Getting a website or blog: where do I start?

Should I get a website or a blog? What do I need to do?

Basic costs for a website are the domain registration, the hosting, the design of the pages, and uploading it to the host server.

It is possible to get your website designed by one person, hosted with another, and to get the domain registered through yet another, but it makes sense for just one person to handle all three areas.

GET YOUR TEENAGERS THEIR VERY OWN 40-PAGE WEBSITE FOR CHRISTMAS – OR GIVE AS A BIRTHDAY GIFT TO ANYONE DURING ANY MONTH OF THE YEAR – OR GET ONE FOR YOURSELF!

If finding that somebody offering all three services is rather expensive in one or more of the areas, then decide if you want to rather have different people managing the different areas, or pay the little bit extra to have just one person (or company) handle everything.

With us, if your website is only 4 to 8 pages, and does not have too many images, the cheapest R360 per year hosting package would probably be fine. Quite a few pages can be added if there are no images at all.

We have two of our own sites in this hosting package price range –
our recent and still growing Make Money Writing Online website,
and our older Work From Home Ideas website – which also still has room over to grow some more.

Our main site homepage link

In the top right hand side area of our main site homepage are 5 links in a brown square that if you follow can give you a lot more detail about our services, and about having a website, in general.

We have 4 pages on our site related to the prices and details of the services we offer. On the third page scroll down to the
“website hosting” title to see the hosting prices and what you get for the price.

Besides the basic costs for a website being the domain registration, the hosting, the design of the pages, and uploading it to the host server, there can also be extra expenses.

Variations and extras come in, in situations like if:

you’re not happy with any of the first three homepage template proposals designed, and you request alterations or mixing and matching of designs (this is what we do – we are unsure what other designers do)
you need/want a logo designed
you need/want a top header banner designed
you need/want content written or edited
you need/want your photos to enlarge when they’re clicked on
you need/want a slideshow of your photos
you want to make regular changes to your site (new photos or news etc)

Regards that last one (making changing to your site):

If it’s going to be more often than just once a month or so (where we would charge R75 per page, per time requested, for small alterations to a page eg a news page or an image page) then you are likely going to rather want to do it yourself:

two main options:

Option one:

Get a WordPress blog instead of a website – still your own domain name and can function much like a website, as such, if not better. It’s an incredibly cheap method too. There are thousands of free templates to choose from, so you’re quite likely to find something you like. The charges come in with still needing to register a domain, set up hosting, and to upload the blog to your host server – but that’s it – no web design price unless you want some customization done eg your logo or header banner being integrated into every page, or you would like some help with getting started, or adding widgets etc – even though there are free lessons available on the Internet.

Another bonus about having a WordPress blog instead of a static website, is that where, with us, 5 basic pages of a website design will cost you a minimum of R1000, you can add as many pages as you like to your WordPress blog, as long as they all fit into the size of your hosting package. The WordPress blog is yours to use, has your own domain name just like having your own website, and you can add your own pages at no cost instead of paying (through us anyway) at least R200 for each new page you want on a website.

GET YOUR TEENAGERS THEIR VERY OWN 40-PAGE WEBSITE FOR CHRISTMAS – OR GIVE AS A BIRTHDAY GIFT TO ANYONE DURING ANY MONTH OF THE YEAR – OR GET ONE FOR YOURSELF!

For the free WordPress templates, an automatic small reference and link to WordPress appears at the bottom of the pages, but because the theme is free, millions of people don’t mind it appearing there (this blog you’re on now is a free theme WordPress blog – see the WordPress link at the bottom, that we don’t mind being there – the designer of the free theme gets two links going to his or her site, and the little W logo in the bottom right area goes to WordPress.)

This blog is attached to our main website (it’s on the same host server) (we have 4 WordPress blogs attached to our main website.) Our WordPress blog that stands alone on its own host server is Online Flea Market

There are paid-for WordPress themes for those who absolutely want a WordPress theme but don’t also want the reference or link to WordPress or the designer of the free theme appearing at the bottom of their pages.

Drawback to getting a WordPress blog instead of a website: it takes a bit of learning and time to get the hang of managing your WordPress blog – there are free lessons sites though that if you follow to a tee, you shouldn’t have any problems.

Option two:

The other main option to enable you to upload your own content and make your own changes is a website designed the usual way, then we give you printed out lessons and an hour lesson (Tony) for R120 to teach you how to upload some changes yourself. If not in East London, the lessons can be emailed to you for free. Or even if you are in East London, you can have the lessons emailed to you for free. If doing this you must stick to exactly what it says in the lessons, because fiddling with any other coding can mess the whole site up – and we charge to fix it up again. If you don’t have a lot of time to spend learning free WordPress lessons (the first cheaper option), this second option (a website you can upload new images or news or articles to, by yourself) is more suitable (and easier to learn), even though more expensive. A site we designed in August 2010 for a web design client chose this second method Judy Rankin

Regards getting a free-theme WordPress through us:

The R360 per year hosting package is too small for any WordPress blog, and people need to start with the R480 per year one, and most people actually take the R780 per year hosting package right away – although it’s quite ok to start with a smaller one (R480 per year) and upgrade later, if you need to – even before a whole year has gone by, if you see that you’re rapidly using up the space you have available in your hosting package.

You can view free WordPress themes here
and here
this second link is a nice one for eg check off the box “brown” for a colour choice, then click the “find themes” box, and scroll down to the roughly 111 free wordpress themes to choose from. (don’t forget to scroll down after each search you do, to see the options that come up in the results.)

Here’s a lot more detail about how to select a free WordPress theme – it is important to read this if thinking of getting a WordPress blog hosted with us, or even just to better understand how to use the free theme filter on WordPress no matter who you host with, or even if you just want to browse through the different themes for fun.

If hosting with us, when you find a free WordPress theme you like, you send us the link to it, and we get you set up with your very own WordPress blog!

See more details about our WordPress blog hosting service

Summary

When trying to decide if you should get a website or a WordPress blog, and you’ve made up your mind, what do you do next?

You browse prices and portfolios of web designers, and of people who host websites or blogs for others.

You read everything on their sites to familiarise yourself with their procedures.

You contact them to find out more.

© copyright Teresa Schultz