sitebuilder and webhosting merit points to look for...

[AreYouOutThere]

Hello all,

I've recently registered a domain and need to get a site up, preferably sooner than later.

I'm trying to identify the qualities to look for in a free (minimal expense) sitebuilder or an application and/or free web templates to create the site.

Once this is done, I'll need to publish and would like to know what to expect in the pricing department.

Thanks very much,

Joe

 

[audiopro]

I'm trying to identify the qualities to look for in a free (minimal expense) sitebuilder or an application and/or free web templates to create the site.

You would have to decide what facilities the website is to contain before deciding what software is required to produce it.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[AreYouOutThere]

Thanks for the feedback but I'm not exactly sure about what you mean.

To clarify, I need to construct a site for a small tech service business (about us, services, contact us, etc.).

Looking for a simple option that provides manageability for the likes of an average technical end-user.

TIA,

 

[audiopro]

It is very difficult to give a precise answer to such a wide ranging question.
Most web designers do not rely on a single piece of software to create all of their websites.
Everybody has their own methods of working but as an example I use Photoshop and Flash for graphics, Wordpad for HTML and CSS scripting, Perl and PHP for server side scripting and MySql for database work which is quite a range of necessary skills to achieve all of my client's demands.
As for what an average technical end user is capable of, that would depend on many factors.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[fisheromacse]

probably not the answer you really want, but for non-technical users, i would recommend iWeb (on a Mac) for creation & content management and use Filezilla to upload the content.
I have several students (ages under 8 to 14) using this solution and all of them have become adept quite rapidly.

 

[fisheromacse]

if you need a windows based solution, the best free one i have found is FirstPage (a free front page clone) in combination with Filezilla.
as was said previously by audiopro, depending on what you want the final pages to do, you may need more/other tools.

 

[ChrisHirst]

Why not just use Wordpress, there is no shortage of templates and plenty of cheap hosting that offer it in the package.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

 

[kjv1611]

I would definitely agree with ChrisHirst on this one. I'm not saying WordPress, solely, but just look around and pick your CMS. If you use a good CMS, you won't have to dig into the code, but with at least most of them, you can.

For instance, I highly prefer Drupal (

http://drupal.org).

I used to do my church's website with Frontpage. I edited a little bit of HTML, but not much. However, Drupal gave me far better control over what went into the website, organization, layout, etc, without having to edit multiple items.

Here's what I really like about a CMS over a standard WYSIWYG application for building a static site: With a WYSIWYG tool, let's say you end up creating 8 pages of content, all HTML-based. If you have the same content on them all, and want to change it, then you have to change it on every single page... which frankly is boring, at least to me.

However, with a CMS, you can make MANY of your changes in one place... and whether you've got 1, 10, or 10,000 "pages", they'll all update from the one change.

Drupal, at least, and I think many of the CMSes don't exactly work with "pages" solely, so it takes some getting used to and a little understanding, but frankly, you can use probably any one of the available CMSes, and get a basic site up and running in a matter of minutes.

Another thing that is easier with a CMS is the contact form. I know with Drupal, aside from customizing in some ways, it's a piece of cake.

Now, particularly, if you want to do a new site, and can wait oh 5 days, then you can try Drupal 7. I'm just giddy about this update. I've tried an early beta or late alpha stage build of it, and it was GREAT! It's super easy on the administration side.

The only thing that I'd say can be cumbersome is updates. Updates, specifically to the whole system (or core). If something goes wrong, your site is hosed until you restore from backup or find the problem and fix it.

I do think it's worth the headaches, but that's something to keep in mind. A static site is simpler, and in some ways easier. However, overall, I'd pick a CMS (specifically Drupal right now) over static HTML, flash-based, etc, any day.

Well, that's all my opinion.

Wordpress is nice as well. I've not built anything with it myself... maybe one day... but it's supposed to be one of the simplest to use setups. I don't think it's as easy to customize as Drupal, but probably out of the box, it's simpler... that's coming from reading multiple discussions on the topic comparing the two. And there are others as well.

Both Drupal and Wordpress have active user bases as well, and support forums, so you're likely to get a response on their sites if you run into problems and ask for help.

 

[kjv1611]

Some more detail. I'm going to assume that you were to do this using Drupal. If you use another CMS, it'd work about the same.

Oh, and this is also assuming you're using Linux hosting, with Apache, PHP, and all of that. Although, I do believe Drupal can be setup on Windows hosts, I've never tried.

You said:

To clarify, I need to construct a site for a small tech service business (about us, services, contact us, etc.).

Here's the step-by-step for a simple/basic setup:
[OL][LI]Set up hosting - you already did[/LI]
[LI]Get a domain name - I'm assuming you did with the hosting.[/LI]
[LI]Download Drupal 6 (or wait a few days and get Drupal 7, officially final release - January 5) - given some of the extra features making management/admin easier, I'd say it's definitely worth going with 7... I'd get the latest Release Candidate for now, to get used to it, and then just rebuild - gives you more practice that way - on January 5th... or then again, you may not need to do anything big between the two, I've no idea.

http://drupal.org

- specifically go to one of these links:

http://drupal.org/start

(for Drupal 6.20, currently)
or

http://drupal.org/project/drupal

(for Drupal 7 RC4, currently)[/LI]
[LI]Whichever you get, either extract the zipped or gzipped archive to a folder and copy the files to the web server... or move the archive to the web server, and extract there... easiest thing to do is extract everything to the web root, which is normally the public_html folder[/LI]
[LI]Create a database on your server. Default is to create a MySQL databse. If your web host provides cPanel, here's how to do it with phpMyAdmin there:

http://teamtutorials.com/web-development-tutorials/create-mysql-databse-with-cpanel-and-phpmyadmin

- and it may be simpler.. just depends upon how your web host has things set up. All you need to do is create the database, then create a user for Drupal to use in the database, give it a login password.. Make sure you remember or write down the info, b/c you'll need it for the Drupal install..[/LI]
[LI]Once the database is created, open your web page from your domain name... if you don't see a "welcome to your new Drupal website" message, then something may not be setup correctly with your domain registration - if you did this through your web hosting company, contact them for further help/instructions.[/LI]
[LI]Click a couple buttons, answer a couple questions, including giving the database name, login name, and password... (important hint here: MAKE SURE you enter the database and user names exactly as they show in phpmyadmin, or under "databases" in CPanel. I've had some headaches there, b/c I create them with one name, and the database creation (way it's setup there, I guess) adds some to the names... no big deal when you know it.[/LI]
[LI]Click the final OK or whatever button(s), and Drupal will run for a couple/few seconds, and have you set up.[/LI]
[LI]One of the questions will be to assign yourself a password for the "master" account. Make sure you give a strong password for this one, so no one can easily crack it and take control of your site. But also make sure you can remember it and/or write it down somewhere.[/LI]
[LI]You can customize the appearance, add/remove stuff, etc, but I'll just cover getting your first few pages setup.. basics.[/LI]
[LI]Next, you want to add a basic page... in Drupal 6, you'd go to the admin section, under content, add new story (what I'd do anyway)... give it a title, put something in the content, and you're ready.. so I'd name it "About", and put whatever you want in the body section... and save it. In Drupal 7, you'll add a "basic page" unless they changed the wording since the alpha/beta version I'm playing with.[/LI]
[LI]For your contact, there's a separate section for that. On a Drupal 6 install, it's located directly under Content, and on Drupal 7, it's listed separately under Structure... I think. You basically fill it out to suit your needs, save it, and you're done.[/LI]
[LI]Same thing as About page for any other such pages.[/LI]
[/OL]

Now there are some other hints and tips as well, but that's the basics. There are lots and lots of references to setting up a Drupal site for the first time, etc.. and they'll cover the main modules you'd want to instal (think plug-ins) for further functionality. One thing you'll want to handle is SPAM on the contact form. So, look for captcha/recaptcha/etc.

And for web links, it's worth installing and/or enabling the path module. Seems it may be installed by default, I don't recall. It allows you to create custom path names for your site.

So, if you don't enable that module, your about page may be at:

http://www.mysitename.com/node3

If you use the path module, and set the title using that module (you just type the path name into a text box - simple), it'll look like:

http://www.mysitename.com/about

And there are other things as well.. like the Administration Menu module - I think it's a really nice way to access all the different things I've mentioned so far. Drupal 7 has something like it already built in, so you may not need it any longer.. I tried both, and liked the Admin... menu module better than the build-in of the alpha build of d7 I tried.

As far as visuals, there are themes you can download to begin with, and you can always build/edit your own custom theme yourself, later, and apply that theme. You can see

http://www.druplagardens.com

- signup for a free account, and create themes there. You can buy

http://www.artisteer.com

to design themes on your computer. You can find LOADS of themes available for free, as well.

Well, there's more you can do, but I'll hush. If you want to know more, ask away, but I'd hate to go further into it in case you end up preferring to use another method.

Oh.... one other totally separate method would be to use whatever "site builder" your web host provides. Just bear in mind that if you use this method, you may have to totally rebuild the site if you changed web hosts. For instance, 1and1.com has a "site builder", and many others do as well, I think, but I've preferred to do my own.