growing from "free" to "paying" for ISP

Hello Everybody: :p

I've been a Graphic and Web Designer now for about 4 years. In the past, (and today) I've always gone with Tripod, Geocities, and Anglefish for free Hosting. I'm at that point now were I need more than the free ones can offer me. I don't know about ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, Javascript, Coldfusion, Actionscript etc... but I do have a bigger website that I've made in Dreamweaver, with Flash buttons on it, and a "Forms" page. In the past when I put forms pages as a page on my websites they've never worked because the Host didn't support that. :mad:

What do most of you out there do? :confused:
1st pick the host, then according to the serverside scripting languages they support, go about making your websites. Or do you make your webistes and pick PHP, ASP, Coldfusion to use when making it in Dreamweaver, then go looking for a host that'll support it?
and
Will hosts help designers, (Like me) with the programing part of it all? or am I doomed to start buying and hitting the books to learn all about CGI's and serverside scripting laguages? Can you give me a "dividing line" (of sorts) for when a database is needed, and when it isn't.

Can you suggest a good cheap host for someone that just wants a forms page, (that works, where people can write what they think about my latest articles, and I can then read them) and some flash buttons. Would that need a "database" and would Access work for something like that? or do I have to go all the way with MySQL? and open up that whole kettle of worms?
and
if I don't want to become a programmer, how is it usually done?

a guy designs a website, then what? He hires a programer, or does the customer, and how do you go about charging for that? How can someone give an estimate thats even in the ball park, if he doesn't know what the programing is going to consist of? How do I know I'm not getting ripped off? If I wanted to sub out the PHP (programing part) to someone that knows about that? Do designers and Programmers usually work closely together like General Contractors and Architects do? Does one usually sugges the other? I'm confused about all this if I wanted to go out and get some "larger" clients to make websites for. I mean how does a web site designer make the jump from neighborhood pizza parlors, and ice cream vendors, to larger companies, with more inventory, that want to handle credit cards on their sites?

xersius_x@yahoo.com

Honestly, it doesn't sound like you've got 4 years of experience. People with even 1 year of experience usually are further advanced.

Hosts generally do not help you with any coding, but some hosts include premade scripts.

Generally people learn a server side language and then find a host that supports it. Or they pick one they want to learn and then find a host that supports it so they can practice.

By the way, I've edited your signature. Please keep it to 4 lines and keep the politics out of it.

www.canaca.com

If you're websites are important to you, find a REAL webhost. Free hosting will ultimately fail you (either technically, or because people know it's a Geocities/whatever website and will not consider it as reliable).

the reason why it seems that you have 1 year of exp. and not 4 is because you have been using free host I had used free host for a while but when I started to use a paid host I learned more than I could ever in 4 years of free webhosting.

- Hosts generally will not help you with the coding at all, unless you have a question that is about the environment they offer you.

- The cheapest way for you to move on to bigger projects is to learn a server side scripting language such as PHP. You don't even need to buy any books. There's plenty of info available on the web already that will get you started. This will handle your forms problem with ease and a whole lot more! However, to become a proficient programmer it will take time and practice. Don't what-ever you do leap straight in to a big project with your new skills. You may be able to get the job done, but there's a real art to programming, so you may not be able to do it as well as is needed. just YET!! Show your code to other good programmers and if you don't get ripped apart too much then you will probably be ready to take on some projects. Small steps though.

- Never use Access with the web. They weren't designed to work together at all. Besides, it will cost you more than using MySQL - which is free.

- If you don't want to learn a scripting language or if you want to get going with larger projects right away, then you will need to sub-contract out your programming. As a designer (of graphical and business logic) you will need to work closely with your programmer so you're not inadvertently charged for something that you didn't ever want. Make sure you have down on paper exactly what the system needs to do and then present this to your programmer for a quote. You can use sites such as elance, rentacoder to find yourself a programmer. Choose one that already has some feedback and you should be ok.

PHP/MySQL is probably the best scripting combo for doing everything with forms. If you have a little programming experience (BASIC/C/C++) you can easily draft up your PHP scripts on your own. There is a lot of good documentation at www.php.net . As for a web host, consider www.sizzly.com for low prices.

Indeed, also try to look into the Open Source CMS, its better to first learn much on PHP, MYSQL ect and then move to an paid host. Becuse then you can really make something