Sticky's too old?

[newomij]

I am a novice wanting to create my own website for a small business. I have been reading through the Stickys searching for recommendations when I noticed that most of the posts were five years old. Are those recommendations still reasonable in 2010? Are there new options that are more user freindly to novices? What are the opinions, now, of those that provided opinions in 2005?

[Force Flow]

Yeah, they're somewhat dated. Thanks for bringing that up.

If you're looking for hosting recommendations, we've been recommending surpasshosting for a while now.

If you're asking about something else, can you elaborate?

[newomij]

Really, I am looking for the easy to use, novice freindly, host site that makes it easy for create a simple web site to post a bunch of information/photos about my little home repair business. Sometime ago, I was leaning toward Site5 based on PCM recommendations. I have yet to try doing anything with a web site and the only thing holding me back is fear of the unknown.

[Force Flow]

surpasshosting doesn't have any sort of site builder, so it might not be for you for that reason.

I haven't used site5, so I can't vouch for it personally.

[glc]

Surpass does in fact have a site builder.

http://www.surpasshosting.com/hostin...d-features.php

Our packages include access to a free site builder and the best of web design templates. Get started easily and effortlessly.

[Statica]

surpasshosting has a one click installation to a number of packages that can work as a site builder (fantastico). You might be able to use a CMS, photo album or a blog package to have a really quick website.

Addendum: You should find some site builder packages from within Fantastico.

[Force Flow]

I checked my CPanel for it earlier...didn't even notice that it was called fantastico.

[Statica]

In case someone's not familiar with it .. Fantastico is a script, that is frequently provided by web hosts, that automates the installation of your choice of software packages .. everything from directory and files to database and tables creation. http://www.netenberg.com/fantastico_scripts.php has a good list of what comes within Fantastico.
Personally, it's a feature I need for a good web host. Surpasshosting has been really good, but if you're looking to do anything commercial or critical .. I've found surpass on the slower side of things.

[newomij]

If Surpasshosting is the web host of choice, who is recommended for registering domain names? There are a lot of choices with prices all over the board and added features available with some like privacy (blocking personal information about a domain owner) and multi year pricing.

[Statica]

Godaddy .. I've had great experiences with them, including them calling me once to check with me whether a domain that had expired was something I had missed out on renewing. From what I can tell, their pricing is very fair... they do offer domain privacy .. I use it on some of my domains and administration is seamless. I've dealt with registrars whose domain cpanel is horrendous but this is by far one of the easiest to admin.

Warning though, dont get tempted by their hosting services, from what I've heard its not that great.