nemotail said:"Wondered if you could offer me some advice ~ I want a website but have no idea of how to go about it. I have looked at companies previously and they charge a fortune to set them up and an ongoing fee. I am not looking for anything too fancy or flash just want a wee site of my own with a price list and gallery for my photo's which I can update on my own without having to pay each time. I am pretty computer literate but dont have the time to research doing it all myself. Is there any company that could do this for a reasonble price you could recommend?"
Hi guys, I received the above message from Karol (Nemotail) and it covers a subject I've been asked about many times, so lets get it out in the open. By the way, Karol has said that I can use her name here so dont go shouting at me, ok?
Ok, you'd like to have a website, do you need to spend any money to have one or can you get a website absolutely free. If I can get one for free, What are the drawbacks and/or benefits? If I have to pay out money for a website, will I have better results? Are there disadvantages to that also?
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The Free Website:
Anybody can have a free website, let's get that out in the open straight away. All you have to do is sign up with any of the companies offering freebie sites and within minutes you can be designing a website of your own for free, that's zero cost! You really dont need to know anything about webdesign as these companies will let you use their website creators which will nearly make the site for you. The most common or well-known freebie companies are Freewebs, Bravenet and Tripod. You'll most likely know that lots of Geeks have already made a site with Freewebs.
The Benefits:
1, For a start you dont need any web designing skills to use this site.
2, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
3, It is completely free to use.
The Disadvantages:
1, Your site will have ads on every page and you have no control whatsoever over which ads appear there.
2, You will not have complete access to the code on the pages, thereby preventing you from making them as search engine friendly as possible (this is important if you want your site to appear in the search results).
3, You are restricted to using the free templates. This results in lots of people having sites which are nearly identical.
4, (my personal opinion) Those who use Freeweb sites often dont bother updating or maintaining them simply because they ARE free. They want a website like.... yesterday, they sign up with Freewebs, post all their text and pictures in the first one or two days after signing up and never do anything with the site after that. The site stagnates and dies a death until their account runs out. I've seen this happen many times.
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The Paid for Website:
Ok, how about splashing out a little for your website, why should you consider doing that? How much money is involved? If you are not going for a freebie website, you'll need to shell out some dosh. How much depends on you. What do you want exactly? I know several of the Geeks have paid for the own domain name (www.nailsbywhoever.co.uk) and hosting. Hosting simply means where your website files and pics are stored so that they are available for visitors on a 24/7 basis. Total cost for a domain name and hosting is probably in the region of £60 a year, give or take. You may get it even cheaper than this but always check out what the hosting company supplies for the price quoted. There can be huge differences between each one, If you're not sure whats' meant by a particular term, get someone else who knows about such things to check it out for you so that you can make an informed opinion and a wise purchase. Once you've decided on the above, you now need to make your website. Again, many hosting companies provide
website creators where you can design your site without having any prior web knowledge, although you should be aware that as with the Freewebs site creator, there are some restrictions which prevent you from optimising your site fully.
The Benefits:
1, You've put some money into getting your site up ad running, so you are much more likely to put some effort into it also, thereby trying harder to make it succeed.
2, You dont have to display any ads whatsoever.
3, If using a website creator, you dont need any web designing skills and you are less likely to come across someone else who uses a similar template to you.
4, You can place whatever text and/or pictures on your webpages.
5, If you or someone you know builds your site using code, you can make your site as search engine friendly as possible with minimum effort and no extra cost.
The Disadvantages:
1, It costs money. Approx £50 - £60 for hosting, to be paid each year.
2, You initially have to sort out a domain name and hosting provider.
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The absolute best option in my opinion has got to be the Paid for Website. Ok, it does set you back a bit financially, but if you optimise your site and make it work for you, eventually it'll start bringing in clients for you, you'll get your money back in no time.
Finally: If you're thinking of hiring somebody to build your site for you and maintain it by adding new links, pictures, pages and/or text, this will cost extra. Maintenance costs time to the web-builder, so ask beforehand how much and in what way do they charge? Is it an hourly charge or do they charge per update. They will NOT do it for free, in the same way that you wouldnt consider doing a set of nails for free. Sounds reasonable?
If anyone has any questions, fire away or email [email protected]