Question about building a simple site for ads

[Stone Cold]

I wish to build/buy/beg a simple site for advertising certain items.
People with these items to sell, would email me their ad and I'd insert
the ad with photo(s).

Is there anything already available, free or otherwise? Or would I be
better starting from scratch?
I know about as much HTML as you could write on something very small indeed!

Thanks.

 

[Alan Cole]

I wish to build/buy/beg a simple site for advertising certain items.
People with these items to sell, would email me their ad and I'd insert
the ad with photo(s).

Is there anything already available, free or otherwise? Or would I be
better starting from scratch?
I know about as much HTML as you could write on something very small indeed!

Thanks.

There are plenty of scripts available to do this sort of thing...
Although some knowledge of html and the scripting language used to build
them would be an advantage if you want to customise them. Many hosting
packages even offer one click installation of some of the packages (the
ones I use do) which makes installing them really simple. Whats more,
most of them will allow your advertisers to add their own
adverts/photo(s) so freeing you up from doing the donkey work. Maybe
something like this will help:

http://classifieds.phpoutsourcing.com/features.php

Al.

 

[Stone Cold]

There are plenty of scripts available to do this sort of thing...
Although some knowledge of html and the scripting language used to build
them would be an advantage if you want to customise them. Many hosting
packages even offer one click installation of some of the packages (the
ones I use do) which makes installing them really simple. Whats more,
most of them will allow your advertisers to add their own
adverts/photo(s) so freeing you up from doing the donkey work. Maybe
something like this will help:

http://classifieds.phpoutsourcing.com/features.php

Wow, that looks ideal. Thanks very much Alan

 

[Stone Cold]

Wow, that looks ideal. Thanks very much Alan

Right, I checked that out. Looks good, but I need to have MySql database
server, and Php4 script module 2 "on my unit", which I presume is my
webspace. I'm slightly lost here..

Webspace with those, costs more than I was expecting to pay, but there's
much cheaper webhosting with ASP, complied CGI, PHP, Perl and SSI.
Now I'm really lost!

Can anyone advise?

 

[Chris Beall]

Right, I checked that out. Looks good, but I need to have MySql database
server, and Php4 script module 2 "on my unit", which I presume is my
webspace. I'm slightly lost here..

Um, why do you need these things? Your initial post said the page would
contain adverts which you would place there after people sent them to
you. That requirement can be met with HTML alone (OK, probably a bit of
CSS). What didn't you tell us?

Webspace with those, costs more than I was expecting to pay, but there's
much cheaper webhosting with ASP, complied CGI, PHP, Perl and SSI.
Now I'm really lost!

Can anyone advise?

Google just announced a new thingy that might be useful, but I don't
know if they will permit its use for commercial sites. See
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060224/tc_nf/41805. Looks like you first
have to have a Gmail account.

Chris Beall

 

[Alan Cole]

Right, I checked that out. Looks good, but I need to have MySql database
server, and Php4 script module 2 "on my unit", which I presume is my
webspace. I'm slightly lost here..

Webspace with those, costs more than I was expecting to pay, but there's
much cheaper webhosting with ASP, complied CGI, PHP, Perl and SSI.
Now I'm really lost!

Glad you like the look of the classifieds script I mentioned...

As far as hosting goes, how much were you expecting to pay, and how much
webspace / bandwidth do you need??

Al.

 

[Stone Cold]

Glad you like the look of the classifieds script I mentioned...

As far as hosting goes, how much were you expecting to pay, and how much
webspace / bandwidth do you need??

At first, I was expecting to pay just a few pounds, but that classifieds
script needs My SQL and php4 on the server, and I've discovered servers
carrying these cost a fair bit more. So far, I've found one for £32 a
year, which isn't too bad. I'd have to finance it myself though, as it
won't be a commercial site. Not at first anyway.

A friend has now offered me help with stuff I don't understand, so
hopefully I'm sorted. Thanks again!

 

[Stone Cold]

Um, why do you need these things? Your initial post said the page would
contain adverts which you would place there after people sent them to
you. That requirement can be met with HTML alone (OK, probably a bit of
CSS). What didn't you tell us?

I checked out that classified ads script that Al linked me too. It
requires MySQL and php4. i didn't know this at the time. In fact I'd
never heard of them!

I would like to do the whole thing with HTML, but unfortunately I have
little knowledge of it. It would enable me to use a much cheaper host
though! With that script though, advertisers can post their own ads,
which will save me some work.

Sgould I look into using Nvu or similar to build this site? Can software
like that help me build a site like I want?

Google just announced a new thingy that might be useful, but I don't
know if they will permit its use for commercial sites. See
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060224/tc_nf/41805. Looks like you first
have to have a Gmail account.

I have a Gmail account, and I'm off to check-out that link. Thanks

 

[Alan Cole]

At first, I was expecting to pay just a few pounds, but that classifieds
script needs My SQL and php4 on the server, and I've discovered servers
carrying these cost a fair bit more. So far, I've found one for £32 a
year, which isn't too bad. I'd have to finance it myself though, as it
won't be a commercial site. Not at first anyway.

A friend has now offered me help with stuff I don't understand, so
hopefully I'm sorted. Thanks again!

No problem.... Although you can get cheaper hosting than that if that
really is a problem.

Al.

 

[Jim Higson]

At first, I was expecting to pay just a few pounds, but that classifieds
script needs My SQL and php4 on the server, and I've discovered servers
carrying these cost a fair bit more. So far, I've found one for £32 a
year, which isn't too bad. I'd have to finance it myself though, as it
won't be a commercial site. Not at first anyway.

A friend has now offered me help with stuff I don't understand, so
hopefully I'm sorted. Thanks again!

Providing they don't change very often, you could always use the PHP/MySQL
app to make the pages on your own computer, then capture the HTML and put
it up as static pages. In it's simplest form, you'd just save the HTML
served from your local machine using a browser and upload it to the server.

However, that'd mean setting up PHP and MySQL on your own machine. Both of
these cost nothing, but are not easy to set up on Windows.

 

[Stone Cold]

No problem.... Although you can get cheaper hosting than that if that
really is a problem.

Can you recommend or link me to any particular hosting co?

This is the one I've been looking at. They appear quite user-friendly,
so appeal to me, as a complete novice!
http://www.streamlinenet.co.uk/pu.php

 

[Stone Cold]

Providing they don't change very often, you could always use the PHP/MySQL
app to make the pages on your own computer, then capture the HTML and put
it up as static pages. In it's simplest form, you'd just save the HTML
served from your local machine using a browser and upload it to the server.

However, that'd mean setting up PHP and MySQL on your own machine. Both of
these cost nothing, but are not easy to set up on Windows.

Hopefully the pages would change quite often as people post ads.
Besides, I don't want any more headaches or challenges just yet.

Thanks for your reply

 

[Alan Cole]

Can you recommend or link me to any particular hosting co?

I've sent you an e-mail as I could sort you out a hosting package, but
don't like posting blatant plugs in newsgroups.

Al.

 

[David Graham]

I've sent you an e-mail as I could sort you out a hosting package, but
don't like posting blatant plugs in newsgroups.

Al.

I would like this email as well - I'm looking for something similar to Stone
Cold
bye
David

 

[David Graham]

BTW - I get 'could not connect to server' when I try to go to
pixelwave.co.uk

 

[David Graham]

sorry it comes up now]

 

[Barbara de Zoete]

sorry it comes up now]

Come again?

 

[Travis Newbury]

sorry it comes up now]

Come again?

Am I reading too much into this or are they having "Google groups sex"?

 

[Els]

sorry it comes up now]

Come again?

Am I reading too much into this or are they having "Google groups sex"?

It sounds like sex, but they're not using Google Groups. Do I have to
assume that the term "Google Groups sex" (which shouldn't be mistaken
for Google group sex) comes from you own imagination then, and if so,
care to elaborate on how it got there? ;-)

 

[Travis Newbury]

sorry it comes up now]
Come again?

Am I reading too much into this or are they having "Google groups sex"?

It sounds like sex, but they're not using Google Groups. Do I have to
assume that the term "Google Groups sex" (which shouldn't be mistaken
for Google group sex) comes from you own imagination then, and if so,
care to elaborate on how it got there? ;-)

I'm not wearing any pants right now......