how to create a Hidden website with buddy in PA ??

[changintimes]

does anybody know how i can create a website with my friend in PA, and keep it offline until complete ??

do i have to find a host right away, or is there a way we can work on the website completely hidden from everyone, except for my friend and myself ?

[slewfoot]

I'm sure someone could give you another solution from how we work on sites more or less hidden.
We have funky sounding test sites for uploading and testing a site live. We just make a funky sounding sub domain on the test site domains for each site we're building.
We do this so we can check the sites in live view as we work on them.
We keep all of our test sites domains not available in a whois search with our info on them.

Once we get the site completed we upload a copy of it to different funky sounding sub domain and call our clients in to take a look at it and approve it. Whether they do or not when they walk out the door we delete the second funky sounding sub domain they viewed the site on. If they approve it then we upload their site to their hosting company and call them and tell them they can have at it now their site is open. No one but us actually knows the main sub domain the test site sits on.

You can use a sub domain to your main domain and not do anything to the main domain while you're working on the site in the sub domain. If anyone went to your main site most likely all they would get would be an error page and not see your sub domain where the site is actually sitting.

Sometimes we have enough confusion here in the office between us working on a site together. The only person sending files up to the site is the site designer even though other folks are working on the site with the site designer.

Good luck to you and your buddy.

[changintimes]

thanks slewfoot,

so i can have a sub domain name like "banchillonette", right ?

but how do you hide the site from Google ?

if i was your client, maybe i would try to find some of my site content in a Google search before you finish my site,

so are you saying that whois can not find your site either on the web ?

so when do you charge the client ?? just before you upload to their hosting company ??

[slewfoot]

You can give a sub domain any name that you want.
I doubt very seriously Google would index a sub domain with no description and tags on it especially a new site. We've got a large corporate site in the making now and have been working on it for 6 months. I just did a Google, Bing and Yahoo on it and is no where to be found. We also never tell a client their site is up on a test site either.

You can do a Whois on any of our sites, including our personal and business sites and it'll tell you it has Whois Guard on it and you have to contact them to contact us. The m3 test site is one we use for short term and you can see a subdomain on it. I think it's still in a post I made on this forum several months ago. http://rails.m3sitetest.com
I've left it up because it belongs to my best friend in Moscow and it has a very pretty photo of St.Basil's Cathedral for anyone to download if they wish to do so.
I've also been asked to add more photos of Russia on it but I haven't had the time.

How we charge a client differs from one client to the next but we never start a new site without a down payment with final payment upon completion and approval of the site. After the final payment is made then we upload the site to their hosting company. We also do contracts so everyone will know and understand "who what where and when".