MY BLOG
HOW TO BUILD A NICE WEBSITE FOR CHEAP
Money can be tight when you run a small business; I know this from my own experience. Fortunately, people who aren't prepared to hire a web designer have several inexpensive alternatives. There are some drawbacks, of course; you will be limited to a fixed set of options, and often times you won't be able to customize all the aspects of the site according to your needs. However, if you can leave with these limitations, the solutions presented below may be just what you need.
This popular content management system may confuse beginners at first. Why? Because there are two different versions of Wordpress. People who want to get a higher degree of control over their websites should download the CMS from wordpress.org, while beginners to web development should go for the hosted version of Wordpress, which can be accessed at wordpress.com.
The CMS has thousands of free themes, which can change the aspect of your new website. To keep costs as low as possible, you will have to download Wordpress, and then install it using a shared hosting account. Once that the installation process finishes, you can install a theme, apply it, evaluate the aspect of your website, and then move on to the next theme, until you find a winner.
To add missing features, you will have to install some plug-ins. Fortunately, most of them are free; however, you should be aware of the fact that free plug-ins can be abandoned at any time, and thus introduce serious security risks. Not only that, but the more plug-ins you add, the slower your site will run. It's all part of using predefined code elements and existing resources, rather than having a custom website created for you from scratch.
The good news is that the recently released content editor module makes adding posts and pages to your website a breeze. So, if you've managed to get your site up and running the way you want it, you should be able to keep it updated without having to worry about too many technical elements.
This powerful website builder allows people to start their projects from a blank page, or choose one of the 500+ available templates, which can be customized by making use of a context aware drag-and-drop builder.
To get started, you will have to create a free Wix account. Pick the type of website that you are interested in, and then answer a few simple questions. Sit back while the Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) builder tries to match your criteria with billions of combinations and content elements to create a fully functional website within minutes. Once that is done, it's time to customize your new site. Edit its text, images, add videos, and more. Then, publish your site to see how it looks in real life.
Wix provides several plans which can fit anyone's budget. The ad supported version will set you back about five dollars per month, while the beefiest plan, which provides unlimited bandwidth, 20 GB of storage space, priority response and VIP support, will cost about $30 per month. Truth be told, you get a lot of value for your money, considering the fact that you'll never have to worry about keeping your site updated and/or fight hackers.
If you prefer to create your site using a step-by-step, interactive website builder, Weebly may be the perfect solution. Just like Wix, it provides lots of unique templates, while also giving you the option of editing pretty much any aspect of your site by using custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript code snippets.
The integrated analytics system helps you see the number of unique visitors, page views, store orders, etc. It's a killer feature for people who choose to create a Weebly account for their e-commerce stores.
One more thing: Weebly provides a mobile app that makes it easy to manage your site from anywhere in the world. And with prices that range from $5 to $25 per month, every small business owner should afford it.
