I am looking to create some websites. Certianly 1 for real estate and maybe some others. I am computer savvy. I used to “speak DOS” and Word, Excel and Powerpoint comes easily to me.
I am working with a particular hosting company and can’t get the website to work. Not only am I having difficulty, I find that if I save and close my work, I find that things I did are “un-done” or missing the next time I go in to the administrative page.
This is my first foray into this field. Is it me, or is it them?
Hmm… from the sound of your dilemma, you must be using a hosting company like Yahoo where you edit all your web pages directly on their site, which is something I don’t recommend. When I first started with websites, I ran into that exact same problem. Hence my first recommendation, get an HTML editing program and start FTPing all your pages to your site. That way you know all the pages you save will actually be saved.
Also, start learning the fundamentals of HTML. Heck, if you don’t even want to learn HTML, you can still build websites by downloading a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. They work a lot like Microsoft Word… only they are for building websites. Just google ‘WYSIWYG editor’ in google and you should be able to get a ton of results…
I would also recommend a HTML editor such as CoffeeCup for example, but eventually, you have to at least understand HTML and CSS – these are essential steps to create useful and functional website.
FrontPage is definitely a nice way to get started with developing websites. The only problem with it is that it adds a lot of garbage code into your websites which can lead to SEO issues.
Then again, if it comes with your Office Suite, then I would definitely recommend using FrontPage to get yourself familiar with the HTML environment.
You could also purchase a template and fill in the blanks. This way you would not infringe on anyone else’s work. They are 1000’s avalailable for less than $50. Many are free. Also there is a great hosting company that I use for $95/yr.
I don’t know how, since I know even less about SEO than I do about HTML, but my site is in the top ten on google for my province under some choice search terms.
But I agree with fadi, search engines generate very few leads for me. Free classified sites are the best source (next to a ton of signs placed around the property).
Another thing to keep in mind is if you plan on outsourcing SEO… be very careful. I know of some people who tried some SEO businesses out that were just horrible.
Guaranteed on the first page of Google… yeah, with Google AdWords.
I’m not kidding, that’s exactly what the did to some people I know who tried to outsource their ‘SEO’ (even though AdWords has nothing to do with SEO). Just be careful and do your research…
I am a memeber of www.godaddy.com as well. On their site you can actually purchase what is called Website Tonight. Check it out. It helps you design a website & is very easy to use.
I use Godaddy for my domains and I use Bluehost for my hosting company. I have over 20 domains and about half with a website. I have used a lot of different hosting companies, but overall, bluehost has been the best. Bluehost is who phpBB recommends.
I know a little HTML, but I do all of my webdesign in Dreamweaver. As far as WYSIWYG’s (What you see is what you get) programs go Dreamweaver is the best. Front page is too blocky and is really only good for making forms.
It is true that WYSIWYG’s insert a lot of extra code. When you get to know HTML a little you can go back through and ‘clean up’ a good part of this extra coding. Even if you don’t it will still work just fine for you.
Lynda.com has video lessons on how to use Dreamweaver. It’s pretty good. That’s how I learned.
What I end up doing is making my site in Dreamweaver so I can get a rough idea of what I want it to look like and how I want things to be laid out. Then I have a professional webmaster go back and recreate the site. This way they see exactly what I want and they just have to duplicate it making it professional.
Example: www.chateaucommercial.com I made the site in dreamweaver then my webmaster came back and made it look good and more functional. The company I use is Pixelus.net. Really good and Really cheap compared to everyone else. And I have gone through a bunch of webmaster too trying to find a good one.
There is another webmaster who is really good too, but he is a little more expensive. If you want his info let me know and I’ll look it up for you. bus-webco I think is the company name.
not the best. all depends on what is the objective… if you need more interface and landing pages (ie lead generation) etc then I have some very good very reasonable referrals. but to meet the objectives of above… jump on Godaddy and knock it out yourself… not hard
I would have to agree with eric. When it comes to building a first site, blogging platforms would be a great way to go. Very easy to install, and even though it may take a little while to navigate through the admin panels, it will take a loss less time to learn about compared to learning how to build a traditional website.
If you want to make your own website, you might want to check out http://www.oswd.org. It is an area with open source web designs, some of which look really great. Using one of these, all you will really need to worry about is the content aspect of your site.