Page 1 of Advice sought from you boffins out there concerning new business, start up website.

:) Hello again.

I am thinking of starting my own business with a unique design service (i.e. not many overheads).

I have registered my company name domain as .com and a .co.uk website address.

I want to write a website to advertise my services in the UK (designs to British Standards).

I have currently looked at Lycos Webcentre which is where I have registered my domain names.

1. Shall I use .co.uk (as all work will be in uk)?
2. Has anyone had any experiance with Lycos Webcentre, what are the results like?
any examples of sites created this way ?
3. I want to start up but still work for my employer to see if it is feasible to go self-employed, prior to jacking in. I need to gauge the business available first to see if it will be viable, prior to commiting full time. How can I maintain some sort of security whilst working on my new venture?

Any advice from like minded souls or those in the web site business would be appriciated.

Thank a lot.

..........and liquid len with his smashed bottle men is landing bob the knob across the gob.....

1) Best to use the .co.uk and for the site to actually be hosted in the UK. Most of the UK search engines do some filtering to boost either sites with .co.uk (actually .uk) or by IP address or occasionally both.

2) Never used them. There are plenty of alternative hosts out there at reasonable rates.

3) Difficult to say. Depends on how you are expecting people to find out about your business. If you are relying on web traffic via search engines it depends on:
i) how well the site is written and it should incorporate relevant keyphrases you want to be found for and which people are actually searching for.
ii) how well the site is designed.
iii) How much money and time you are prepared to attracting quality traffic.
Getting good positions in search engines and quality traffic to a site is more involved than simply submitting the pages..... (It`s my job).

The other factor to consider is by getting exposure and traffic to your website it is more likely that your boss will hear about it - which would make you self employed more quickly!

This item was edited on Thursday, 26th February 2004, 00:18

Thank you Blinky for your advice.
I do not suppose that there is a way of hiding the domain name`s registered owner?

The web site`s originator would hopefully not be to obvious to a casual viewer, is there a way of hiding my registration details behind a password?

Thanks.

Anyone who does a domain name lookup can see your details. You can hide your address, but only if you are an individual not a business. I suppose you could `nominate` someone else as admin contact and use their details?

I`d use both the .com and the .co.uk, but promote the .co.uk as the main domain eg business cards. That way if someone mis-remembers the url they will still get there. That`s if your main focus is UK only. If you plan to do international work then use the .com

You could get a PO box and use that for your domain details, and use your business name as the registrant`s name. However your contact details should be on the website anyway. I`d be extremely reluctant to do business with someone who didn`t have a bricks and mortar address/phone number on their website.

Also from UK Online for business:

Quote:
If you are collecting any information from visitors to your site, including information obtained from queries sent to the email address, you must provide details of your identity.

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires website operators to give information about their identity. The information should be given in any case where information may be collected from visitors to the site. This applies even when you are not selling online. In the case of companies it may be sufficient to provide a company name but it is good practice to also provide an address. In the case of sole traders or partnerships address details would have to be provided as well.

If you are selling online, subject to various exceptions, the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) regulations require you to provide details of your identity and (where payment has to be made by the customer in advance) business address.

This item was edited on Thursday, 26th February 2004, 09:10

Thanks again for all your help. :D
It looks like I will have to collate all information, write web site, prepare all documentation, prepare insurance professional imdenity, etc and then be prepared to publish and be damned! 8)

I could use the website/my company/domain name to run under someone else that I know with a business and basically run under cover of his already established company.

If it takes off, then I can hand notice in, if not then at least I have tried :)

Unfortunately, my new business would be in the same field as my employer, thus causing a conflict of interest.