Website creation

So, I have just bought a domain new for a new business venture and was hoping you good people could advise me on the best site for creating a website (free of course) ??

Squarespace looks good but isn’t free. WordPress with a template is what lots of people use – I find it a bit annoying though TBH.

Free isn’t always best!

Try Moonfruit…

http://www.moonfruit.com/

Check out the reviews of it – there are free and paid for options, and its very easy to use. Some decent templates too, which are very easy to customise.

I’ve set up a couple of WordPress sites and they are fine. Pretty easy to set up once you have a template you like. My main business site is just written in HTML in a notepad app as it gives me more control but I wouldn’t suggest that for a complete beginner.

WordPress

A friend made one with Weebly. Looks pretty good.

Yeah – either wordpress.com or drupalgardens.com

Either are good. Some learning is required.

Rachel

WordPress and spend £20 on a decent theme…

Set up the Lite hosting account on here: https://www.tsohost.com/web-hosting
Then install WordPress. Add a theme (loads of free ones or cheap ones [£20]).
Full control of your site, install any plugins or themes you want. You’ll have domain linked email addresses too (me@mydomain.com).
Wordpress is awesome. So widely used that there is so much support/troubleshooting online as well as plugins – want an online shop? Just download a free ecommerce plugin – no need to pay £100s to a developer.

I set this WordPress site up for my wife’s millinery business. Cost £25 for the domain and hosting and a couple of evening’s work

Mary Turner Millinery

I set this WordPress site up for my wife’s millinery business.

Chapeau!

wix.com

Thanks guys, seems like WordPress it is then.

Well my wifes friend just set up a business with her mum, unbeknown to the friend her mum cut and pasted the website from a similar business just up the road and just changed the names.

that ended well.

Don’t do that 😉

yourguitarhero – interested in how you get on with a business like that – my wife does similar with scarves, and has struggled to distance herself from the home-crafty-tat market and get into the luxury designer market.

yourguitarhero – interested in how you get on with a business like that – my wife does similar with scarves, and has struggled to distance herself from the home-crafty-tat market and get into the luxury designer market.

Check out http://folksy.com/. Plenty of decent arty/crafty stuff on there. Don’t know how big their audience is though.

Pretty much a case of getting what you pay for. Partly depends on your business and market, and whether you want an identity that’s a bit different, and whether you’re happy with customers knowing that you didn’t – or weren’t able to – really invest in the business. Not saying free is defo a no-no, but it does have some major connotations and implications that you need to be aware of.

^ Not if you’re smart. That site for my wife cost £25 and that is just domain and hosting costs. Free WordPress software, free template with a few adjustments and a free ecommerce plugin.

molgrips – my wife stocks her hats in some wedding accessory places in town. She also sells on etsy – in fact she is down at London Hat Week as part of the etsy stand right now.
She distinguishes herself from the home-craft market by being very good at millinery. She’s had her work looked at by established professionals who have given her that feedback. She did a course at college and was given an award for best student milliner in Glasgow for last year.
Also, prices are high. A bit backward but part of something’s value is its price.
She also emphasises the one off nature of everything, hand sewing and customises every hat and does consultations and fittings with her clients.

Saying that, it isn’t making much money. She’s only been doing it over this winter though, so still early days. TBH she is a good milliner, but the business and sales side isn’t her forte. I help out a bit, but I’m busy working so we can pay the bills! She’s taking on a part time job as well though. Hopefully things will pick up as spring comes in and people start thinking about all the summer weddings – she’s had more orders in the last few weeks than all winter.

I don’t have a website myself but a friend who’s just opened up a business set up his website with 1&1 and seems quite happy.

WordPress and free or off-the-peg sites are good for some businesses, not others. It’s about knowing your business, its industry and its audience.

Dreamweaver

Weebly is a good simple alternative to WordPress, all the hosting and design in one for free and you don’t even need a domain name to start with. http://Www.southernxc.net and xcrampage.com are weebly…

The key questions are what do you want to do with it.
Is it a shopfront?
Does it need to take order, with billing and payment?
What volume of traffic do you expect?
What amount of updating do you expect?
What amount do you have to invest & what returns do you expect?

If it’s a basic 1-5 pager showing services then there are a number of templates available.
If you want to do regular updates, e.g. regular news/gossip/product updates – i.e. content changes. Then a WordPress template is correct as WordPress is a content management system.
If it’s a full shop website then you may want to look at professional service hosting.

Check out http://folksy.com/. Plenty of decent arty/crafty stuff on there. Don’t know how big their audience is though.

Yeah we’ve done etsy, folksy and all that crap. It’s not really ideal for a high value luxury product though. Do you sell a lot through folksy?

wwaswas – Member
I set this WordPress site up for my wife’s millinery business.

Chapeau!

I doff my cap at wwaswas for this, well done sir!

my advice, if its a business and you can vaguely afford to do it pay someone. i’ve never been able to pay somoeone to do my sites and whilst my ability gets better each time i do a rebuild, its painfully obviuos to me that my sites could be way better if i could afford a designer and a builder.

but hey ho, i’m my worst critic and people like my designs so what do i know.

if you want to do it yourself hosting from greengeeks and the like is cheap, even cheaper if you change host every 12months. serif webplus is a very easy to use wysiwyg website build package and its cheap too. older versions off ebay are virtually free. adobe muse is better though more pricey.