DIY website design and hosting

[Alex Crow]

hello enthusiasts,

i am seriously looking into website design, and have an idea of what i can pay to, and expect from a web design specialist. BUT, hang on a minute! how about those DIY sites, such as Moonfruit?

so the question, has anyone used Moonfruit or one of the others? what do we think of them? how about the hosting costs and reliability?

all i am looking to create is the usual four or five pages of informative text and appropriate graphics and pictures - quite simple really.

here is moonfruit....http://www.moonfruit.com/build.html

many thanks.

 

[television]

We have quite a few good guys on here that can do that, hopefully they will come forward.

Interesting doing your own

 

[Alex Crow]

yes, interesting, but actually not too tricky these days with half an eye for design and reasonable computer literacy.

ultimately a site can be no better than its copy. there are plenty out there with great animated graphics etc, but no meaningful content. i do have a volunteer to do the site for me, my brother, so am not really looking for more to step forward - just opinions in general.

have a look at moonfruit malcolm, it is so easy, a grown-up could do it!

 

[television]

I did,,and it is good,,I liked it. the sites that I hate are the ones that take time to load, or sites that are too clever with no meaningful content.

 

[The Crooner]

Mine is

www.carben.co.uk

I did it all myself, the hosting costs $15 per month, and I paid around $100 for the site design and some functionality

Its based on a CMS - content management system.

I am reasonably computer literate, but not a geek, and have no design skill at all.

It serves my purpose and is easy to update.

Tony

 

[Alex Crow]

thanks tony, nice clean site you have there! fairly close to the functionality and amount of content i need. also content management is something i absolutely need, i guess most hosts can deliver that.

 

[television]

I found that to the point Tony and it does all you need

 

[Top Cat]

We have a small retail website, and built it up quickly and simply using an off the shelf package from Mr.Site

http://www.mrsite.com/ecommerce_website_templates.asp

The fee for the licence also includes a domain name and the first year of hosting, starting from under £20, then ongoing hosting is about £1 odd a month thereafter. It was suitable for us as it proved to be just enough for what we wanted without being too flashy or OTT.

 

[47p2]

This was my first attempt at building a website. I used the WYSIWYG platform which is very simple to work around once you know what you are doing. As always with websites there is always some tweaking to do or adding on extra bits and I find this easy with Wysiwyg

This was my second attempt, less complicated and to the point as it is a business website. Again using the WYSIWYG platform.

 

[Dec]

I like the simple uncomplicated format of your second link, another example … http://www.germanauto.ie

Dec

 

[Alex Crow]

thankyou all for the contributions and opinions, it is much appreciated.

 

[sweety]

I got the hosting package here http://www.xnynz.com/ It provides domain name register, domain appraisal, online file folder, ssl certificate etc...

 

[Joeybagger]

Try looking at wordpress as a content management system which has many free website designs as well as lots of plugins to help get your site indexed in Google etc.

Link http://wordpress.org/

It is quite easy to use

Example of a simple site http://www.softscapelandscapers.co.uk/

 

[littlebrooklyn]

I used http://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk/ when I made a site for Keith to sell some Dinky and Corgi toys online. They aren't expensive and although they don't have a phone number to call if you have any problems they are very quick to respond when you submit a support ticket

 

[Mark280SE]

Mr site or web easy 8

I have spent hrs and ££ doing just what you are looking for and I even learnt to code and in the end for simple design the above..good luck

 

[Alex Crow]

to add to this old thread, and for the benefit of posterity, check out my site that cost me nothing, and continues to cost me nothing.....(it is in a link below)

 

[Doug_]

Alex, your site returned 504 - Gateway Timeout

Doug

 

[47p2]

I'm about to delve into the unknown workings of Adobe Dreamweaver. From what little I know this is one of the best and most powerful webuilders available. Whether I manage to get my head round it or not will be another story

 

[Doug_]

Having been there and done that several times, skip the pain, unless you really want to learn a new skill, and go for a php content management system(CMS) such as drupal, joomla etc. So many hosts now offer simple installation of a CMS solution as part of their hosting package. You can have a professional looking site up and running in hours rather weeks.

Personally i like CMS Made Simple, it is well supported by knowledgeable folk (a bit like this forum) and regularly updated.

 

[simbu]

I got the reseller plan here http://www.goresellers.com/ It provides hosting,domain name register, domain appraisal, online file folder, ssl certificate etc...If you get the reseller means you can get the hosting and domain package at very very cheap cost...