Hi,
Have any of you experience with services like GoDaddy and others?
I need to build a website. I don't want to use fliker or deventart or anything like this. I want my own site with my own address.
But there are a lot of services. Which ones are good and why?
Freedom and*EASE* to construct the layout/look, stability, low cost, no need for web tools like dreamweaver or to know HTML or Flash, etc..
Can you help?
I don't know if WordPress is any good?
https://wordpress.com/
Weebly is probably one of your best options if you want A: ease of editing, and B: are interested in any design structure besides blogging. SquareSpace is another option to consider. Weebly offers a free version with branding in the footer. If you want your own domain you'll need to pay, otherwise you get something like thebadger.weebly.com.
If you want to register your own domain name I highly recommend Namecheap. Best prices and selection, very little upsell BS, easy to deal with, etc.
- Oshyan
I had not heard of these. More recent? Weebly looks very easy to use.
Weebly has been around a while, but it's getting more popular now. Definitely very easy to use.
- Oshyan
THANK YOU GUYSSSSSSS!!! ;D
I need this for my portfolio. I need to have it by the 20th. I have put this off and put it off, and now I have to cram.
But to be clear it is for an art/design video page. That kinda thing. If it helps you to direct my attention to one over the other or changes your suggestion or anything. I don't need to make it perfect at first, I just need it. I will work on it over time after the 20th to make it better. But first things first.
I would definitely still recommend Weebly. Very easy to use and get something decent looking. WordPress will be more flexible but much harder to use, especially to "design". You rely more on finding good existing templates, many of which (the good ones, at least) cost money in themselves. Wordpress.com is very blog-focused, not very flexible; you need to install and host Wordpress (software) yourself to get the most flexibility for non-blog site formats, but then you're paying for the hosting, plus for a theme probably. And it's *still* not as easy to design and adjust as Weebly. :D
Weebly and other similar visual editing WYSWIYG environments aren't the answer for everything, but for the average person creating their own site they're quite useful and good options.
- Oshyan
Thanks. I will for sure start there.
I can host you on my dedicated server if ya want.
Thanks man.
Probably just going to go the consumer path on this stuff.
Try google sites, it's free and leverages the power of the entire Google ecosystem.
My site is powered and hosted by Google.
THanks!
Were you able to make it look however you wanted when you set it up? Where there a lot of options for you, or one template to fill with your own images, or how did it go for you? Could you move windows and pages/buttons and such?
Easy to set up and edit later?
Google Sites is fairly good for simplicity, but last I used it it was far behind systems like Weebly for flexibility and aesthetics. Given you're wanting to make a portfolio type site I don't think it'd be my first choice. But since it's free, it may be worth a shot...
- Oshyan
Guess I am leaning to Weebly or wix.com . More to wix at this moment.
But what is holding me up now is, domain, and bandwidth. Wix offers 1 year fee domain, 3GB storage, and 2GB bandwidth. (plus the template and stuff) for 9.25 a month (no ads)
I am not sure about the bandwidth or domain (regardless of which host) How much bandwidth does one want/need. And is one year free domain good? Not sure yet what it will cost after one year is over either, or what it should cost.
I don't know about other countries, but hosting can be very cheap. I'm paying $25 for everything per year. 3Gig of storage and bandwith, I believe.
Depending on how file storage is measured, 3GB may not be that much, although if it's *just* for your website files then it should be fine (as long as you don't intend to have a bunch of big movie files). 2GB bandwidth on the other hand is pretty meager. Weebly appears to offer "unlimited" space for less money and while there is always a limit practically speaking, it sounds like Weebly is not very strict with it. Perhaps more importantly they offer unlimited *bandwidth* as well, and again although there is probably *some* practical limit, I haven't heard of anyone being shut down because their site got too popular. If you're going to have large images, videos, and/or file downloads of any kind on your site, you'll need more bandwidth and possibly more space too.
For more inf on Weebly vs. Wix this might be helpful:
http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/wix-vs-weebly-which-website-builder-is-better/
I personally haven't used Wix, but have used Weebly. I would honestly say that unless Weebly's templates and aesthetic just don't seem capable of matching your desired look, then it's probably the better choice for the long-term. It has better pricing and base features, it's easier to use, and you can export your site if you ever want to move away from a website builder...
As for domains, I don't personally find free domains to be that useful for a couple of reasons. First, they're generally quite cheap already, about $10-12 (e.g. from Namecheap), though it depends on what TLD you use (e.g. .com vs. .org vs. .us). Second, and perhaps most importantly, most web hosts that offer "free" domains then charge you *more* than a stand-alone domain registrar would when you need to renew. In the case of Weebly it's $19.99 for what would otherwise probably be $10-12, as I said. Finally, it is sometimes helpful to have your domain and web host separate. In the past this has often been because the web host will impose certain restrictions or make it difficult to transfer to another host or registrar in the future (and this is the very reason some shadier hosts offer "free" domains). But even when that doesn't happen (and with more reputable companies like Weebly and Wix it should not be an issue, I would think, though I can't speak from experience), it's still nice to have separate control of your domain. It allows greater flexibility and power, primarily. And it's not a lot to pay to get that capability, along with independence from your web host should you ever choose to change hosts or anything else.
As for your hosting Ulco, you probably don't get a web design tool like Weebly/Wix with the space and bandwidth at that price. The higher prices of Weebly/Wix are primarily due to their WYSIWYG editor technology.
- Oshyan
Thank you!
I Have been using wix and making mockups from there various templates. I will also do the same with weebly.
I am going through it all with your posts as a sorta guide to focus. I think that I definitely do not want a domain that has wix or weebly in in the address, does not seam pro at all. I will have to get a real one.
Cramming a ton of stuff this week. reminds me of finals in college. I hate it, but i guess that is how I am. ;D
Both Wix and Weebly work fine with domains registered with other providers, such as Namecheap (which I recommend). So you could have TheTerragenBadger.com or whatever, but build the site with Wix/Weebly.
- Oshyan
It all worked, Oshyan. Thank you
Namecheap was fast and easier than I thought it would be.
Glad to hear it.
- Oshyan