webhosting/site building advice

blue67

I've just registered a couple of domains with GoDaddy as I need to build a website for a small part time business. It's a service I provide as opposed to selling goods so in essence, initially at least, I expect the site to be not much more than a couple of pages but I will need a contact form of some description to feed to an email address.

Anyway, will the templates/site building packages on the likes of Bluehost suffice and give me the professional look I need? Also are they user friendly enough to enable me to build something over the course of a few days?

I will need to update the site regularly to give new dates/venues at short notice so I'd rather not need a 3rd party to do it for me. I'll also need access to some basic images to give the site the look I want.

Any recommendations or suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

steve1980

Short answer, no, but depends on what you want the website for.

Your better bet is to install Wordpress and use one of the millions of templates available.

Have Bluehost sorted out the email virus they had yet?

blue67

I want the website to provide a little bit of information about the services I offer and also to enable people to contact me about said services and I would like to be able to update it easily.

I wouldn't know about Bluehost or their email virus, I'm just a potential customer looking for a few suggestions! I'm sure those mse members whom have used and whom recommend Bluehost could give you more information however.

Cheers

steve1980

I'm a web designer and a client who I created a website who hosted with blue and she advised me of the problems.

If it's for a business website then you should either make it as good as possible if you know what you're doing or get a designer in to do the work.

mj12_2

If i were you i'd download a template you like the look of and then see if you can figure out how to make the changes you need - thats how i started out in web programming and i found it a good way to learn the basics. It depends how much time you have though, if you want something quickly then the suggestion above of using wordpress might be better for you. If you have time to learn how then creating something yourself will afford you much greater control/customisation etc not to mention furnishing you with a valuable skill.

RuthnJasper

I used the Mr. Site package, which you can buy from Amazon, for a site I built.

I thought it was pretty good and you can have an online shop if you are selling anything.

It's possibly a bit basic for what you need, but I just thought I'd mention it!

Good luck. x

steve1980

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2333771

RuthnJasper

steve1980 wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2333771

That thread is over a year old! Hey-ho. Good luck anyway.

pitkin2020

Wordpress all the way, pretty simple to get to grips with and will do everything you need by the sounds of it. If you host with godaddy its once click to install it aswell

terra_ferma

Hello
I'm in the process of setting up my own webstore.
I would say if you don't need to sell you don't need a webstore like Mr Site (which I would not recommend as there are better options out there, from what I read).
Personally in that case I would use Wordpress. If you later need to add a shopping cart there are free modules that you can use (which would not be suitable to someone who has many products and variations).

If you are selling from your website, and as you say it's nothing too complex, there are many options for you.

If you have time/skills you could use an open source cart (opencart is on that gets a lot of good reviews, also zencart and prestapress are liked by many). But it would be time consuming. You may need help if you don't have time to learn.

If you want something that looks OK and is easy to use I would recommend create.net. It's my favourite hosted solution, but not suitable for me unfortunately. People who use it seem to be very happy with their service and they have a free trial.
Another hosted solution that looks OK is freewebstore.
Your website won't be state of the art, but it will do the job.

There are many other options out there, from very cheap to very expensive.
Cheap is OK for a simple website, someone starting up, the expensive ones seem a waste of money, if your needs are a bit more complex I would go with opencart with help from a designer (someone recommended, who has a good portfolio, not someone promoting their services to you )

Anthonis

Well for small business you can use WordPress or Joomla. Both are easy to install, easy to use, and highly configurable.
But firstly you have to choose good hosting company. Yes they all offer high speeds and services, but usually there are some problems.
Firstly find out what they offer for you. What is the speed of their connection. Meter some speeds of webpages that are hosted with them with gtmetrix.
Find out space and bandwidth they offer, how many databases you can create and email accounts assigned to that domain. Is pop3/smtp service is available and what are the limits (most of them disable that because of spam use).
Do they do backups.
And also ask them how much is php memory limit (128mb is enough in shared hosting, usually needed when you want to install more plugins in WP or Joomla)
Then if you think that everything is fine for you, buy.
Install WP or Joomla, there are lots of templates on internet and lots of plugins, easy install and configuration, you can do everything by yourself, add, edit, remove info, articles, contact forms, anything that you want. Just take a look on youtube, there is plenty of videos how to use everything
Templates are easy to edit if you know some photoshop.