How to build a website?

[tenchikoi]

I'm starting a big project and need some guidance before I begin. I'll be starting a queer support group for my area. Where I live is small and no ones knows we exist but us. I had wanted to go to the city to do volunteer work since there's such a huge queer presence there. But I have no way to get there and there's no bus service way out here. So I figured it would be more useful to start something just for the people out here. I wanted to begin by building a website, but I honestly don't have the funds to pay for a professional one. I thought I could find a free hosting site and make it myself, but I don't know which sites I can really trust and are user friendly. Does anyone know of any free web building sites I could look into? Or any programs that would be useful? I would appreciate it greatly.

 

[niv78]

The days of angelfire and it's like aren't really here anymore, you can find some places like that but they are so loaded with ad's you get lost in the mess and people are heavily turned off from a site. So I have some suggestions for you.

Blogger (or Blogspot): https://www.blogger.com/start
-They are a good free site that you can customize to look good. It throw's some people off because it says 'blog' in the URL but I know some people use it as a website.

Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com/
-Also another blog type site, but is centered more around making money, i'm not sure what your plans are for your site but squidoo is one that you should at least look at.

Those are the free options, here is the one I suggest, though it will cost you a little bit. If you want your own full blown website then I suggest WordPress. WordPress (WP from here on) itself is free, so the only thing you would need to pay for is your domain and hosting.

For hosting I suggest HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com/) You can get monthly hosting for around 15 dollars a month with zero contract, and when you buy hosting from them you get 1 or 2 domains for free, saving you even more, when you purchase it, especially since you're new to the whole webhosting deal, call them to order and tell them you want it setup for WP. They will do most of the setup work and should be able to help you get started on using WP, and even if they dont: http://wordpress.org/ has lots of videos and documentation on how to utilize WP.

Hope this helps.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm starting a big project and need some guidance before I begin. I'll be starting a queer support group for my area. Where I live is small and no ones knows we exist but us. I had wanted to go to the city to do volunteer work since there's such a huge queer presence there. But I have no way to get there and there's no bus service way out here. So I figured it would be more useful to start something just for the people out here. I wanted to begin by building a website, but I honestly don't have the funds to pay for a professional one. I thought I could find a free hosting site and make it myself, but I don't know which sites I can really trust and are user friendly. Does anyone know of any free web building sites I could look into? Or any programs that would be useful? I would appreciate it greatly.

Yay!

Hang on, don't do anything rash... let me look around. I host websites at http://probablepossible.com and I would gladly host a queer support site for you. you need to think about what functions you want to offer your users.
I love wordpress, and there is a version that works as a community framework. OR-- there is a forum software that I use, that can supply each member with a blog...

 

[KCPhotog]

Use Ning or SocialGo they are centered around fostering communities.

All the best to you!

 

[Gangrif]

When i learned how to develop web sites, your only choice was to learn html, and then build out from there. This made a excellent base for the work i do today.

Having said that, i'll say that this is no longer necessary for the average joe (or julie) looking to get themselves a web presence.

I've moved most of my custom written sites over to drupal, or serendipity sites. Both of these packages work really well, and i still get to host them myself. Serendipity is terrific for a blog. And drupal does very well for pretty much anything. I run an off-road enthusiast site on drupal.

Drupal is a modular content management system. You can find modules for anything from a support ticket system, to a message forum, to image galleries, ad frameworks, you name it.

If you can find someone to host it for you cheap, or free, then youre good to go. Drupal's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And if you want to get crazy with it, learn PHP, and pick up a drupal module development book and you can do almost anything with it.

 

[NightL]

To state the obvious... why don't you use facebook pages or facebook groups... very easy to set up... you can set your privacy and security settings to what ever degree you wish... why go to the trouble, expense and waste of time of building a dedicated website... you could be up and running within minutes...

You can't learn to build a website overnight... and even if you dedicated 10 hours a day for one week you will only be getting off the starting blocks...

 

[versatile1]

I agree with Gangrig. Go the with the self hosted route and use an appropriate free open source web app. You can have hosting and domain for well under $100/yr. You could have something up and running pretty quickly. Something simple would be a matter of a few hours. Something more customized would take longer.

Drupal is pretty flexible, but there are other options as well. For community you could also consider Elgg or WordPRess with a BuddyPress add on. Simple discussion forums are great and often overlooked these days: phpBB or SMF. Many of these have autoinstallers that are as simple as signing up for NING (which is no longer free).

 

[NightL]

support group

...not promotion of commercial product... and she also said

I honestly don't have the funds to pay for a professional one. I thought I could find a free hosting site and make it myself

...there are so many social networking offers out there... with a high degree of control... easy and extremely quick to set up... offering interactivity/blogging/galleries etc etc... why bother making things difficult?

Google picks up on facebook and other social networking sites exceedingly quickly... much faster than a beginner's website will ever do (who does not know the ins and outs of SEO). So a facebook group or a facebook page would be found, searching in google, within days of the site going live.

For every person who clicks "Likes" on a face book page... or adds a "Group" just makes that page even easier to find by search engines...

I'm not a big facebook user... and I do sometimes make websites for a living...

...tenchikoi could have her support group up in running within 15 minutes... at no cost... full control who has access to it... or to certain areas... can add other administrators/moderators...

...just go look at what facebook and others social networking sites offer...

 

[Gangrif]

...not promotion of commercial product... and she also said

...there are so many social networking offers out there... with a high degree of control... easy and extremely quick to set up... offering interactivity/blogging/galleries etc etc... why bother making things difficult?

Google picks up on facebook and other social networking sites exceedingly quickly... much faster than a beginner's website will ever do (who does not know the ins and outs of SEO). So a facebook group or a facebook page would be found, searching in google, within days of the site going live.

For every person who clicks "Likes" on a face book page... or adds a "Group" just makes that page even easier to find by search engines...

I'm not a big facebook user... and I do sometimes make websites for a living...

...tenchikoi could have her support group up in running within 15 minutes... at no cost... full control who has access to it... or to certain areas... can add other administrators/moderators...

...just go look at what facebook and others social networking sites offer...

Facebook seems like a great choice, but there are a ton of things to consider.

If you put your group out on facebook, facebook owns your data. Something sensitive like this, i'd much rather have full control of.

Thinking that you have "Full Control" over who gets access to your page is naive. I have a Facebook page, and i find myself constantly policing my privacy settings because Mark Zuckerberg (the guy who owns facebook) has decided that everyone should share more, and whenever their privacy team rolls out a new wave of privacy settings, you're automatically opted in.

Yes, facebook gets you built in traffic, but a decent site, updated regularly, with a focused theme, will also get plenty of traffic. If someone is searching google for a topic which your site focuses on, theres a good chance you'll get found.

The Let someone else worry about it mentality is killing what the Internet once was. Learn enough to get yourself running, learn more as you go, ask people who already know for help, and you'll have a much better site in the end.