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General => Computers / Internet => Topic started by: elvis2003 on February 02, 2012, 10:30:11

Title: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 02, 2012, 10:30:11
Morning all!
Im setting up a new (small for now) business and am looking for advice re free websites. I dont mind if its one of those ones where its free for the first 12 months and then you pay after that. Hopefully Ill be a bit more established by then. Ive had a go at webs.com but they put free ads on the home page which take up a lot of space. I dont care how basic it is. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance Rach x
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: sheddie on February 02, 2012, 10:34:25
Hi,

I've heard positive things about Moonfruit.com - free webspace I believe but I must admit I haven't used them personally.

I have used 1&1.co.uk and found them very good, they aren't free but I found them pretty reasonable.

good luck
sheddie
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 02, 2012, 10:55:50
Thanks sheddie,Ive had a look at moonfruit,found a lovely template which is perfect,but Ill be B******D if I can susss out how to do the rest,cant even type the title (cue gnashing of teeth)
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: sheddie on February 02, 2012, 11:11:58
Ha ha! - yeah, webs are always a fun challenge aren't they! - thats why I used to like frontpage, it was just like using Word.

Just had a quick look and I think you need to go into the 'edit' option obviously and then theres a +button at the menu on the top of the page to insert. A menu popped up on the left and it gave me the choice of insert body text or insert title text? - not sure if thats a help - I just had a quick flick!

Looks like one you might just have to keep having a play at - they never seem to make them simple!

ps, did you pick the 'Fresh and Natural' template with the nice photo of the apples by any chance?
;D
Sheddie
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 02, 2012, 11:22:19
 ;D yep,the green beans sold it! We now have a title,slow progress being made and OH has sensibly gone out to leave me to it..thanks sheddie
R x
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: BarriedaleNick on February 05, 2012, 11:49:42
Weebly is excellent for novices and also for more expereinced users

http://www.weebly.com/
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 05, 2012, 12:53:09
Thanks Nick,just stumbled across weebly and so far it looks a bit more user friendly.moon fruit was driving me mad,it was so hard to enter simple text,and I'm ok ish with IT
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 05, 2012, 19:50:42
just in case anyone else setting up a website reads this,deffo try weebly first,its so simple I'm actually really enjoying doing it! :)
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: Tee Gee on February 05, 2012, 19:55:13
Quite often your internet provider gives this service, check with them.

That was how I started.

Then again you could try browsing through these;

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=free+website+hosts&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=free+website+hosts&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a)
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 05, 2012, 20:14:21
Thanks TG,think Ive tried all of them now,and reckon weebly best by far,for me anyhow
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: Tee Gee on February 05, 2012, 21:39:10
Quote from: BarriedaleNick on February 05, 2012, 11:49:42
Weebly is excellent for novices and also for more expereinced users

http://www.weebly.com/

I agree it looks simple to use but it is not FREE see here;

http://www.weebly.com/tos.php (http://www.weebly.com/tos.php)


I get suspicious of things that are supposed to be free so had a look around and found this page,

Personally I like to see what it wil cost before I I venture into sites such as these.


Edit;

For example; the new apple ibook author software which i am trying out at the moment is free to produce but when you read the small print you find out that you need a ISBN which costs $125 plus they take30% off the selling price of the book

It seems a bit expensive to me,  e.g a £4 book will cost me  around £ 80 for the first book and 30% off every book there after, meaning I don't start making any money until I have sold around 40 books.

As I say I am suspicious of freebies.
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 05, 2012, 21:45:54
My understanding of it is you pay only f you use certain features,which Im not,,Ive not been asked for any payment so far..wouldnt mind paying a fee,within reason,as hopefully my website will be a good tool for my new venture
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: BarriedaleNick on February 06, 2012, 19:43:02
To be fair to weebly they do have a decent reputation but of course they are trying to make money - they do offer pro features which are payable services but you can use the free version with no real strings attached.  That's pretty much an industry standard business model for a lot of Internet startups these days - nothing wrong with that! 
The whole iBook thing is just another reason for me to avoid Apple..
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: Deb P on February 08, 2012, 09:22:19
I had a go and did a basic few pages for my husbands business, only took me about an hour and very straightforward. I paid for a domain name for a year and a bit extra for a private domain to reduce spam, but when I search for the site via a search engine it doesn't come up at all. Is that anything to do with it? I can go direct to the site so it has been published.
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: BarriedaleNick on February 08, 2012, 11:59:52
What's the url??

Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: Deb P on February 08, 2012, 20:08:44
http://www.andypatrickjoiner.com/
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: BAK on February 08, 2012, 21:46:46
Deb P,

it looks to my untutored eye as if you registered the domain today?

If so, I am afraid that search engines can take a while (a week or two) to pick a new domain up ... and this assumes that there are no problems - google in particular can be quite fussy.
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: Deb P on February 09, 2012, 00:00:20
Yes that is correct, if so that would make sense! I was worried that registering it as a 'private' domain would affect it when searching, which would be a bit pointless for attracting business !
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: daveyboi on February 09, 2012, 00:59:46
Quote from: Deb P on February 08, 2012, 20:08:44
http://www.andypatrickjoiner.com/

Google has already picked up this post so I am sure your site will be crawled soon.
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 11, 2012, 18:20:46
if anyone would like a look,ive nearly finished it now,let me know and i'll pm the link (would post it here but not sure if allowed)
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: sheddie on February 12, 2012, 09:21:45
Quote from: elvis2003 on February 11, 2012, 18:20:46
if anyone would like a look,ive nearly finished it now,let me know and i'll pm the link (would post it here but not sure if allowed)

Hi, I'd love to take a look! - ps, well done!
;D
sheddie
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: BarriedaleNick on February 12, 2012, 09:45:34
Quote from: daveyboi on February 09, 2012, 00:59:46
Quote from: Deb P on February 08, 2012, 20:08:44
http://www.andypatrickjoiner.com/

Google has already picked up this post so I am sure your site will be crawled soon.

This site is crawled almost continuously - google returns almost instant results...
However your site can languish for months if you do nowt esp if no one is linking to them.  A link to your site from here will help but to get things moving. Take control of your site with
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en - you can see what google thinks of your site and you can see visitors - search results etc and even change the crawl\spider rate
You do need to prove you own the domain but it is a very useful set of tools..
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: gp.girl on February 25, 2012, 22:19:39
Just started a weebly site for the scout group all seems fine except I'm having trouble uploading photos  :-[
Title: Re: free website,any reccomendations?
Post by: elvis2003 on February 25, 2012, 22:37:39
gp girl think you need to drag the 'picture' element onto your site first,hope that helps?