I will admit it...I like website building. Back in the day when the internet was still sort of shiny and new..I'm talking AOL dial-up was the way to go, chatrooms were booming, and the .COM bubble had not blew up yet new...HTML 4 was popular. It was so popular and new that I bought a HUGE book on how to code. I was coding websites for people before we had CSS or PHP or HTML 5. I remember how hard it was back then to get a website and maintain it. If you had to have a website and you wanted it to look good you either had to learn fancy code or pay for it through the nose. Then if you needed it updated...well forget about it!
After I gave up on HTML 4 coding, I learned you could make a very nice website that was VISUALLY stimulating and functional in Adobe Photoshop. You still can, if you can find a place to upload it to. For a few years I was all about doing that. There is even a site or two still alive with my original design (http://www.harrodsdiesel.com for an example). Yet, that is really hard to update if you can't get on the computer with the files because essentially it is a giant picture with links.
So, what's a girl to do? Enter three websites, all with free and paid hosting, for your viewing pleasure.
#1) For years I used http://www.bravenet.com/ because they allowed you to upload a file like your Photoshop index.html file and host it for free. I bought my domains through them and everything. I recently left their service to go to another site. I had previously tried their "templates" and found them hard to use. Yet, the other day I received an update that they had new easy to use templates. Really? That is how www.artistauthorpoet.com came about. I went in and chose a template. I didn't read any of the instructions as it all seemed very intuitive. It lets you create a blog right then and there or import your Blogger or Wordpress Blog feed....so you can type on your website OR your blog. I imported my Blogger site. That was a nice feature. I like Blogger because there is an app for my phone. I can always write a blog post. Same is true for Wordpress, but I don't know much about them.
As far as free vs paid...there are a lot of limitations on what you can do for the free version. You can't have a Paypal button, you can't have a lot of the advanced editing tools, you can't change that icon that goes into the favorites bar when someone saves your site, and you apparently can't have a webstore. However, you can post YouTube vids directly on your site, import your blog, and they have some really nice templates that can be customized with your pictures and words. Just a hint though...pick the template you like best as there are some things you can't edit for the free one...like the color the bars are on your menus and dividers.
They also are the only ones I have seem with a newsletter program built in and blog tools right there. I had tried to use mailchimp, but found it hard. So, I am using their service for a newsletter sign up at the moment!
#2) I also have a website on http://www.wix.com where you can find www.daughterofares.com. They have an HTML 5 builder and it's pretty awesome. I loved their photo gallery and all the snazzy buttons. However, when I went to check into a package it seemed like they were 2x's as expensive as anyone else. They don't seem to have an easy shopping cart system and their editor is a little slow at times. Their bandwidth, even on the paid, is a little on the low side and they don't tell you everything up front...I hate having to ask for information that should readily be available! So, if you want a pretty free one that isn't hard to put up...this is where I would go...but they didn't have a lot of options for what they offered and the pricing plans kind of stank. I would not put a lot of pics or videos on this one. They let you have about 500 MB of space for people looking. Think 1/4th of your phone plan data package.
#3) Lastly enter www.webs.com . I liked them so much I bought hosting from them after using it free for a day or two for my www.shannonmcroberts.com. Two years of basic hosting was like 85 bucks. Not bad. They give you 5 GB of space AND they have a built in store front. You can get a decent amount of space and 5 items to sell in your storefront on the free one...best part...no needing to know how to make a stupid store front or cart system. They have lots of "apps" to add into your page. Like the calendar app. It's pretty easy to use and I like the way my site looks. However, I was not amused with the blogging app.
So, it really depends on how much traffic you can expect to get, what you want to do with your site, and if you want or need a blog. Myself, I liked Webs and Bravenet overall for the paid sites. Their packages are as cheap as 90 bucks for two years with decent benefits. That is CHEAP for what they offer and what I have found. Many of those sites that say 2.00 a month are not really 2.00 a month. Read the fine print!
I really do prefer to buy domains from Bravenet.....so if you wanted a professional .com for your blog I would redirect the domain to go to your free domain that Bravenet will assign you and import your already existing blog...or if you don't have it...get one set up on Blogger (my personal choice) and then just ship it to the prettier site...plus you can update your blogs from your mobile device! OR just get a domain and re-direct it to your blogger address. There are several nice templates to use for Blogger. People also make them for you and they are easy to upload. Blogger IS a viable choice. I used to have www.daughteofares.com go to my blogger site!
Best part of it is any of these sites can easily be updated from any computer. I don't have to get onto my big computer to get to the code anymore. Also, if you go and get a free dropbox or googledrive you can easily stay in touch with any graphics you might need. Plus, if you are in a pinch all of these sites and apps can probably be reached via a table or mobile device because they are on the web!
Oh and before I forget...you want something really simple to use and people do see it? Check out about.me! You can see my site here http://about.me/shannonmcroberts. It is like a virtual active business card and it's free! You can always start here and then pick up a blog on Blogger or Wordpress for fancier things! Plus it has some interesting features...I added a "spotlight" for people to buy my book and also added my book trailer from youtube directly on the site! And you can embed it to your blog!!!
So, what do YOU use for your website? Is there a great site that others might need to know about? Where do you buy your domains?
Need more information? Here is some basic stuff that helped me along the way:
What is "hosting"? Hosting is you paying the server (like Bravenet, Go Daddy, Webs, etc) for things like extra bandwidth, extra tools, fancier customer support, the ability to have things like videos stored on your website...etc. You should pay close attention to the amount of monthly bandwidth a company gives you. Some won't even bother to tell you, but if you exceed it, it will shut your site off. Bandwidth happens when you have people come to the website and look at things. If you have a lot of videos and other items that take MBs or GBs to view then that is costing YOU space on your plan. Think of it as you going to a webpage on your cell phone. Most cell phones give you 2 GB a month of internet usage. Every time you click on a page, video, internet ad, etc you are using your data package. Pretty much the same with your website, only other people are coming and using it. When I ran my www.shannonmcroberts.com I had a 1GB allowance per month and never had a problem, but I also didn't have a lot of stuff to do on that domain. Most of it was a link to something else that I had set to open in a new window. If you are thinking of using Blogger or Wordpress for your site, as far as I know, you can have unlimited visitors so that might be a good place to put a lot of your pictures and stuff.
What is a "domain"? A domain name is what people type in to find you. Such as www.shannonmcroberts.com. I own shannonmcroberts.com and nobody else can ever have that name unless I don't pay the bill for it. Most of the free places give you a crappy looking free domain name. (I mean hey it's free so yeah it's not going to be the best ever) Really it's a subdomain of their website. Like Blogger always has www.xxxxxyyyyyyyrrrrr.blogspot.com and their main site is blogspot.com. Sometimes you get to pick and sometimes the site just assigns it.
Some of them do allow you to "attach" a domain you already own and have registered somewhere else or they will sell you one to attach. Most companies that are in the hosting business will let you pay them to register your website with a registrar. You own the ".com" then for however long you keep paying, but if you don't already have a .com check around for the best price per year plan. Go Daddy is a good one but so is Bravenet. Don't pay 25 bucks a year for a domain name. If you pay for a package check to see if you get a free domain with it. Don't pay for one if you can get one in your package and they will register it for you!
You don't have to have your .com registered with your hosting company. If you can't attach your .com to your free site directly then many of them have easy "forwarding" buttons. I use Bravenet.com because they only charge like 8 bucks a year for most domains and they have a nifty page under "domain" and then I can go in and manage mine. I just go in and do "domain redirection". You also have the option of "masking" it, which makes the .com you redirect stay in the browser instead of reverting to the cheap looking one, but that can mess things up if you are trying to get a link to the page or blog link...
Go Daddy from what I saw also has easy domain redirection.
After I gave up on HTML 4 coding, I learned you could make a very nice website that was VISUALLY stimulating and functional in Adobe Photoshop. You still can, if you can find a place to upload it to. For a few years I was all about doing that. There is even a site or two still alive with my original design (http://www.harrodsdiesel.com for an example). Yet, that is really hard to update if you can't get on the computer with the files because essentially it is a giant picture with links.
So, what's a girl to do? Enter three websites, all with free and paid hosting, for your viewing pleasure.
#1) For years I used http://www.bravenet.com/ because they allowed you to upload a file like your Photoshop index.html file and host it for free. I bought my domains through them and everything. I recently left their service to go to another site. I had previously tried their "templates" and found them hard to use. Yet, the other day I received an update that they had new easy to use templates. Really? That is how www.artistauthorpoet.com came about. I went in and chose a template. I didn't read any of the instructions as it all seemed very intuitive. It lets you create a blog right then and there or import your Blogger or Wordpress Blog feed....so you can type on your website OR your blog. I imported my Blogger site. That was a nice feature. I like Blogger because there is an app for my phone. I can always write a blog post. Same is true for Wordpress, but I don't know much about them.
As far as free vs paid...there are a lot of limitations on what you can do for the free version. You can't have a Paypal button, you can't have a lot of the advanced editing tools, you can't change that icon that goes into the favorites bar when someone saves your site, and you apparently can't have a webstore. However, you can post YouTube vids directly on your site, import your blog, and they have some really nice templates that can be customized with your pictures and words. Just a hint though...pick the template you like best as there are some things you can't edit for the free one...like the color the bars are on your menus and dividers.
They also are the only ones I have seem with a newsletter program built in and blog tools right there. I had tried to use mailchimp, but found it hard. So, I am using their service for a newsletter sign up at the moment!
#2) I also have a website on http://www.wix.com where you can find www.daughterofares.com. They have an HTML 5 builder and it's pretty awesome. I loved their photo gallery and all the snazzy buttons. However, when I went to check into a package it seemed like they were 2x's as expensive as anyone else. They don't seem to have an easy shopping cart system and their editor is a little slow at times. Their bandwidth, even on the paid, is a little on the low side and they don't tell you everything up front...I hate having to ask for information that should readily be available! So, if you want a pretty free one that isn't hard to put up...this is where I would go...but they didn't have a lot of options for what they offered and the pricing plans kind of stank. I would not put a lot of pics or videos on this one. They let you have about 500 MB of space for people looking. Think 1/4th of your phone plan data package.
#3) Lastly enter www.webs.com . I liked them so much I bought hosting from them after using it free for a day or two for my www.shannonmcroberts.com. Two years of basic hosting was like 85 bucks. Not bad. They give you 5 GB of space AND they have a built in store front. You can get a decent amount of space and 5 items to sell in your storefront on the free one...best part...no needing to know how to make a stupid store front or cart system. They have lots of "apps" to add into your page. Like the calendar app. It's pretty easy to use and I like the way my site looks. However, I was not amused with the blogging app.
So, it really depends on how much traffic you can expect to get, what you want to do with your site, and if you want or need a blog. Myself, I liked Webs and Bravenet overall for the paid sites. Their packages are as cheap as 90 bucks for two years with decent benefits. That is CHEAP for what they offer and what I have found. Many of those sites that say 2.00 a month are not really 2.00 a month. Read the fine print!
I really do prefer to buy domains from Bravenet.....so if you wanted a professional .com for your blog I would redirect the domain to go to your free domain that Bravenet will assign you and import your already existing blog...or if you don't have it...get one set up on Blogger (my personal choice) and then just ship it to the prettier site...plus you can update your blogs from your mobile device! OR just get a domain and re-direct it to your blogger address. There are several nice templates to use for Blogger. People also make them for you and they are easy to upload. Blogger IS a viable choice. I used to have www.daughteofares.com go to my blogger site!
Best part of it is any of these sites can easily be updated from any computer. I don't have to get onto my big computer to get to the code anymore. Also, if you go and get a free dropbox or googledrive you can easily stay in touch with any graphics you might need. Plus, if you are in a pinch all of these sites and apps can probably be reached via a table or mobile device because they are on the web!
Oh and before I forget...you want something really simple to use and people do see it? Check out about.me! You can see my site here http://about.me/shannonmcroberts. It is like a virtual active business card and it's free! You can always start here and then pick up a blog on Blogger or Wordpress for fancier things! Plus it has some interesting features...I added a "spotlight" for people to buy my book and also added my book trailer from youtube directly on the site! And you can embed it to your blog!!!
So, what do YOU use for your website? Is there a great site that others might need to know about? Where do you buy your domains?
Need more information? Here is some basic stuff that helped me along the way:
What is "hosting"? Hosting is you paying the server (like Bravenet, Go Daddy, Webs, etc) for things like extra bandwidth, extra tools, fancier customer support, the ability to have things like videos stored on your website...etc. You should pay close attention to the amount of monthly bandwidth a company gives you. Some won't even bother to tell you, but if you exceed it, it will shut your site off. Bandwidth happens when you have people come to the website and look at things. If you have a lot of videos and other items that take MBs or GBs to view then that is costing YOU space on your plan. Think of it as you going to a webpage on your cell phone. Most cell phones give you 2 GB a month of internet usage. Every time you click on a page, video, internet ad, etc you are using your data package. Pretty much the same with your website, only other people are coming and using it. When I ran my www.shannonmcroberts.com I had a 1GB allowance per month and never had a problem, but I also didn't have a lot of stuff to do on that domain. Most of it was a link to something else that I had set to open in a new window. If you are thinking of using Blogger or Wordpress for your site, as far as I know, you can have unlimited visitors so that might be a good place to put a lot of your pictures and stuff.
What is a "domain"? A domain name is what people type in to find you. Such as www.shannonmcroberts.com. I own shannonmcroberts.com and nobody else can ever have that name unless I don't pay the bill for it. Most of the free places give you a crappy looking free domain name. (I mean hey it's free so yeah it's not going to be the best ever) Really it's a subdomain of their website. Like Blogger always has www.xxxxxyyyyyyyrrrrr.blogspot.com and their main site is blogspot.com. Sometimes you get to pick and sometimes the site just assigns it.
Some of them do allow you to "attach" a domain you already own and have registered somewhere else or they will sell you one to attach. Most companies that are in the hosting business will let you pay them to register your website with a registrar. You own the ".com" then for however long you keep paying, but if you don't already have a .com check around for the best price per year plan. Go Daddy is a good one but so is Bravenet. Don't pay 25 bucks a year for a domain name. If you pay for a package check to see if you get a free domain with it. Don't pay for one if you can get one in your package and they will register it for you!
You don't have to have your .com registered with your hosting company. If you can't attach your .com to your free site directly then many of them have easy "forwarding" buttons. I use Bravenet.com because they only charge like 8 bucks a year for most domains and they have a nifty page under "domain" and then I can go in and manage mine. I just go in and do "domain redirection". You also have the option of "masking" it, which makes the .com you redirect stay in the browser instead of reverting to the cheap looking one, but that can mess things up if you are trying to get a link to the page or blog link...
Go Daddy from what I saw also has easy domain redirection.