TECHNOLOGY
| Web Site Solutions
for Small Budgets |
|
 As
a Web site developer, I have spent much of my career listening
to tales of woe from people who have tried to get a Web site
built and have ended up spending a great deal of money and
not getting what they were promised—or worse, getting
a terrible mess that was not even usable. Beyond that, they
find that the person or company they used to build their Web
site has disappeared and they have to hire someone new to
clean up the mess, incurring further expense. This is a deplorable
situation and can be avoided by doing a little research. Never
hire a Web site developer or designer who is not willing to
give you a list of active Web sites that they have built.
You can then contact some of their clients and ask about their
experience.
I am going to give you some
options that can, in many cases, help avoid the need for a
Web site developer altogether if you are willing to spend
some time reading instructions and/or have someone that you
trust who has a beginner’s level understanding of the
Internet. These are entry-level solutions and can get you
up and running. As time goes on you will want to have a more
robust Internet presence. This will get you started and will
give you some confidence about what you do and do not need
in a Web site. The examples we are dealing with here are essentially
blog engines that can be used as Web sites. Next month we
will deal with Content Management Systems (CMS) that can be
developed at a low cost. Any experience you gain through this
process will be positive in familiarizing yourself with the
working of the Web.
First
Steps:
Domain
Name
You must have a domain name, and you can purchase one yourself.
You do not need professional help for this. I recommend
GoDaddy
because that is the company we use and it has never let
us down. I have been using them for over eight years. If
you are uncomfortable buying a domain name online they will
walk you through it and any other problems you might encounter.
There are other sites that sell domain names and the prices
vary broadly. The most important part of doing this yourself
is that you will have control of your domain name. This
is of huge importance. NEVER let a Web developer or designer
have control of your domain name.
Hosting
Your Web site has to have a place to live. Hosts maintain
servers that allow your Web site to be seen on the Net.
The pricing for this service varies greatly, as does the
quality of service. We use ValueTech
and have had a fabulous experience with them. Others have
good reputations like Yahoo and GoDaddy. I just mention
these few because I have personal experience with them.
Again, ask people you know who they use. You should expect
to pay around $250 to $300 a year for hosting for an entry-level
Web site. If you want to include e-commerce, you will pay
more, but we will save that discussion for another day.
(Most Real Estate professionals will not need conventional
e-commerce solutions.)
Whichever company you
use be sure to ask them about their up time and redundancy.
You want to be sure that your site is going to be reliably
up (visible on the Web) and that should something terrible
happen, your data is backed up and ready to be sent on the
Web from another location as seamlessly as possible. Their
only job is to protect and show your data.
Suggested
Blog/Web Site Solutions:
The solutions below are
ones that I have had hands-on experience with and feel very
comfortable in recommending. As we have stated, we have no
affiliation with these vendors, just knowledge of their high
quality and ease of use in this scenario.
SquareSpace
This is a creative option
for building a blog/Web site. It is not free, but it is
worth the small price you pay from $7 to $175 per month.
Here is a perfect example of how a blog can be used as a
Web site: I used it when it first came online 5 years ago
and found it quite straightforward even then. It is much
more efficient and easy to use now. It offers a 15-day free
trial, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out. They
do not require that you give them your credit card information
to use the trial, so you are not going to find that unexpected
charge a month or so from now should you lose track of time
or are too busy to use or cancel it during the trial period.
But I suggest that you not sign up for any free trial until
you do think you have time to work on it.
When you go there take
some time to look at their features page and you will see
a listing of the things that you absolutely need now and
others that you will need as you grow. When you are ready,
you can upgrade to your own domain name with no sign of
Squarespace being your underlying architecture. No matter
what solution you use—or even when you go to a developer
to create a Web site for you from scratch—this is
a good list to have.
I spent about 45 minutes
on the site and built this skeleton Web site. I know you
are thinking, “Sure 45 minutes for you, 45 days for
me.” Just go there and try it out. They have extensive
help and support options. The interface is very intuitive.
Besides, what is the worst that can happen? You can always
start over.
1. A
Real Estate Web site
2.
A Photography Site
It is easy to see how this
use for a professional photographer could be used to show
homes.
TypePad
This is also a good service
and it ranges from $4.95 to $29.95 per month for a wide
range of services. We used TypePad as our blog early on
and found it very easy to use. It offers a huge number of
templates that are easy to apply, as well as many Widgets
(little programs that do special things like add videos
from your YouTube account, etc.). You can upload custom
banners to further brand your site. It also offers stats
tracking and has the added advantage of being almost instantly
listed on most major search engines.
TypePad offers a 14-day
free trial, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out.
(They do require that you give them your credit card information
to use the trial.)
One well-known Real
Estate blogging information site, Real
Estate Tomato, began on and still stays with TypePad.
Usually once a site develops some traction online, they
will upgrade to their own Web site.
WordPress
WordPress is the only free option I am mentioning here.
It is an awesome application on many levels and you can
put it on your own domain name. It has most of the features
that the above-mentioned options have and is highly customizable.
We use it as our blog on ExecMediaGroup.com and love it.
You can also easily adapt it to use as a Web site as was
indicated in last month’s
article.
As you can see, there
is no sign of this Web site not belonging completely to
ExecMediaGroup, because in essence, it does. WordPress is
an open-source engine for blogs and Web sites. This is an
example of the best of the open-source system.
There are massive numbers
of WordPress templates that are available for free or at
reasonable rates. This is an example of a template for sale
by Revolution.
It is rather traditional, but there are many more. Remember
the thing that you pay the most for when you are building
a Web site is not the design itself, but the mechanism of
the Web site that makes it possible to function online.
Do not put design ahead of functionality. You can have both.
There are many more blog/Web
site solutions out there. I have used the above examples because
I have had personal, positive experiences with them.
Here are a few more:
Blogger
(Google’s solution)
Yahoo
360
Windows
Live Spaces
MoveableType
Finally
There are companies that
dedicate themselves to developing these services and architectures
for clients who do not have either the skills or the time
to customize the solution for themselves. Of course, we would
like to think that you would come to EREE Web [www.ereeweb.com]
for such services, but you will find that there are many developers
out there who specialize in one or more of each company’s
options described here.
I hope that this
has given those of you who have been worried about the expense
or difficulty of getting out there on the Web the courage
to try one or more of these providers. I think you will be
amazed at how easy it is. The one goal that they all have
in mind is to develop a solution that is user-friendly. Try
it and use the comment section below to let me know what you
think or to ask any questions.
If you would like to know
more about this subject, blog with me on the new Exec
MediaGroup Business Blog. If you are interested
in building or upgrading your Web site, call me at (702)
354-1826 or e-mail me at rebecca@erealestateexec.com.
Disclaimer:
We bring these items to you as a service and do not have
any affiliation with the creators, owners or developers
of products or services mentioned in this column. We cannot
be responsible for any negative outcomes regarding these
products or services.
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