[scruffpot]

I need some help please

There are just so many, so many offers, so many different prices, so confusing.

I now own a company (soletrader) that produces workshops for people who suffer with mental health problems. I'm affiliated with various charities and have a counselling background

So what i'm looking for ina website design is a few screens nothing fancy, nice and simple, with a co.uk name and privacy (privacy is must)

Now the main thing is, its got to be easy to use and simple to construct a site with possibly an easy website editor. I'm not a wizz on computer website design programs. I do not have much time on my hands as I'm teaching and promoting my workshops extensively
So a simple wysiwyg builder would be great. I did have a go at this once but I spent far too much time faffing around with pictures and resizing etc..
Funds are limited to about £3 a month hosting and web name as its early days and i have no initial start up capital - however I have grants and funding for the workshops but not for the business side (long story), until i get paid in a few months. But hoping to claw something back on vat in the long run.

Sorry if this question seems a bit of a mess but I am really knackered as I have been doing a lot of promoting and meetings over the last month, and things are bearing fruit and its now time to start getting my company out there as a main service provider in this field..

any ideas?

scruff

[Brush Master]

As far as content is concerned, I recommend to use an exising package such as Wordpress, Alfresco, Drupal and many others. They all have a learning curve, but all are extremely powerful and will grow with your customers' and your comapny's demands.

As far as 'privacy' is concerned, you need to elaborate. A 'registered users only' area is easy-peasy, and all the above support this in a variety of ways. If you mean secure connections, however (https), you need a fixed IP and a server certificate - those don't seem to be within your budget.

As far as hosting providers go, my personal recommendation is dreamhost.com. Their package is massive (unlimited domains, unlimited storage, that kind of thing), and provides full Unix shell access as well as built-in support for some of the above packages. At earlier occasions, other members of this board pointed out that there are comparable British alternatives. I know of none, but there might be some.

[scruffpot]

Privacy as in blocking whois requests, due to the fact I am working as a virtual trainer - I have no fixed abode I work in various venues and charities
I work with people who suffer with mental health problems, what i want to avoid is a scenario - if one of them looked up my who is and found that my website was registered to my house address and decided to pay me a visit.

dreamhost.com seems a bit expensive and over complicated with features for what i am looking for. I will be considering about a years time looking into designing a proper website and learning wordpress etc. However at this point in time free time just to have a sandwich and a coffee is difficult.
but thank you for you help]

Just something simple reasonably cheap, simple to work with that's all I ask.

[Maxatoria]

with 123-reg you can pay 4.99 a year for domain privacy so all the details about the domain are that of a third party but its only for certain TLD's and i'mn sure every registrar will offer the same services for a fee

[Brush Master]

Most registrars offer private registration for individuals. No need for extra payment AFAIK. I am not sure about the situation for commercial domain owners (as you would be); I thought those can't be hidden? Not sure.

re/ sandwich and coffee - well, it's your decision. Personally, I'd be worried about starting out a business on a basis that won't grow and doesn't employ publishing standards. If you don't expect your business to grow, and the web site demands with it, what's the point? OK. Your call.

[flagpole]

my .co.uk is opted out of whois. my host registrar did it automatically when i set it up.

it says:

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

with .com you can not opt out per se. you have to use an anonymising service like off of what pirates do.

[BK.]

Domain privacy is not related to web hosting, but the domain. You can buy WhoisGuard when you purchase a domain name. I get it free.

[John259]

As this is for a charity (or semi-charity) I wonder if it might be a good idea to approach a local secondary school and ask if it might be a suitable project for one or more of their sixth form computer science students, on the basis that everything would be registered in your name, you would pay all costs, and as part of the deal they would have to explain every aspect of operation and maintenance to you so that you could take over after the initial setup had been completed.