"Thinking about producing one, is there much point?"

Nobody can seriously answer that question but you!

"Also thinking about a FB page. Has anyone created a Wordpress site?"

I assume the former and the latter are just coincidentally on the same line - there's no connection.

I have a couple of sites set up using WordPress - but I did it the DIY method, by installing and setting up WordPress in my own webspace, including setting up a MySQL database for each. This isn't hugely difficult, but it's a little more admin than having a site on wordpress.com (not least because you have to keep it up to date for security fixes).

Having the site on wordpress.com should be a much simpler method because WordPress itself (I believe) will be kept up to date for you. I *think* they also have options for using your own domain name.

"I need it to be responsive, which means it is adaptable to phones, iPads etc - such like this site in mobile mode / version."

If you're going to use WordPress, then there are many, many 'themes' you can use - the theme manager part of the dashboard has a search/filter, and I'm pretty sure one of the options you can select is 'responsive'. So if you go down this route, it might just be a matter of finding the right theme for your needs.

"After designing, if I FTP (send to a provider) to a host, like hostgator all should be well, and cheaper than say wix, whom offer templates etc, sort of an all in one."

If you use something like WordPress, you'll be "designing it" by choosing a theme and going through the options for that theme, all online, in your browser - and the same goes for when you add any content. No FTP necessary (except for the initial set up if you do it the way I did). Most CMSs these days will also be handled largely online I should think - so it's only if you're designing 'locally' (on your own computer) either by hand, or using software like (er... digs around in distant memories for a name...) FrontPage (?) that FTP will come into it.

Most hosting providers will provide FTP access to your webspace.

"Which leaves me needing a domain name and email address."

Yes, they're quite useful! :)

If I was you, since you're already considering the WordPress option, I'd start by going to their website and setting something up with a free account, just to see what your options are, and what you can do with it. If you do it this way its URL be something like abacus12345.wordpress.com (or do they do it something like www.wordpress.com/users/abacus12345 ?) - which is far from ideal for a 'real' business website, but this is just to try it out.

If it suits your needs, look at the options they offer for domain names/hosting. (You might be able to bolt that on afterwards to turn your test site into the real one, depending what their options are).

"Can I, if subscribed to Microsoft Office business, direct business emails to land in my Office account, and subsequently send emails from Office to appear that they have been sent from business email address? I'd like to have a letterhead and signature too."

This I can't answer - I don't use MS Office. However...

"The reason for wanting such is that Office contains Excel and word, and Outlook works nicely with the two. I don't want some clunky email setup."

If by Outlook you mean the stand alone application of years gone by, and it hasn't disappeared to become a wemail only thing, accessible via outlook.com, then I would imagine you can just set it up to access another mailbox alongside the one they provide you.

In addition to which, given that a great many businesses are foolish enough to use the newer stuff, including the cloudy aspects, and (in my opinion) it doesn't look very professional when business email addresses take the form businessname@outlook.com (or hotmail.com, or gmail.com, or yahoo.com, or whatever), I would think it is possible to link it to email address at your own domain.

Even Microsoft aren't that far up their own backsides.

Yet.

The best way to go depends on your skill set. Especially if you try the DIY HTML/CSS route.

But that's why I suggested setting up a free WordPress site just to try it out. Just think about what you'll want in terms of pages etc on your site, then set up something on WordPress that fits that. Play with the themes, and with the various settings within the the themes you try - some of them are VERY customisable - and see what the results look like. You'll (probably) be able to try a lot more design options doing this in the same amount of time you'd spend designing by hand, unless you're a web design wizard.

And the beauty of it is: If you don't like it, or you can't get it to look how you want, you've lost nothing - it's free.

"I'm not a design magician but I know not to overload with colour - just a nice KISS site."

That's why I do most of my sites by hand - but I don't worry about responsiveness, which simplifies things. (I should, really, but... meh!)

"It would be good to have a relatively efficient way to update the site with tax changes and any general content."

This is where a CMS - such as WordPress - pays dividends, TBH. Updating a DIY site by hand can be messy, because you'll almost certainly be editing the HTML as well as the text, and it's easy to mess up the formatting (break a li tag here, forget to close a strong or em tag there...)

"Did he, and do you host inhouse, or do you for instance use a hosting company?"

He hosts in-house - where in-house means he has servers in a datacentre. I use a hosting company: Most of my domains are in a single package with 1&1. They're not perfect, but on balance suit my needs.

"In the beginning my intention was to use a Raspberry Pi, setup on my home network to host my site. I figured it would receive hardly any traffic, compared to the majority of sites."

I've known a couple of people do that, more for fun than a serious, business website, though. For myself, I do serve sites from one computer here - sorry, did serve them (I still haven't set it up on my current desktop) - but only locally; not exposed to the outside world. It's a good way to play with website designs, because I can then access them from any device on my network to see how they look.

"But of course that setup has security issues for one,"

Yes - if you use a hosting company, you have much less of an issue. It's not completely wiped out, because you could do something silly with the site; but the security of the hardware lies with the hosting company; it's theirs.

"and for two I'd more likely than not be breaching my Virgin terms and conditions."

There is that. :)

"Is there much headache hosting?"

Yes. No. It depends.

Most hosting packages come with some kind of control panel that you log into in order to configure things - set up mailboxes, databases, and so on. Common ones are Plesk and cPanel. Some companies customise these to suit their specific needs, some use them more or less out of the box with the options they don't make available disabled. And some use their own home brew system (hello again 1&1) which is, frankly, messy and has a nasty habit of changing when they decide they don't like this, that or the other.

The control panels can have quite a lot of options, and some might seem complicated or daunting, but most people only need to use the basic things (such as mailbox set up) and don't need to go near things like DNS/A/MX records, and so on.

FWIW, I quite like cPanel. It's fairly logical and neatly laid out.

"Updates, security and such like?"

If you're on shared hosting, the server itself is updated by the hosts, who should also be taking care of its security.

In some cases, you might have to update things within the site - for example, PHP. Hosts might not update that automatically for you (and instead allow you to specify which version you want to use) because you might need to change things to be compatible with the new version.

Beyond that, the security of your site is largely down to you. If you use basic HTML/CSS then there's not much that can go wrong - but when you start going beyond that into PHP/MySQL and other, similar technologies, you need to start being careful. Especially if you allow any kind of log-in by users/clients - or any other kind of form. (Even a contact form, for example: it will be probed and probed again to see if it can be used as a spam relay. Bots will try to use it to infect whoever is on the receiving end with malware, and so on, and so forth.)

The bottom line is:

If you DIY, and use more than basic HTML/CSS, make sure you keep up with current best practices - which can mean changing things, because current best practice today can be different tomorrow, as new exploits are discovered and solutions implemented.

If you DIY but use third party components (templates, whatever), keep an eye out for updates for those components and apply them.

If you use a CMS, make sure you keep it (and any plug-ins) updated.

(This latter one is where a lot of people fall over: They install (or pay someone to install) something like WordPress on their own site, and then just carry on using it as is - it doesn't get updated, and it remains susceptible to any exploits that get discovered. And the more time passes, the more it is susceptible to.

VinceH wrote:

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(This latter one is where a lot of people fall over: They install (or pay someone to install) something like WordPress on their own site, and then just carry on using it as is - it doesn't get updated, and it remains susceptible to any exploits that get discovered. And the more time passes, the more it is susceptible to.

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 Wordpress automatically updates itself, but if you have plugins it's very wise to keep them updated and secure.

Johnny, I am a reseller for one of the leading webhosting companies in the UK (Vidahost)  I've only dabbled at it up to now (my website is on it) but from March my son is going to be handling it and building it up for me.  Website will be coming in March.  If you want a domain name and hosting let me know and I can set you up a domain name of your choice, together with unlimited email addresses   eg www.abacus12345.co.uk and johnny@abacus.co.uk.  Wordpress is a one click install from the control panel, or if you fancy really getting your hands dirty, joomla or drupal. 

Thanks Johnny

abacus12345 wrote:

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I've notice with WordPress you can, or should I say it does link up with a Gmail account out of the box - although that obviously isn't outlook I can live with that.

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 If you're going to have a website I would suggest that the email address matches the domain.  I don't know what others think but abacus12345@gmail.com isn't as professional as sales@abacus12365.co.uk

abacus12345 wrote:

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Hey John, I agree with where you are coming from. It would definitely look better to have a @business.co.uk than to have @gmail.com.

As far as I know if you subscribe to the whole WordPress setup a domain name is provided and an opportunity to acquire an email address to match.

What I don't know is how friendly the actual email portal will be, will it be idiot proof like Gmail and Outlook, easily sync with your phone for instance, easy to import and export worksheets from and such, or something more behind the times.

Thanks

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 Wordpress don't provide full email facilities, only email forwarding.  So you can choose a domain, select email linked to that domain, and forward it to an email address of your choice.  The obvious drawback being that whilst you can receive emails from @business, you can only reply from @gmail  However, when selecting email, you can add the G Suite at $5 a month, which is effectively Gmail for business, and allows you to use @business email for both sending and receiving emails, and use the familiar gmail layout rather than configuring it through an email client.