Yes I will go with LAMP. I thought of trying my hand at some simple web design and so I downloaded the Joomla 1.5 package but have yet to try it out. The templates you suggested look pretty good and could be a better option to save a lot of pain! For the past couple of days, I’ve actually been playing with a free site designer called Weebly but I don’t think it has the same flexibility as the templates and almost definitely won’t allow me to add forum or e-commerce features.

Ok, will try to read up on more reviews to help me come to a decision with regards to the hosting. Another company that I recently came across is Cirtex Hosting. It seems to have very cheap packages (US$3/month) for multiple domain hosting as compared to others. There are some negative reviews though, so I am a bit uncertain about it.

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it

Instead, the features I would like to have are multiple domains, email addresses and simple-to-use interface for managing the account and if possible some simple tools for website design as I’m not an IT expert. In future, I may like to add a forum on my site as well.

You seem to have a clear idea of your planned projects. I have only one additional advice in this area; decide on a hosting platform now.

A huge majority of webmasters are in two camps when it comes to this issue; Microsoft or LAMP.

The choice would depend mostly on which platform you’re most comfortable with.

Assuming that you’re totally neutral in this area, I would advise on taking the LAMP path because of the following reasons:

• It has the lower financial costs
• It’s rich in Free Open Source projects that you could use out of the box and/or customize to your heart’s content
• It has a richer and more vibrant online community where you can get documentation, tips, hints and assistance

Since you specifically mentioned that you’re not so inclined when it comes to IT, you should also plan your initial implementation strategy. Are you going to do it yourself by studying and applying what you’ve learnt? Are you going to outsource it to a third party? Are you going to install a prebuilt CMS/Blog/web software platform?

If you chose the prebuilt web platform strategy, your software of choice may already have “theming” capabilities where the presentation is separated from content.

Some examples are; WordPress’ themes, Joomla’s templates, and phpBB’s styles.

As you can see, you might not even need web design tools at all! Although it’s recommended that you at least have some basic knowledge of your chosen platform’s design system.

So far, I’ve shortlisted GoDaddy deluxe plan and Netfirms advantange plan, are these suitable or are there more affordable yet reliable ones that I missed out in my search?

Both are very well established companies in the industry. However, I believe that you should check out web hosting review sites to assist in the decision making process.

For simplicity, I thought of getting the domain names and web hosting thru a single provider. Is this advisable?

Personally, I won’t recommend it. It’s like putting your all your eggs in one basket. I would use separate companies to “even out the odds”.

Mind you, there are thousands of people out there who use the same company for hosting and registering their domains and are quite happy with the arrangement.

I’m just not in that subset

Currently I’m at the stage of choosing a provider to register a few domain names and host websites for some of my small business ideas. At this point, I don’t require high bandwidth or webspace nor dedicated servers. Instead, the features I would like to have are multiple domains, email addresses and simple-to-use interface for managing the account and if possible some simple tools for website design as I’m not an IT expert. In future, I may like to add a forum on my site as well.

So far, I’ve shortlisted GoDaddy deluxe plan and Netfirms advantange plan, are these suitable or are there more affordable yet reliable ones that I missed out in my search?

For simplicity, I thought of getting the domain names and web hosting thru a single provider. Is this advisable?

I’ve been using IonWeb/TronicTech’s services for almost three years. I think that’s much better than a review, right?

The servers are stable and the speed is excellent. The prices are affordable as well.

I have no qualms recommending their services.

http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/

sort through all the hosts and compare them
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/compare/search