I am fairly new to making websites (this is my first post not on the beginners forum I think!) and learning as I go along.

I started because I was trying to make a simple website for a local (UK) charity for which I do the fundraising, http://www.northwiltsholidayclub.org.uk/ . I thought it would be fairly easy!

I made some preliminary enquiries to find out how much we would have to spend on hosting etc and was offered help by a local web hosting person who kindly offered to design the site, register the domain name and provide low-cost hosting.

Unfortunately he didn't have time to do the design so I tried to find out how to do it myself. I soon discovered that WYSIWYG makes inaccessible code so learned HTML & CSS. I make files in notepad and use ftp to upload them, and there are a couple of php files plus images. There are some fund raising affiliate links and we hope to add a password-protected photo gallery for parents to see and make copies of photos taken by staff and volunteers (this will add quite alot to the size of the site I think, if I ever work out how to do it).

I don't want to offend the helping person as it was a kind offer but now he has moved to a new server and wants to charge almost £5 per month, which seems a bit steep compared to commercial packages. It would actually be easier for me to use a normal package as I could use help files etc rather than waiting weeks for replies! The trouble is when i look at the packages offered I don't know what it all means and what i need.

Does anyone know of a guide to web hosting for accidental techies which would tell me what it all means? Also does anyone know a lovely kind web hosting company that would give us a good (or even free!) deal in exchange for thank-you links and a lovely feeling of helping our very special children with special needs?