I need some advice on where to go for setting up my first website?

[Waggy]

I plan to sell collectable teddy bears and know very little about on line marketing. Any advice on what to do and where to go would be appreciated on a budget.

[Barbara]

Hostgator is a very good site and very reasonable.

[Bubbi]

Luckily for you we are designing websites in my IT class at the moment so I can help you.
Here are some do's and donts:

-dont do something like this http://cmdshiftdesign.com/ilovesmekitty/
- leave some White space, don't cram things in
- do something people are generally interested in - not about your pet hamster
- have a colour scheme but don't fall into the red and blue trap!!!
- don't have too many gifs and animated pictures because people won't know where to look!
-clearly organising things is a must
- try to promote your website by posting on Facebook or twitter


GOOD LUCK

[Mark M]

The first thing you need to do before anything else is to get yourself a domain name. A domain name is the name you want to give to your website. For example, the domain name of the website you're reading is "thesitewizard.com". To get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. Getting a name does not get you a website or anything like that. It's just a name. It's sort of like registering a business name in the brick-and-mortar world; having that business name does not mean that you also have the shop premises to go with the name.
A web host is basically a company that has many computers connected to the Internet. When you place your web pages on their computers, everyone in the world will be able to connect to it and view them. You will need to sign up for an account with a web host so that your website has a home. If getting a domain name is analogous to getting a business name in the brick-and-mortar world, getting a web hosting account is analogous to renting office or shop premises for your business.
Once you have settled your domain name and web host, the next step is to design the web site itself. In this article, I will assume that you will be doing this yourself. If you are hiring a web designer to do it for you, you can probably skip this step, since that person will handle it on your behalf.
If you prefer to use free software, you can find a complete tutorial on using KompoZer, a free WYSIWYG web editor, in the article How to Design and Publish Your Website with KompoZer. Like my Dreamweaver tutorial, this one also guides you through the process of creating a website that has a home page, an about page, a site map, a links page and a feedback form. It also shows you some of the main features of the KompoZer software so that you can go on improving and updating your website on your own.