Web hosting for a small charity

milly · #1 (**permalink**) Oct 2nd, 2007, 20:34

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?

varihost · #2 (**permalink**) Oct 2nd, 2007, 22:49

Hi Milly,
I have a web hosting company: www.varihost.net

From what you've described about your site, we won't have any trouble hosting your site, at no charge (FREE!).

You'll see from our site, we have been in business many years and have many happy customers. I'd be only too happy to help you out with hosting and any technical assistance I can provide.

Get in touch via the site and we can discuss what the next step is.

Regards

Richard.

whisp · #3 (**permalink**) Oct 5th, 2007, 13:51

milly, do you have your site hosted now?

barrakuda · #4 (**permalink**) Oct 12th, 2007, 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by milly

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?

Hi, Milly! I'm sure there are very good chances to get free hosting services for your site, as it's non-commercial and it's a good cause that you are pursuing, I know lots of the like requests are tackled at freewebspace, you might wabt to visit this forum, it's requests section.
I can also name a few providers with budget hosting plans, you may also find How-to guides This is one of them.
So, check the following hosts:
http://serverpoint.com/english/web-hosting.phtml
http://visionwebhosting.net
http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/websit...shared-hosting
http://onthespothosting.net/shared.html

milly · #5 (**permalink**) Oct 12th, 2007, 19:17

Thanks everyone, sorry for the delay in getting back to the forum (I had some fund raising deadlines that had to take priority for a bit).

Thanks especially Richard for your offer - I have replied to your email.

I will find the other links useful as well because I am involved with a group trying to help out an orphanage in Uganda, Bwindi Orphanage Development Centre. We have made a free website for them using googlepages but might want to move it eventually.

whisp · #6 (**permalink**) Oct 17th, 2007, 14:29

Webhostingbuzz.com budget hosting deal looks nice, you contact the host personally, I'm sure for causes like yours there are always chances to get discounts or even free services.

allsquare · #7 (**permalink**) Oct 19th, 2007, 11:39

Milly, have you thought about free hosting option? You have to be aware that you uptime won't be 100%, but do you really need it? The most important thing when you deal with free hosts is to have the backup of all your files.
If the cheap/budget hosting is what you need, then siteground.com, 1and1.com, serverpoint.com shared plans will be just the thing.

join · #8 (**permalink**) Oct 19th, 2007, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by whisp

Webhostingbuzz.com budget hosting deal looks nice, you contact the host personally, I'm sure for causes like yours there are always chances to get discounts or even free services.

They don't want to pay for hosting, they want it for charity.

Marc · #9 (**permalink**) Oct 19th, 2007, 15:24

How much bandwidth and space do you need, milly?

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Web hosting for a small charity