Building a Website: Easy, Cheap Options

Written by Harry - 0 Comments

For those of you just beginning to build your web presence, many options help make your life easier. Jamie mentioned using a blog and that’s fine. I’ll tell you about websites now.

If you want a professional image, stay away from free hosting websites. “angelfire” or “geocities” in the URL works against you. Get your own domain name; they’re cheap, most starting at $10 a year. Besides, the websites never seem to look professional.

If you’re serious about your business, consider an inexpensive hosting service. Hosting costs around $200 a year for an economy package. In Motion Hosting hosts all our websites (we have six and counting). They’re top of the line as far as I’m concerned and very helpful.

I’ve found some excellent sites that offer free templates to upload to your server. Just drop in your content.

Check out Template Monster – they specialize in themes for Word Press blogs. These are not free, but you can get some ideas. If you have the money to spend, go ahead and buy the template.
Free Website Templates – The name says it all. Plenty of ideas for the offering here.
Zero Dollar Templates – This site has a wide range of templates to choose from and links to other free template sites.
Free Template Designs – More free stuff.

It helps to learn how to use Dreamweaver (Macromedia’s web design program) and Adobe Photoshop. With these two programs, you can take any template and add your own personal touches.

Free template sites are great for ideas, too. Look around and window-shop to get an idea of the layout and color scheme you want.

Start simple. Forget about Flash animation and lots of bling; learn more and add that on later. Make the site clean, pleasant and as user-friendly as possible. Concentrate on good content.

Be patient, too. It took me at least three weeks before I hit on a layout and color scheme for our latest business project. Jamie had given up. I was at the point of scrapping the domain name and getting a new one.

I’m also the type of guy who has a hard time letting go. Finally finding a look for the website that suddenly captured the attention of Jamie and I was worth it.

I’m glad I didn’t give up.