website builder?

[Annpan]

I am beginning to consider re-opening my shop (cause we are going to DESPERATELY need another income to pay all the lawyers bills) and before I do that I need to build a new website.

I have a WIX one just now, which looks great, very smooth and funky... but it runs in flash, some computers cant get it, smart phones can't get it and the all important ipad won't get it... It takes to long to load anyway..

So I need a funky, easy(ish) website builder that I can mess about on to get myself a bit more accessible.

Any ideas?

[Green Aura]

Sal, one of our members, although she's not been around for a while did mine. And it's beautiful - I wanted something very simple, to show off my products without the distraction of all the bells and whistles that you get on some sites. And it's very user-friendly. I can't bear sites that have you going round in circles.

I don't know if she's still doing it - I just tried to access her website but it's down. Might be worth a pm though and it might encourage her to visit Ish again It would be nice to hear from her.

[red]

im rebuilding mine using serif webplus which is fairly cheap.

[MKG]

Tons and tons of them - some better than others.

This one's reasonable - and free!!!

http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/

And this one is excellent, if a little more complex. It's open-source (therefore also free) and is undergoing constant development.

http://www.kompozer.net/

Mike

[Big Al]

Tons and tons of them - some better than others.

This one's reasonable - and free!!!

http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/

And this one is excellent, if a little more complex. It's open-source (therefore also free) and is undergoing constant development.

http://www.kompozer.net/

Mike

I had an awful lot of trouble with the kompozer one. I even had trouble downloading and installing it.

Maybe it was just me but it wasn't that easy.

[Annpan]

I have decided, for now, to re-jig my blog to look like a web site style format. (it is an easy option)

I might get round to a proper one again one day though.

[nommo]

Hiya,

It might be a bit late - but why not consider using wordpress? It is a blog platform but it is very flexible and is increasingly being used for the kind of requirements you have.

I do 'web stuff' for a day job and if any of my friends/family/neighbours want a quick and easy site throwing together on the cheap, but one that they can easily update themselves and one that works with SEO etc out of the box - I build them a wordpress site. But there are lots of high profile sites that use it too like:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/
http://kimkardashian.celebuzz.com/
http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/
http://www.justinguarini.com/

There are lots of 'themes' to choose from, and they are easy to customise, which cuts down on faffing lots.

For what it's worth - I would consider a trade in exchange for helping you get it up and running...

[Susie]

I agree about wordpress (the one you install yourself, not the hosted wordpress blogs) and you could also have a look at squarespace and see if you like it - you can have a fortnight's free trial. I didn't get very far with it because I need to upgrade my OS and until I bite the bullet things keep crashing my browser, but it might be ok? (I don't know a lot about it though.)

[Durgan]

Get your own internet host and use wordpress. It is dead simple, almost like sending Email. Most websites are so boring and cluttered that few people read them. I have a Garden Journal, which is mostly pictures and is the best on the internet, not because I am bragging, but because it is fact. Here is the method, using relatively cheap existing software.



Method of Posting Pictures.
The ‘bucket” systems are a poor method of posting pictures; in fact the buckets are Stonehenge technology. I developed this system over several years, when I got frustrated with the “free” bucket systems.The unique method I use is depicted below.

This means one can send pictures over the internet via E mail or to forums by simply sending the URL. There is no space involved on the receiver or the forum resources. This method is simple, but takes a little personal application, and increases your knowledge considerably, particularly about software and the internet. I use some other refinements developed over time.

Buy Breezebrowser. This simple program formats the HTML pages and allows annotating the photos, and is an excellent program for filing pictures. I file by year, month and day and some mnemonic file name. This is one of my favorite picture handling programs. http://www.breezesys.com/

Get a web host. This costs about seven dollars a month and stores all your pictures. I use Midphase. Here is the purchase site. http://www.midphase.com/

Get an FTP program. There are many but I use WS FTP Pro. Firefox has a built in FTP plug in for FTP. WS FTP purchase site. http://www.gabn.net/junodj/ws_ftp.htm

To shorten the URL’s use notlong.com, until you desire a better system, which is not essential but convenient. http://notlong.com/

This is what your postings will look like. You simply post the shortened URL. The recipient receives pictures that download quickly and are a pleasure to view.
http://emoohot.notlong.com

[Annpan]

I AM ON WORDPRESS!!!!!!

dear, Oh dear Oh dear....

anyway www.snowdropsanddaisies.com now leads to my WORDPRESS blog what I have re-jigged a wee bit. It needs more work but it will do till I have more time.

[Susie]

Sorry

One thought though (and I'm now operating at the limits of my knowledge, pls bear with me), I think you have more freedom/ capability of doing things if you download wordpress the programme from wordpress.org rather than have a wordpress hosted blog, which is what I think you've got. (e.g. you can't get an etsy mini on a wordpress.com blog but you can on a self-hosted one, things like that).

Ignore me if that's not relevant. I looked at your blog though and I thought it looked great!

[Annpan]

At the moment I can't justify paying for hosting space at the minute. I hadn't thought of using wordpress that way, so thanks for that, when I come to re-do it all again I may well go down that route