ilikecake FAQs

Is it possible to do everything on an accessible site that you can do on another site?

The short answer is, no, not exactly. Accessible websites are limited in the types of animation they can do, for example, but will almost always offer more in terms of navigation and content. More information on accessible design constraints.

... this is the .ie or .com name that you use to access your site. You don't actually need one. Your host company will give you a name to access your site with, but it can be a bit (or very) long and clumsy. Having your own domain name means that people will find it easier to remember, and that means that they're more likely to visit it...

Tips for picking a good domain name:

• Pick a domain name that's reasonably short
• Choose one that doesn't contain words that are difficult to spell
• Pick a name that relates to the site content
• Choose an appropriate extension - .com, .ie etc

.ie is the most expensive and you must show company documentation etc to show that you are entitled to it. Businesses use it for several reasons:

• prestige
• the .com domain has been taken for the sitename they want
• identification with irish market

.com and .net are the most common, so it can be hard to find a domain name that hasn't already been bought by someone else - I heard a rumour that all the 4-letter words in the dictionary have been bought as .coms. Businesses use them for several reasons:

• They're reasonably cheap
• Everybody knows the .com/.net extensions
• They are international
• They are professional looking

Other domain names are much the same in terms of price and status. Choice just depends on which one you want. Generally people use these when the domain name they want has been taken in the .com and .net versions. They include:

• .eu
• .org
• .info
• .biz
• .tv
• .cc
• .co.uk
• .org.uk
• .me.uk
• .uk.com
• .uk.net
• .eu.com
• .gb.com
• .gb.net

There are different type of hosting: free and paid for

• Well it's free, and fine for test sites and information based sites not trying to make money etc. (like my web and multimedia notes)
• But free server space is not always reliable - it can be off line for periods of time and you have no comeback
• These companies can go bust, take your site offline and you may not know about it for several days or weeks
• They may be free to start with and then ask for money to keep your site online. By this stage you may have valuable links to your site, that you might lose by moving your site to a new host
• They may place unwanted advertising and banners on your site
• Free hosting doesn't give you access to any statistics about your site's hits or which pages your clients find most popular.

• Even the basic packages are usually quite good.
• A lot of space available
• You can get email too
• You can get tracking packages, to analyse traffic to your site etc
• They are more secure and reliable in general
• You have comeback if they go offline
• No unwanted advertising

You'll probably not need a database on your site, however, if you want to do any of the following you'll need one:

• Login names
• Password protected areas
• Shopping cart
• Noticeboard
• Forums
• Chat rooms
• Search & browse