I'd like to set up a quicky site using one of the social networking places, but am boggled by the ton of places, and perplexed by their lack of info as to what I'm getting by joining. I'm hoping if I can tell what I'm looking for, maybe someone can tell me the right place to go.

I'd like a "club" for all the Teddy Bear sites where we can each tell about our sites, add on other places we like that fit the topic, have it opened to the public and show up on the SERPs (visitors don't have to sign up to join in, but we certainly want the ability to delete obno posts, before they are seen by the public), the ability to affiliate with it, and it doesn't have to be placed on our own URL, but doesn't include inappropriate, adult (and deviant) ads. Ultimately, I don't want to be the only one working on it and adding stuff, but it needs to stay innocent for any children coming along. (All the sites I know about are created by adults for other adults, and some of the bears enjoy a nice lager, or champagne on special days, but it is possible kids will come by, too.)

Sooooooooo, anyone know of such a site that just needs a teddy bear invasion?

Yeah! What I think you need Lynn, is a blog.

I use WP so that's my choice, although others would no doubt be just as good.

Sign up for a free WP blog. Free means free hosting and the lot, all free. You don't have as much control as with your own hosting but that shouldn't matter to the project you've described. The number of themes will be limited and you won't be able to edit the theme css file.

You'll be able to have multiple authors assigned whatever level of control you dictate and visitors can comment in the comment section.

A better trick from the point of view of your own SEO would be to add a WP blog to your own hosting if this is possible. But I think you may be still on Tripod or some such.

Now here's another good idea:

I was having a wander around Ninak's new site, the one up for review, and saw some very reasonably priced small hosting that would be big enough for your purposes, so long as people didn't go silly with big photos. There was something about free domain with hosting but I don't know if that applied to the low budget hosting. It has cpanel and would allow you total control. http://www.free-domain-withhosting.com

Check it out and see if I understood correctly.

I think the cost was $2.95 a month. Like, it costs you more than that for a pie with sauce and a coffee.

Best wishes,
Laurie.

If your thinking of hosting your own site - for free - i have used http://www.freehostia.com/ and not had any issues. It come swith the software for Movable Type, Textpattern , WordPress and b2evolution for bolg creation.

you would have to buy a domain name but you will have complete control etc

if you want smtp this is also an extra but you can forward any e mail address to an existing client.

There are lots of packages for hosting with free domain i offer the same with all the software required see my link below or pm me and i will give you some options

Well, here's one we could all check out. http://www.1000freedomains.com.au/allgone.php

But don't get your hopes up too high.

Regards,
Laurie.

for the cost of paid hosting I would not bother with free ones - freehostia tends to go down on a regular basis plus has a regular outage every day for some reason.
When you can get top notch for $50 a year - its virtually free!
As for what you want to do, maybe a blog, maybe a forum like this one, (both are included free on any hosting package that offers Cpanel) or even chase up software that does the same as MySpace type memberships/pages etc.

matte wrote:

As for what you want to do, maybe a blog, maybe a forum like this one, (both are included free on any hosting package that offers Cpanel)

Wordpress blogging platform is a free downlaod and install on any hosting service that includes php and mysql

The same is true for many popular open source projects from phpBB (forum software) to OSCommerce (shopping cart software)

You don't need cPanel to install these packages - they are relatively easy to install and most people here will be be able to help if required.

Nearly all web hosts offer a web-based interface to manage your hosting account. This can be something they have written themselves, or one of the many popular solutions on offer. These include (but are not limited to)

Plesk
cPanel [and/or Web Host manager (WHM) - made by the same people]
Webmin

Plesk and cPanel often come with feature that allows you to install packages like wordpress really easily (one click installation)

Hey Lynn! You out there? Ah, great!

Just now I signed up for my first free WP blog and did my first post. Go have a look if you'd like: http://alternativephotographic.wordpres … een-print/

I reckon it would be just the ticket for you and your teddy bear mates.

If you'd like to have a play around, e-mail me and I'll sign you up as an author so you can make a post.

There's much more freedom than I expected. Looks like you can have up to 35 contributing authors. Don't know how much web space you get for photos, but it's quite easy to host your photos on Photo Bucket, Flickr or similar and hotlink.

Regards,
Laurie.

This is in response to everyone's input. I so appreciate your unending patience with me.

Hubby and I are having a debate -- is it really insomnia, if you can sleep 6-8 hours, but rarely at night?! (I'm on the "you bet it's insomnia" side. LOL) Anyway, explains why I'm taking so long to get back here!

Now, ummmm, hate to admit this again, but even though I considered a blog, and Word Press even, I STILL know so little. Here's a surprise though - I actually have paid hosting AND an actual domain name - just can't take the no stopping time needed to figure out wtf all that crap is on the "just upload your site and viola" page. I know I have CPanel, (don't know what it is, but I have it), some how have the option of up to 5 e-mail addresses, but dang if that page is written in English even if I can recognize all those English words on it! Only way I'll ever understand what all those frigging links mean (besides FTP, and I'm very fuzzy on FTP, since not using it since 1992) is to search, word by word, link by link each and everyone one of those 100+ doohickey links, until I get educated on what they mean and figure out what I'm supposed to do with them. Of course, I have to do it all in one sitting, since I honestly do have short-term memory problems, so forget what I learn the second I have to leave it, unless I learn it well enough to do it immediately. Who'da thought learning "good ole fashion" html wouldn't nearly be enough to upload a site?! (And learning css, php, xyz, fegewyigbdas won't do it either! And don't tell me the last two don't exist. If they don't today, they will tomorrow!!!)

Anyway, I've been snooping around WordPress when I get a chance, and even knew my domain uploading maze (page) had to have php and/or mysql, even though I have no idea what those two thingies are. It does say most hosting platforms have them, and all I have to do is download WP (assume I'm talking about Word Press, since I know nothing about Word Pad) and then upload it onto my platform. "All?" See above why that is above any confidence I have!!!

Problem is, having this much trouble getting the guts to try uploading a single page of my future site (actually have one page "uploaded," but won't tell you my domain name from embarassment), I also lack any confidence to upload a simple blog onto my site -- which I thought would be easier. Then again, the blog I wanted to upload onto my site is a WP version of the blog I have now, and I was hoping it could be one of the "rooms" in the den, so my confidence level can grow to upload the rest of the rooms (pages) to the den.

Now, getting back to this idea of a joint venture (not in the business sense of those words) with the other TB enthusiasts, I was thinking something more along the lines of a Squidoo, but without having to put it on my space. I just wanted to do what you suggested before, Laurie, make a page outside of WebRing's evil hands (things have esculated since we first talked about what they are doing to my ring), where each site's owner tells a little about her site (no guys, I just noticed that), and we can add our links together. Then, since I actually do get Yahoo to send me links to any news stories about bears, add the links to the few interesting ones, and build up the page with related info, not blog entries. (Hoping the others will build up the link section as they find interesting links, too. That's the "joint venture" concept.) Most of the sites I know similar to mine are already blogs, and, as you can tell from mine, keeping up with our own blogs is hard enough. I don't really think I even want to co-write a multi-author one. (How does Gypsy do it? Skip sleeping all together?)

Sooooo, is it possible to use a free WP blog as a Squidoo page? I like your side feeds on your brand new (can't believe you can crank one out that quickly!) blog, Laurie. That would be a cool way to get all the bloggers latest feeds showing constantly. I guess the personal web site creators will have to decide how they want their sites linked, too. Now here's a frightening thought -- out of all the related sites I know, and all the sites included in the ring (which is upwards to 30 sites), I'm not the best at knowing how to do all this hand-coding stuff (and I only know by re-reading Jody's site over and over again for reference), but I'm definitely in the top 10% of the knowledgable folks. Considering how VERY little I know, I hope you all see my other problem -- this has to be easy enough for wysiwyg web site creators. Scary thought, huh?! Now, ummmm, how can we incredibly naive folks pull this off? Go ahead! Feel free to bang your heads against the nearest wall. I know what I'm asking for is so incredibly shocking that y'all will have to take a while to remember what it was like knowing as little as I know! (If you can even remember that long ago.) I think maybe I'm asking for a social networking platform that goes past just linking to other places, and yet is easy enough that even the "I'd rather be using a manual typewriter" crowd can do it.

Hey Linn! Gotta run, right now, or I'll be in the dog house. Going to a BBQ for my granddaughter's birthday. She's 12 today!

The missus is pacing up and down, breathing fire and snot. So it's red hot snot!

From my understanding of what you want to do, a WP blog on your own domain and web space would be the duck's guts. That means, pretty good.

If you like, send me an e-mail and when I get home again I'll sign you up as an author on my new blog. You can write what ever you wish. Doesn't matter what. I can easily delete it later. Can't do any harm, whatever. Great chance for a trial run.

Gotta go. Getting the "Come on" message.

Regards,
Laurie.

atwhatcost wrote:

I know I have CPanel, (don't know what it is, but I have it),
.

Thsi is a very good turorial for  cPanel.  http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/

Thanks for the added info and the link. Sorry for not responding quicker then this. I do get it together, at times, but then forget where I put it!

Laurie, thanks for the offer, but I'm behind enough on my blog already - I simply don't have any more time to add more things to do.

Hopefully, I'll get the site up and working well enough to let everyone see what it looks like some day!.

don't be under the miss-impression that setting up a quicky social thing won't also marry you to ongoing, daily work to make it work and keep it alive.

Sadly the internet is not a place of build it and they will come.

You'd need to devote 1-2+ hours per day on it and actively marketing it for I would think six months to get it viable.