Hello!

[kteb]

Hi everyone. My girlfriend is interested in making a website, but she doesn't know anything about web design or programming, and as big as an internet geek as I am, neither do I. I think I could come up with a pretty good web design document though, listing all the features and plans for the site, but thats the extent of my ability. So, I thought, maybe I'll look up some web design companies in my area.

So, this is what I'm thinking about doing. Hire a web design company to create and help maintain the site. But how would I go about starting to do this? One thing my girlfriend is really paranoid is about someone stealing her ideas. How could I ensure something like this wouldn't happen?

She wants to start something similar to MySpace or Facebook. She wants to turn it into a business. Maybe I should be asking some questions on a business forum, I don't know.

[rfresh]

If your gf wants to create a web site like myspace, then you will need a web designer AND a web programmer. You are talking about a huge project and it will be expensive. To help keep costs down I would recommend hosting on a Linux server so your can take advantage of the free tools such as PHP and MySQL which are robust enough to create such a site.

A project like yours will need a dedicated server to handle the site load - however - you may be able to get away with a virtual dedicated server (VDS) which costs a little less. You'll have to make the decision of going with a VDS server or Dedicated server from the start.

Get your domain name (web site name) registered as soon as possible, good names are hard to find so when you find one, register (grab) it!

Since your myspace type of web site will probably see some heavy traffic (hopefully) I would resist the temptation to sign up with a free hosting service for many reasons but the main one being you need some kind of dedicated/VDS type of box and free hosting accounts are always on shared servers. For this type of project that's the last thing you need to be running your web site on.

PM me if you have any questions.

Regardless of who you select for your domain and web hosting needs, the best of luck to you and your gf with your project - it sounds very exciting!

RalphF
Home of $4.99 Hosting
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