6 replies to this topic

[appl.tech.29501]

Hey guys, need a little advice. Trying to start a little website for my bidness starting up in January. I hear talk of free websites, hosting, etc. The company I use for my printing offers websites from $10~$20 monthly $20 being the premium site but I just don't like what they have to offer. Anyone have any experience with this or can offer suggestions? Thanks !!!

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Excellent inaugural question to kick off this this new forum, appl.tech!  

First thing to ax yourself is, "Self, what do I be wantin' out to use this site for anyway?"  

The answer could be one or more of the following:

- Bidness card on the web: name, phone number, company description, maybe a coupon
- Periodically post tips and fun-facts-to-know-and-tell for customers and repeat web visitors
- some other reason

Answering the "What" question points you in a couple different directions.  

If you just want a static website-- bidness card on the web idea-- then an easy and free way to set that up is with Google Sites:  http://sites.google.com

If you want a more frequently updated and interactive site, maybe even one that plays nice with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, then you have several excellent and free options to choose from.  All of them are in blog format.  

A blog is a type of website that's designed to updated periodically so when you check back in with it, there's new stuff to read.  I keep a blog at Fixitnow.com and also on this board in the blogs section.  BTW, you and all the other Masters are welcome, even encouraged, to start your own blog there, too.  

My main site, Fixitnow.com, is powered by the awesome blogging software, Wordpress.  Wordpress comes in two flavors: self-hosted (like my site) or where they host it for you for free at Wordpress.com.  The advantage to self hosting is that you have infinite flexibility... but you also have to know more about webology to take advantage of that. The downside is that you have to pay for your own webhosting.  For a site just starting out, you can get a hosting account on a shared server (meaning you're sharing the server with lots of other websites) for as little as $4.95/month.  The best webhost I've found so far-- and I've been thru dozens of them-- is, by far, HostGator.  Currently, both Fixitnow.com and our old forums, Applianceguru.com, are hosted at Hostgator (on their VPS hosting packages).  

For someone just starting out in the webmaster world, I recommend keeping it simple.  There are several excellent free options out there for getting a blog site up without having to worry about any of the nuances and minutia of server stuff.  This way, it frees you up to focus on content and not get bogged down in technical details.  Two excellent (and competing) resources are Wordpress.com and Posterous.com.  

Lemme just say that Posterous is some slick stuff.  I keep a Posterous blog at fixitnow.posterous.com.  All kinda themes to choose from, can post via email (in fact, that's how you start your Posterous), great iphone app, send multiple photos and they'll make a gallery out of it and host it, send 'em videos and audio, boom, it's there.  Smart, intuitive posting that takes care of all the formatting details so you can take focus on creating content.   All free, no ads.  Can autopost to Twitter, Facebook, other social networks at your option.  Not to overstate it too much, but I think everyone should have a Posterous regardless of whatever other site you have.

Anyway, them's a few thoughts.  Lemme know if you have any questions.

[appl.tech.29501]

Thankyou Master for that easily understood tutorial of the ever confusing web. Having read many pages over the last few days my eyeballs feel like they took a hit from a dull Katana. I will now go and seek further knowledge of the formentioned sites and letcha know where my head bees @.

[appl.tech.29501]

checked out Host Gator and its similar to what I currently have I think. the only noticeable difference is the cost is about half of what i'm paying but you have a contract which I currently don't have. Posterous looks pretty cool...probably sign up on there soon.

[kdog]

Love the new avatar !
Bet ya wish ya had a dollar for everytime you seen one of those pump bearings mashed ..... wait a minute, you probably do!

Edited by kdog, 15 December 2010 - 03:09 AM.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

I think the price for hosting at Hostgator is $7.95/month, not $4.95 as I posted earlier.  

I don't have a contract with them but I am using their VPS hosting, Level 3, $50/month, for the old forum.  I'm using their shared hosting, Business Plan, $14.95/month for Fixitnow.com.  

Definitely look into Posterous.  You may find it's all you really need.  Can start as many as you like.

Edited by Samurai Appliance Repair Man, 15 December 2010 - 10:33 AM.
Typos

[RussTech]

Ive read other posts in here that talk about google sites. And I for one, heartily recommend them. Why?

1. Real easy to start up, at least for me.

Register with a dns provider. (10 bucks a year) Point the domain to googles server. Tell google what the name is of the domain your pointing to your site. Done.

2. Complete and usually seamless integration with rest of Google services. (Calendar, gmail, voice, docs, analytics, webmaster tools, etc)

If you build the site using google apps for business free edition, you get ten gigs of storage. per site. you can build infinite sites. Also, if you set it up with apps, now you have email at whatever, you@domain.com, and it all runs over gmail. Up to ten users. I could go on and on about google apps services, but Im not sure if this is a protected forum. So Im gonna shut up.

3. Free hosting, and hosted on google no less.

Which means next to no downtime, and super fast page loads. Also, Google seems to take a slight preference for sites hosted with their servers in regards to seo. I might be wrong though. Ive been trying to capture top page results for Coachella Valley appliance repair for a LONNNG time now. I thought maybe typing washing machine repair and refrigerator repair 700,000 times would do it. Since Im on page $%^#@&* 2 right now. Guess not.

4. WYSIWYG editing, for the most part. No code required.

This was originally the main selling point for me with this hosting provider (Dont forget, its FREE). I wanted something my dad could get on and edit to his liking or whatever, and although he might be a genius in the refrigeration arena. Hes kinda compooter retarded. Now, two years later, and 700,000 entries of washing machine repair and refrigerator repair, I realize my dad is never ever gonna do anything with the internet. I've almost moved over to wordpress. I have a site halfway built. Then I also have a site built in dreamweaver off of some adobe template. I just have to wrap my mind around all the new programming language and syntax.