Green Geek: How to create a web site on a budget

 

Dear Geek, 

 

We are a small specialist grower and most of our sales are through word of mouth and industry contacts. Of course, we would like to tell more people about our plants. A friend suggested we set up a web site to let more people find us.  The problem is, I know nothing about web sites and the few web site companies I’ve called want thousands of dollars for the set up and then they will charge me extra any time I want to change the site! Is there a way of getting a simple web site set up on the cheap – something that I can manage myself?

 

Please help,

 

Penny Pincher

 

 

Dear Penny,

 

Web sites can be a good way of expanding your market, but they do require careful planning. While professional web developers are an excellent choice, since they have all of the artistic design and technological know-how to do a good job, they come at a price.  Putting together even a simple a five page web site ‘cyber brochure’ can take several weeks of work and cost between  $500 and $1000 form a inexpensive firm. If you want a more complex web site, you can be looking at many thousands of dollars.  

 

The good news is, if you are prepared to put a little time into learning some new (and pretty easy) Internet skills, you can build and run a web site for less than $10 a month. Of course, I am not promising that your web site will be as good-looking as one created by a professional, but in this economic climate, a penny saved is a penny gained!

 

To begin, you will need to know a few basic concepts for the creation and running of web sites:

 

Domain Names:  A Domain name is the unique name that will identify your web site (and email address) on the Internet – for example, greenerpublishing.com.au is the domain name for this magazine’s web site and email.  Before you get a web site, you will need to register and rent a domain name (for between $9 and $40 a year). There are many domain name registrars on the Internet, but I strongly recommend that you get your domain name from the same company that is providing your web hosting (see below). This is because the technical experts at the hosting company will be able to set up your web site to use the domain.  Setting up (or pointing) a domain name to a server is not an intuitive task and gets quite technical, so having the hosting company take care of this for you is a big help. Plus most web hosting companies give you a discount on your domain name – some even provide it free of charge as long as you keep your web site running on their servers! 

 

Web Hosting:  A web hosting service (or web host) is a company that has huge warehouses full of powerful computer hardware that run every second of every day. The companies rent out space on these computers to people who want to have a web site without the need for buying their own web server hardware or software. 

 

Choosing a web host is pretty easy. Simply do a search on Google for “cheap web host” and you’ll be inundated with results.  You can also visit www.webhostingstuff.com, which has compiled a list of popular web hosts. Take an hour or so to browse different host’s web sites. Many of them will contain terrific tips and information that will help you learn a little bit more about creating you own web site.  However, avoid being tempted by price alone:  the most important thing you will need from your web host is customer service. Once you find a couple of web hosts that look interesting, do another Google search on their company name to see if anyone has complained or praised their service.

 

Linux or Windows:  Most web hosts will offer a choice of a Linux or Windows server. Both options give you more or less the same thing – a web site server. However, the Linux option uses an open source, free operating system and server software, while the Windows server is a commercial product from Microsoft.  As a result, Linux servers are generally a few dollars cheaper than Microsoft and run open source add-on products like Joomla. However, many like the Windows server because it can run free add-on products, like DotNetNuke.  If you’d like to know more about the difference between Linux and Windows hosts, visit http://www.webhostgiant.com/multiple_domain_hosting/linuxvswindows.html.

I personally run Windows servers because I am very familiar with Microsoft’s development tools, but don’t know too much about Linux.  But if you don’t know much about either, then they are both great options.

 

Web Site Building Tools: Of course, having a web site is useless if you can’t put anything on it. This is where web site building tools come in. There are many different approaches to building web sites: you can use a desktop-based web design solution and ‘upload’ your finished site to the web server; you can use the web host’s online web-building software (check to see if this is freely available) from your web host; or you can install and use a web content management solution.  

 

Using a desktop web design solution sounds like the easiest option, but it’s not. While the desktop web design solutions are very powerful, they are also often complex and require a lot of technical and artistic flair to get the most out of them. 

 

Using an online web-building tool from your web host is probably the easiest approach. These typically come with dozens – even hundreds – of high-quality web page design templates that you can use.  All you do is specify what type and how many pages are on your web site, then type in text and upload any pictures.  While not very flexible, such tools are good enough and, best of all, free. Many web hosts will offer you a product imaginatively called “Site Builder” to let you do this.

 

Installing a web content management solution requires a little more work, but saves you a lot of effort in the future. A content management solution (also called a CMS) is a specialized application that lets you edit your web site online, plus add many extra features not found in simple online web-building tools, like user registration, shopping systems, forums, email newsletters, etc. Better still, you can give different people access to edit different parts of the web site… so you can maintain most of the site yourself, but let your snap-happy sister-in-law edit the photos on the product section of your web site!

 

There are two great choices for a CMS: Joomla, which runs on Linux and DotNetNuke, which runs on Windows.  Many web hosts will install either of these products free of charge on your web site. Once you have these powerful tools installed, you can upload ready-made design templates that will give your web site its look and feel.  The www.TyTag.com site is a good example of this. Based on DotnetNuke, the entire site design cost just $20 because we simply purchased a stock design template.  While not fancy, it does a good-enough job.  The online customer support system and help desk was an add-on for DotNetNuke. That cost just $99, and the shopping system was free.

 

Even though you can do all of this yourself, you should also think about the time and learning involved. The good news is, there are small web services firms that offer complete bundles – registering your domain name, contracting a web host, designing and maintaining your site (ideally using a web content management system, so you can edit the web site whenever needed).  Check out a few of the local web services firms before you decide to go it alone.

 

Of course, all of the above information is useless if you have not first planned out what you want your web site to achieve. A web site can be as simple as a brochure or as sophisticate as a shopping center.  You will also have to think about how you will get people to know about your web site. We’ll look at these issues next month.