Easiest way to build a small website???

jrmartin · Aug 9, 2010

I want to throw up a small buisness specific website for an idea I have. To start it only needs to be 1-3 pages, nothing special. As it grows, I will hire in someone to expand it, but for now I just want something cheap and quick I can throw up myself and make sure this idea will work.

So my question is: what is the easiest way for me to do this? Is there an online site program tool that I can use with a quick tutorial? I used powerpoint to build my first real estate website and that worked ok, but is there something better I can use?

The site itself is only going to contain information and a contact me page where people can fill out a few boxs and have it sent to my email.

Thanks in advance.

John

Anon3587x · Aug 9, 2010

Word press

Free download
Easy to use
check it out

jrmartin · Aug 9, 2010

Thanks, Ill check it out tonight

CorsePerVita · Aug 9, 2010

Don't forget Joomla and Drupal. I like Joomla since the templates that can be fit to it look great and are often times free and it has about a bazillion addons for it anymore since it's open source.

It's a bit of a learning curve at first, but has a lot more potential and a solid interface for the basic user and for an advanced designer for the future. I absolutely hate word press and it's format. But everyone has something that works for them.

x9vjzs098u123rnl · Aug 9, 2010

bateati said:
Word press
Free download
Easy to use
check it out

I'll elaborate a little bit on why you should use wordpress:

- With most hosting services, you can automatically install it without having to worry about entering information for a MySQL database or anything. Very Simple

-Check out WPDirect.com (wordpress direct) if you have any type of "Cpanel" hosting, it will automatically install wordpress for you, automatically integrate Google Analytics, and automatically install SEO plugins and configure them for you

-Themes make your site look clean and professional very easily- just pick a theme and click "install". You don't have to do design work yourself.

-Great for Search Engine Optimization. Google LOVES Wordpress blogs.

Basically, use wordpress. I use it for EVERYTHING, all sorts of situations. Best of luck, if you need any help feel free to PM me or shoot me an email.

Smooth · Aug 9, 2010

I will reiterate the wordpress blog. All of my websites start out with it. All of my sites start out with wordpress because of the exact reasons mentioned above (cheap, SEO friendly, simple, etc)

Forbes · Aug 9, 2010

If you only want 3 pages, wordpress is not the easiest route. Long term , yes.

Short term, easiest would be to make 3 HTML pages then upload to a hosting service with a domain.

If you're making a sniping site, wordpress would not be practical.

PM me if you need assistance. I've been making website for more than 10 years. I give free help to fast lane members.

Runum · Aug 9, 2010

I disagree. I have many sites running wordpress with multiple pages. I use Hostgator, it has a Cpanel. I can buy a domain and have wordpress on it in about 10 minutes. I can find a template in minutes and have muiltple pages on it in a few more minutes.

I tried Joomla, couldn't get the hang of it.

Here's a wordpress site I used to work on:
JohnsonCountyEvents.com

Here's one I use quite frequently now:
TheChargerProperties

Depends on what you want your website to do for you. With wordpress you do not have to know any coding at all.:cheers:

Forbes · Aug 9, 2010

^don't get me wrong. I'm in love with wordpress and use if for most my sites.

but his description was 1-3 pages "nothing special" = html page and images

dont use a broad sword to cut butter

Anon3587x · Aug 9, 2010

He said to start he only needed a small website.
What happens if he wants to expand?
Then he has to transfer all his information over.

It's good to be familiar with wordpress.

If he would give us a better idea on what he is actually trying to do that would help us help him.

Forbes · Aug 10, 2010

^in the original post he describes it as 2 pages:

page 1 - some information
page 2 - contact form

when it expands he will hire someone to do it for him

Icy · Aug 10, 2010

Forbes said:
^in the original post he describes it as 2 pages:

page 1 - some information
page 2 - contact form

when it expands he will hire someone to do it for him

A lot of it has to see what he says is an "easy" website. Too many people fail to realize that all browsers don't render the code the same, leading to doing little hacks *cough*IE*cough*. Learning html\css might be overkill for them, but it really depends on what his vision for it looking like really is...

Smooth · Aug 10, 2010

Ok, ok. Maybe if you are decent at coding, you can throw together 3 HTML pages and that MIGHT be simpler and easier then putting together a 3 page wordpress site. But he also spoke about expanding, and wordpress is clearly best for that.

I vote for just starting out with wordpress to save yourself the headache of transferring over to wordpress later.

jrmartin · Aug 10, 2010

Wow, thanks for all the answers guys. Most of the stuff you guys talked about I had to google as I read just to keep up with the thread.

The website will be just 2 simple pages when I get some time this afternoon. The first will simply be a page describing what I am offering and why they should use it. The second will be for them to input their contact information into boxes and have it send to my email. Think of it like one of those eBook sites but with a much different concept.

I have a great idea of where I would like to see the site get to in the future, but it is waaaaaaay out of my league or the time I would have to dedicate to it. Thats why I will hire someone to do it later, I just want an idea of the revenue I can expect from it before I put the money into it.

I think Im going to try to the wordpress just to give it a shot. I would like to learn enough that I can play around with some other site ideas in my spare time so this would be helpful. My question is though, after watching some tutorial videos on wordpress, it seems like the site is 95% 3rd party content driven, is this going to be ok for me? I can see that being great for SEO and what not later, but for the time being I have advertising that will drive the traffic there and there really is no good web content that I could use. Plus I would like to keep it simple and clean.

Also, I read up on the sniping that someone wrote about earlier. Sounds like a strange concept, what would you use something like that for?

x9vjzs098u123rnl · Aug 10, 2010

Unless you're a professional web designer and have lots of time on your hands, an html site will probably just look ugly. That's why i say go with Wordpress. It looks the most professional and it's the easiest solution to make look good.

Nobody wants to buy anything from an ugly site

Raegon · Aug 10, 2010

Just wanted to mention that this thread helped point me in the right direction as well. I've downloaded wordpress and will begin looking to it shortly.

Thanks!

NoMoneyDown · Aug 10, 2010

There's a good thread on here somewhere that talks about "landing pages" (which sounds a lot like what you are wanting to do). I believe Diane Kennedy gave some good advice in the thread.

Kazarian · Aug 10, 2010

Some useful suggestions here. On first glance Joomla looks like it will suit me quite nicely. Ta!

mtnman · Aug 11, 2010

Do you wanna work on that business or do you wanna work on the website?

Figure out what value you put on your time, then go hire someone to build it for ya at about 15-30 hours. If you've never seen html or installed a database before, that's likely how long you'll spend working on it.

Alternatively, there might be a kind soul here that will do it for ya for free... I would if I had the time right now.

jrmartin · Aug 11, 2010

mtnman said:
Do you wanna work on that business or do you wanna work on the website?

Figure out what value you put on your time, then go hire someone to build it for ya at about 15-30 hours. If you've never seen html or installed a database before, that's likely how long you'll spend working on it.

Alternatively, there might be a kind soul here that will do it for ya for free... I would if I had the time right now.

Truth be told as much as I appriciate all the help and info that everyone has given me, I have a little time this week to myself so I'm kinda excited about doing the work myself and learning a little bit!

Forbes · Aug 12, 2010

jazzfreak11 said:
Nobody wants to buy anything from an ugly site

please refer to this thread:

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.co...llions-what-we-can-learn-them.html#post135983

cliffs:

The ugliest sites make the most money (ebay, craigslist, google)
Usability is more important than aesthetics
just build what you need
None of these sites use wordpress

jrmartin said:
I can see that being great for SEO and what not later, but for the time being I have advertising that will drive the traffic there and there really is no good web content that I could use. Plus I would like to keep it simple and clean.

Also, I read up on the sniping that someone wrote about earlier. Sounds like a strange concept, what would you use something like that for?

I understand what you're trying to do and if done right, will make you lots of money. Create a a landing page with an order page then advertise the hell out of it to drive traffic. This is called sniping in web marketing linggo. You don't need a big content website driven by CMS like most here are suggesting.

NoMoneyDown said:
There's a good thread on here somewhere that talks about "landing pages" (which sounds a lot like what you are wanting to do). I believe Diane Kennedy gave some good advice in the thread.

This is what i'm talking about. The website discussed had a Conversion Rate of 48,56% (wordpress was not mentioned once in the thread)

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/business-building-e-biz-internet/13643-landing-pages.html

It's easy to recommend Wordpress when that's all you know and are familiar with. Specially once you get the hang of it, it's a heaven sent for non-web designers. But I have heavy experience with Wordpress development, HTML coding, proramming, and web marketing. Wordpress is not the most efficient method for all projects. People here want to be helpful that's understandable, but if you want the easiest and fastest way to make money with your idea, use my recommendation and the suggestions in the link above.

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