Building a new website

[softballdad#16]

I am wanting to build a new website for my Indoor Facility, but I am on a budget and I got a quote for $1400.00 and that seems alittle step. Someone recommended Homestead.com, has anyone had any experience with them? Pros/Cons? Or recommend someone that has good reviews. I am pretty good with a computer, so I think I would be able to tackle this myself. Any thoughts?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Gosh, just have someone with a Mac build it and put it on GoDaddy. If you are near an Apple store, they did almost all of mine, for me.

For $1400.00 you could buy a MacBook and do it yourself and also have the laptop.

 

[CoachScott]

If your on a budget then I would build it yourself. If you're good with a PC, I don't think you should have any problem. I hear Wordpress really makes it pretty easy. I'm still batting around the idea of creating a site myself but haven't crossed that line yet.

Another option is find a senior in High School most likely they've already build several themselves. Or another thought, ask your clients, maybe you could trade off time or use of facility for their work on a site. Just throwing ideas out to you.

 

[team mom]

wix.com is a free website provider that is easy to use and produces flash type sites. I found it easier to use than wordpress. I was able to create a website, with moving pictures and interesting backgrounds, in about 2 hours.

 

[SoftSocDad]

Craigslist.org

Post a listing, allow the programmers and designers to submit competing bids, and then go with the one that you feel most comfortable with. It'll take you a few minutes to read and reply to several emails, but you'll be able to save a lot of money while getting what you want.

If you end up selecting a non-local designer/programmer, then DO NOT pay more than a small deposit ($50) to initiate work. Get the build started before sending any more money.

 

[tomzpc]

$1400 is way too much. I built one for my daughter's new travel ball team on godaddy because eteamz gets too expensive when you want to customize it and get rid of the ads. Took some trial and error, learning curve and all that, but I couldn't see spending anything close to that for a website unless if was for a large size company that needed lots of custom work done. If you're comfortable on a pc you should be able to pick it up. If you want to build it on your own computer and then host it somewhere as opposed to using the software provided by the host site try coffeecup visual designer. It's a great little wysiwyg website design program, not difficult to learn how to use and inexpensive.

 

[fastpitch]

$1400 is probably right depending on what they are giving you.

use google sites. its free, no ads and once you get the hang of it its really easy. anyone with a gmail account can build one. just redirect the domain name to it and you have a website. there's lots of documentation on how to do it.

 

[sluggers]

If you are reasonably good with a computer, the easiest and cheapest way is here: Microsoft Office Live Small Business It is Microsoft's web sites for small business users. There are some templates which make it pretty easy to build your own. It free for the first year, and then $20.00 per year.

I used to build my own personal web site, but I started using this one, and it works great.

My daughter did this one: Home

It has everything a small business needs. Obviously, once you have franchises up and running in 20 states and a staff of 3500, you might need something better.

 

[fastpitch]

wix.com is a free website provider that is easy to use and produces flash type sites. I found it easier to use than wordpress. I was able to create a website, with moving pictures and interesting backgrounds, in about 2 hours.

wix.com is nice.. but because it uses flash isnt really compatible with iphone/ipad and other mobile devices. not good when someone is trying to find your facility and cant view the website on their iphone!

 

[team mom]

wix.com is nice.. but because it uses flash isnt really compatible with iphone/ipad and other mobile devices. not good when someone is trying to find your facility and cant view the website on their iphone!

That is a legitimate drawback. I embed my wix website into the homepage of another website (through iscore) so many of the team website pages, including calendar and directions to tournaments, are still accessible to ipad/iphone users. For PC users though, I love the flash bells and whistles of wix and it's easy.

A lot of great suggestions on this thread though that I did not know about and will be eager to check out!