Just about every week someone asks me how to make a website. Then I launch into a question and answer session where I quiz them about all the things they want a site to do, the look and feel they have envisioned, what functionality they require and at the end all I have done is confused them and spent time that I can’t get back. So I will now attempt to define some easy possibilities for people that need a website but don’t know what to ask.

A simple website so that customers can find them online, with some basic brochure type functionality.
Recommendations:

1. Google Apps - this free service from Google will let you build a site with one of their many templates and you can make a site with a few or a few dozen pages and it will be very easy. Cost for the site $0!!  Cost for the domain name $10 per year with eNom (its integrated and easy).

  • PRO- very simple and easy and good for a basic presence on the internet. Integrated email, documents, calendar all with a nice integration to your Blackberry or iPhone.
  • CON - limited in what it can do, especially if you want some extra functionality.

2. Wordpress.com - this is a hosted service for the Wordpress.org blogging software. While you can download Wordpress software for free you can also have them host a site for you for nothing too. The free wordpress.com site will have an address like http://YOURSITENAME.wordpress.com and if you would rather have it be http://yoursitename.com that will cost you $14.97 per year.

  • PRO - very reasonably priced and very flexible platform for making a site, a blog or some combination of both. Looks much more professional and polished compared to Google Apps Sites.
  • CON - the free version has your site name in front of wordpress.com. Also the many plugins that are available for a self-hosted install are not available for this platform.

3. Wordpress.org - this is where you can download your own copy of the Wordpress software for installation on your own server. By self hosting you are now able to install as many of the thousands (literally!) of plugins that are available that will let your site do an astounding array of tricks. Want a Craigslist type site? No problem! Want a Twitter feed on the side? No problem! Want to completely change the look and feel of the site every week by messing around with the themes and styles sheets? No problem!

  • PRO - Free. Immensely flexible platform that can be made to do almost anything. Huge community that supports it.
  • CON - You will need to have your own domain name and server (dedicated or shared). You will need to install it (easy) and configure it to do what you want (not as easy). You will need to learn about FTP and using a text-editor to modify files. Expect to spend some time Googling phrases like “Help, my wordpress install is doing……”

There are thousands more software packages out there that can be downloaded and used to make a site with. I couldn’t possibly go into detail about all of them here, and honestly I have only used a few anyway. Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net) has more than 3000 results for the search “CMS” which is short for Content Management System. You can compare the various applications for free at CMS Matrix (http://cmsmatrix.org/matrix) and you can try many of them out at Open Source CMS (http://opensourcecms.com/)

If you are in Tucson and want a site, try one of these options above. If you are in Tucson and the thought of doing one of these sites leaves you a little worried, call or email us for a quote on your project. The next blog posts will cover ecommerce, getting seen on the internet and local promotion.