I've been marketing live snake demonstrations for kids in the local North Bay area of San Francisco since last September and procrastinating about getting a website up. It hasn't hurt me too much up till now but inquiries and word of mouth are starting to pick up, and I need to be able to direct people to a nice, simple website.

I have no plans to do any commerce on it yet. What I do need is to really impress visitors with photos and basic information upfront on the landing page and possible have a gallery, a contact page, a testimonial page, etc. I miight consider having a reservations page but I think that would be a bit farther down the line.

I have downloaded Nvu, and flirted with Homestead and FreeWebs, intrigued over Bravenet and Yahoo, and in general done everything but get a darn site up and going!

My html knowledge is decent. I used to do web corrections and new product pages for a vitamin company I worked for but it was pretty much cut and paste. I have some SEO awareness but this site is really going to be a reference site for the most part.

Of the above options listed, any strong feelings and reasons why I should go one way or another? Or other better options I'm overlooking? Thank you much!

What are your needs and what are you prepared to pay? (if you are prepared to pay). I could sort you out with a site as I offer hosting with a SiteBuilder as part of all of the packages although I guess if you were looking for offers, then you would have gone to the hosting offers forum.

My advice, if you are looking for a free site, is Freewebs. Their interface is really simple but they have lots of features including changing the account to a HTML only one if you decide you just want the space and not the site builder tools. They have a few issues with domains - e.g. when you mask the freewebs domain (usually freewebs.com/yourwebsitename), then your new domain always stays in the address bar. For example, if you visit a page on your site, your domain with still say yourdomain.com, rather than yourdomain.com/yourpage.html. That's a bit annoying - even more so if you link to a different site, but your domain remains in the address bar!

I personally wouldn't use a free hosting company, I would spend some money on a quality host and also on a domain. I would suggest you use www.godaddy.com to purchase your domain. The hosting will depend on your requirements, but I'm sure someone on here can point you in the right direction.

If you have decent HTML knowledge, then it wouldn't be too difficult to design a website, however if you wanted to brush up on your HTML, take a look at www.w3schools.com.

If you need a simple site quickly, I'd suggest finding a template that will suit your needs, one you can modify and go from there. I would suggest the following for templates:
http://www.opendesigns.org/
http://www.openwebdesign.org/browse.php or
http://www.oswd.org/
It will get you started.

I have to agree on getting a real web host and not one of those freebie deals. GoDaddy has some decent plans that won't empty your wallet and I've never had any trouble with their hosting.

Thanks. I am registering my domain name with GoDaddy....I forget what the advantages are there but I did decide it was preferable. I again tried looking at the templates on Freewebs but they just frankly bore the heck out of me. I found out that Kompozer is preferable to Nvu last night. Any experience with this? Should I just code in notebook and do it all myself.....I do need to get one up asap.....or should I go with Komposer. Ideas?

Unfortunately, I have zero funds right now to pay anyone else to help. It is a very simple site though and I am familiar with all the html tags and know where to find tutorials and any info I should need. Already have the look of the homepage configured in my head also. Thanks again!

heed the warnings about GoDaddy. Maybe a wordpress theme or a phpnuke theme would be easy

What warnings ???

Originally Posted by LadynRed

What warnings ???

I've never personally had a problem with GoDaddy, however, I've heard a lot of complaints against them.

In some cases, I've heard of quality domains being taken from their owner for GoDaddys benefit.

However I can't back any of these claims up, so I remain impartial

Warnings? I've never had any problems with them, and I've only heard a few complaints about them.

I don't have hosting with them, I noticed that 70% percent of hosting complaint threads regarding domains are about GoDaddy. Perhaps it is coincidence and that because so many people user it, there is a larger user base to complain about it

Website Tonight would be perfect for you if you don't want to spend the time or money on a website. You'll get a professional website without the hassle.

You could just Use wordpress or Joomla and use like lunarpages if a big website Or you could use byethost my Favs

And for a template you could use http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

You may want to try www.webanole.com.

If you are willing to pay its affordable and very easy to operate.

There are about 1,000 professional looking skins to choose from, you can set up an unlimited amount of email accounts, get a domain name or use your own domain name.

Its as easy to work as Microsoft word

Hello
I think lunarpages are good and easy to use one. I used to it once and really liked its features..

Steve

PHPNuke is good for a fast site. But not fully recomended. I'd say get a temporary quick site up while working on a better one

Reply to : decterlove

For your simple site i recommend you a company i am also under contact with that company and getting good response. etrix.ie/about-us/

That's the company URL :
http://www.etrix.ie/about-us/

Hope this will help you like me.

Regard,
Diane
.............

Originally Posted by decterlove

I've been marketing live snake demonstrations for kids in the local North Bay area of San Francisco since last September and procrastinating about getting a website up. It hasn't hurt me too much up till now but inquiries and word of mouth are starting to pick up, and I need to be able to direct people to a nice, simple website.

Originally Posted by decterlove

I have no plans to do any commerce on it yet. What I do need is to really impress visitors with photos and basic information upfront on the landing page and possible have a gallery, a contact page, a testimonial page, etc. I miight consider having a reservations page but I think that would be a bit farther down the line.

I have downloaded Nvu, and flirted with Homestead and FreeWebs, intrigued over Bravenet and Yahoo, and in general done everything but get a darn site up and going!

My html knowledge is decent. I used to do web corrections and new product pages for a vitamin company I worked for but it was pretty much cut and paste. I have some SEO awareness but this site is really going to be a reference site for the most part.

Of the above options listed, any strong feelings and reasons why I should go one way or another? Or other better options I'm overlooking? Thank you much!