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Building a Website?


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Anyone have advice on webhosting and web page development options for someone not particularly technologically skilled ...I see so many companies offering free template this and that, most seemingly geared for e-commerce.  

Any suggestions welcome ... it's not going to be a super complicated site, basically a splash page to 

1) photos

2) several separate text/photo pages

3) discography

I need the ability to link seamlessly to youtube videos and site-hosted audio clips.

Alternatively has anyone priced website development from those in the field? Up to $500 might be possible but anything above that ain't gonna happen unless I win the lottery or find out about a long-lost dead relative, and the latter has equal or perhaps worse odds than the former.

 

Thanks!

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I've been looking around for the non-profit I work for, and if you're willing to spend $500.00, you will be able to get a someone (there's a lot of independent contractors out there for this) to develop a solid site, and maintain it at a decent price (would suggest for your site an hourly pay scale, not monthly), or if you're capable, you can track it for yourself. As for free, I hate to say it, but Google's free website seems to work well. Word Press also.

Link to article for website building.

Edited by Matthew
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I'd probably start with one of the free options and then upgrade if youreally  feel the need... after all, I guess you don't want to design it in particularly fancy ways, or market the page beyond sharing a link to it here and there... that would come down to a choice between goole sites, wordpress and weebly or so it seems... here's a page that has recent reviews of all three

https://www.shivarweb.com/17004/google-sites-review/

 

 

 

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My company uses WordPress, but with BoldGrid, one of the plugins that sits on top of WordPress and allows you to build/maintain sites via a drag-and-drop visual editor:

BoldGrid

You can test out building a site on BoldGrid's site to see if you like it, then transfer it to a hosting provider when you're ready to do that. We went directly to one of the hosting providers linked on BoldGrid's site, InMotion, and built the site there after setting up an account, so we skipped the transfer step and just published the site when it was ready. 

My perspective is probably a bit skewed - I have a tech background, but almost none of my past experience is related to website design/building. Still, BoldGrid (and similar plugins) seems to make it relatively painless for novices to get a basic site up and running without a steep learning curve.  

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20 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

My company uses WordPress, but with BoldGrid, one of the plugins that sits on top of WordPress and allows you to build/maintain sites via a drag-and-drop visual editor:

BoldGrid

You can test out building a site on BoldGrid's site to see if you like it, then transfer it to a hosting provider when you're ready to do that. We went directly to one of the hosting providers linked on BoldGrid's site, InMotion, and built the site there after setting up an account, so we skipped the transfer step and just published the site when it was ready. 

My perspective is probably a bit skewed - I have a tech background, but almost none of my past experience is related to website design/building. Still, BoldGrid (and similar plugins) seems to make it relatively painless for novices to get a basic site up and running without a steep learning curve.  

Thanks. Ironically, this site 

https://esquirecover.club/

from this thread

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/85720-esquire-records-covers-club/#comment-1709444

Is, I am coming to believe, almost perfect for me ... from the front "door" that you scroll to open, and especially the sort of horizontal rolodex/flipping to go from one picture to another. Wonder if that's a plug-in/option with BoldGrid.

 

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On 11/15/2020 at 1:20 PM, Dan Gould said:

Thanks. Ironically, this site 

https://esquirecover.club/

from this thread

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/85720-esquire-records-covers-club/#comment-1709444

Is, I am coming to believe, almost perfect for me ... from the front "door" that you scroll to open, and especially the sort of horizontal rolodex/flipping to go from one picture to another. Wonder if that's a plug-in/option with BoldGrid.

Not going to say that kind of functionality doesn't exist somewhere in BoldGrid, but in my (admittedly limited) experience I've never run across it.

The Esquire Covers site appears to have been built by a professional web developer, judging from the credit at the bottom of the main page, so there may well be some custom code involved. Sites built with plug-and-play tools like BoldGrid tend to have a more basic look and feel and a few canned bells and whistles. BoldGrid's main selling point is pre-built modules/templates that require no HTML coding, although for those who are comfortable with coding, it's very easy to toggle between BoldGrid's drag-and-drop Visual Editor and the raw code editor.  

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  • 3 months later...

So I am starting to get deeper into this as I need to figure out if I can afford to pay someone with what I have raised (just over $500) or can even find a freelancer to get it done for a fee in that neighborhood. I reached out to some companies, no dice, no way they'd be that cheap.

So I suddenly thought of Craigslist.

I've encountered two people so far.

First says he's cheaper than all the rest, no hourly rate, flat fee, blah blah blah. I send him email describing what I want. He texts back a couple of times and finally says $200. Keep in mind that his lowest cost option for businesses is a "one page presence" for $199.

I say, for everything I want? Can you send me a link to something similar you've done?

He says LOL I won't jump thru hoops for $200. 

Then my phone rings. (I told him not to call during work hours.) I decline. He calls again. Decline again.

Now he texts: Pick up your phone.

(Pro tip: don't tell a potential client what to do.) (Also starting to feel like this guy sends texts like that to his girlfriend.)

Now he texts me about how I am complaining that its too cheap? Well, yeah, I think you'll do some BS job for $200 that I could figure out myself.  Finally told me to go waste someone else's time.  Gladly, pal.

Second guy seems a bit more professional and understanding, but his offer is $1000, 1/2 up front 1/2 at launch.

Now I just need someone willing to do the work and make it good, for closer to $500 than $1000.

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