Hi i am a looking to create a social network website and a website for my business too and complete novice i was using ipage but deleted that as was rubbish and kept on losing work as logging out and problems with everything but can people give me advice about how to create a website. i know i need to get a host, a domain and then use things like drupal and things but being novice dont know how to go about this. any help would be awesome. thanks

You've got a long road ahead of you if you're looking at creating a bespoke social network.

I'd say your best bet would be to purchase a domain name and some hosting and to use an open source prebuilt package such as buddypress to actual create the network.

Dam I read the OP's message 'Bing!' Buddypress and once again Mikes beaten me to it.

 

I second Mikes advice of buddypress.

 

Your need a domain, hosting (supports PHP & has a MySql database) and sometimes the hosting provider will have one-click installs in the control panel - basically you get your username/password login to your hosting 'one-click install wordpress' and it's done - Go to your site, wordpress user/pass and your in.

 

Find buddypress plugin - install through your wordpress UI - done.

Totally agree with MikeChipshop with regards to the long road you have ahead of you. I have heard many good things about buddypress but I can't comment as I am not a wordpress developer. I work with drupal and I feel that to help shorten the road you could try having a play with Drupal commons: https://www.acquia.com/products-services/drupal-commons-social-business-software It is a drupal social network distribution which means on install all the default features will be enabled, including a facebook like status stream. It is also open source so it's free!

 

You are welcome to check out my company social network here: http://community.my-local-trades.co.uk/ feel free to register and to browse around inside to get an idea if it would be right for you.