Website Tonight site building program.

Has anyone used this before and if so, with what degree of sucess? I envision a site that is easy to add new articles, etc... and as it is - I can't figure out how to do much of anything with this program.

Should I scrap this approach and try something else?

Thanks!

[Griff Grumbein]

Hello Caseykt2008, and Welcome to the forum!

I personally am not familiar with Tonight. I suppose my first questions to you would be:

How much time have you spent with that program, are any tutorials provided for it, and if so, have you studied them?

Most applications have some degree of learning curve, even some of those percieved to be simple to use. Have you given yourself an honest length of time to learn how it works?

At what level of web page building / coding experience are you?

If the ideas and concepts of building a web site are new to you, then you must learn some basics on how they work. There are lots of free resources to learn how to build sites / learn HTML, etc.

As far as an easily edited and maintained sites go, what you're describing can easily be accomplished with a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla! to name a couple.

Both are free, have plenty of resources and helpful communities supporting them. They also have a plethora of plug-ins and extensions that help customize your site and expedite tasks.

I guess I'm asking where you are now, and where you want to go. The answers can help us better determine how we can help you.

Hope this helps!

Griff

[caseykt2008]

Hi Griff! Thanks for the welcome and the reply.

Your post and questions were absolutely dead-on.

I am getting too easily frustrated with the nuances of the program. (Not as intuitive as I'd like and seems to be fairly sluggish). The tutorials are so-so; not very in-depth. My level of experience with coding/html - non-existent. (Therein may lie the problem!)

However, I have to say the customer service has been good. So far, I have been able to get to a live and easy to understand rep who can walk me thru my current dilemma.

As long as my cell phone offers unlimited minutes for me to burn up their customer service line - it should work itself out!

[Griff Grumbein]

Hi Caseykt2008!

If you are getting good support, I'd recommend using those unlimited minutes for all they're worth! Are they helping you learn how HTML / PHP work, or helping you learn their "Tonight" software?

The reason I ask is that some "provided" programs like that can have characteristics in the way they work that are not easily compatible with more commonly / popularly used programs. I'm not saying Tonight is one, just offering a word of caution, (ask how many people have had an easy time with Front Page and you'll know what I mean. . .).

Either way, if it is helping you to learn HTML and other basic coding skills, then it is worth every penny / minute. Just don't cut yourself short on allowing what you learn to sink in. Everyone has their own best learning pace and you want to make sure you get your foundations right in and from the beginning to avoid massive issues in the future.

Most people get frustrated with trying to learn something new that doesn't come naturally to them, heck, I'm a case in point! This stuff was TOTALLY foreign to me a couple years ago, and while I still have much to learn, when I look back over it all I'm truly amazed at what I actually HAVE learned! (Kudos to all who have gone before me and shared, and to the hundreds that have helped me directly, I couldn't be here without ya!)

Just relax, be persistant AND consistant, and one day (probably a lot sooner than you think) your gonna snap your fingers, that 20 million candlepower light is gonna come on, and you'll find yourself laughing "I get it now!". (Ain't life and learning GRAND!?!)

Stick with it and watch that learning curve straighten out into the Autobahn!

DRIVE ON!

Griff

[Mark]

Hi Caseykt2008!
I love to read your input, because I’m going your way right now, have a lot to learn - but isn't it great that forums like this is available? - I can tell you that I have decided to buy two books about HTML, because I feel that it is very important to learn just the basics of this. But I will keep an eye on your input, cause I'm sure I can learn something from your struggle
All the best of luck to you in this poses
Mark.

[caseykt2008]

Thanks to both for your replies!

Here's the latest - I asked a friend of mine (graphic designer who's put together numerous sites) to give me a hand w/ my site and ... he called me a few hours later and said - "that is the absolute most difficult program I've ever used - way too cumbersome and complicated. I've never used a more difficult to navigate system." He ran into the same problems I did - sluggishness w/ loading, an image feature that pops up that doesn't offer a way to get out of it - the back button doesn't work; and there is no 'exit' button - you have to close out the program and log back in (and start over on what you were working on). Very, very 'non-intuitive' is the best way to describe it.

Anyway - it made me feel better that it wasn't 'just me' - so now I'm going to go read the part of the forum about site building and start over!

(PS for their part - godaddy.com was very gracious and helpful with my request for a refund. They processed it without any reservations and did a good job on the customer service aspects of the situation).

[Lowell Rieger]

I think you'd be far better off NOT to use GoDaddy hosting, as the control panel leaves much to be desired and meaningful website stats cost extra. Their uptime is mediocre at best. I have considerable experience as a reseller of their products (no longer do) so these are not just opinions.

For beginners many hosting company packages are overkill.

NVu or Kompozer are open source html editors that work quite well. Google them to find. I use NVu for almost all of my sales pages.

Filezilla is a free FTP program. I use it daily.

As an alternative get hosting that allows setting up a WordPress blog on your own domain. You can start generating content right away and change the ugly default profile as you go along.

Let us know how you are doing.

Lowell

[Griff Grumbein]

Hi Caseykt2008,

I'll second Lowell's comments and expand on one:

[Lowell Rieger]

Grif,

Yes research is necessary. One person's favorite host is often another's nightmare. The problem is, for a new person - this is the newbie corner - much of the hype on the prospective web host's sales page is just that.

Most hosting companies are selling storage space, bandwidth, features, in other words all the bells and whistles.

I've found that reliability and support response trump these features, but it is not easy to find this information online.

Interestingly, Dr. Andy of EZSEONews recently polled his many readers as to what they considered important. The results were, in order:

1. Reliabilty
2. Support and Cost (tie)
3. Features

Reliability is measurable, but don't believe the sales pitch for the web host. Support has to be experienced to be evaluated. Cost is obvious, other than downtime due to lack of reliability and poor support. Features are pretty much the same everywhere. Most go unused.

A good source for web host metrics (the ones that really matter) is

http://realmetrics.com

Their uptime testing methods are far superior to the every 15 minutes cycle most uptime testers use. Even so, I've found that even they miss some downtime events. It's impossible to monitor every server that a big web host might stick your site onto.

So what's a newbie to do? Find a reliable host with good support that lets you start small and grow. Preferably that host will have a monthly or quarterly payment plan.

Paying for a year or two will save you money but what if you need to or even just want to part company with your host?

So many things to think about....

Lowell

[Griff Grumbein]

Well spoken, Lowell!

I agree whole heartedly 100%, I only wanted to bring awareness.

When I started, it was with a free host that offered cPanel. I am now on a paid host with cPanel. When I started, I didn't know what a control panel was much less what all the stuff included in cPanel did, but as I learned and grew, I came to be thankful that my original host had it.

To this day I still don't use much of the myriad of stuff that's available to me through it, but I also know that when I get to that level where I need it, it's reassuring to know it's already there.

Host reliability and active live support are number 1 with a capital 1, the rest is icing on the cake (and I like icing, too, heh)!

So many things to think about indeed!

Griff

[jpatriar]

I've been using GoDaddy as a host. But hardly use anything on it, not even the stats. I use an FTP program and and html editor. It's really hard to find stuff on their site.

One positive thing about GoDaddy is their tech support is very good. Always answered my email inquiries throughly, no matter how many questions I asked.

I am considering Hostgator next, anyone have feedback on them?


thanks

[Jim Hutchinson]