Building A Website

[jojestta]

I am not sure of what is appropriate to ask so if this isn't just let me know. Last year we ( a lady that works at the school, a couple of family members, a friend, a lady from the church) all set to work to raise money and we started a scholarship in my son's name. This May will be the first time we give one out. We want to create a website or atleast a web page just sort of honoring him and letting people post or sign it. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is good our there to purchase? I don't want to spend money only to find it was not on the up and up. I am fairly good on a computer. I just do not know the first thing about building a website or where to start. I know that it would probably cost close to $500 for whole website but we are set on this. We want to later expand our nonprofit organization out. We have some great plans but they may be in the next year or so. Thanks.

[Deb]

If you feel comfortable with building a page yourself, there is a really good freeware HTML editor our there called 1st Page that you can get at http://www.evrsoft.com. It's relatively easy to set up and understand if you have a little basic knowledge about building web pages. There are tons of free tutorials online as well...just Google "html tutorial" or something similar.

Another option would be to hire someone to build your website for you. A simple 2-3 page site shouldn't be too expensive. I'd look around locally (maybe at the high school even) for someone who builds websites on the side. If you can't find anyone there you can post your request at www.rentacoder.com and/or www.elance.com.

If you build your own site, the most expensive things you're going to run into are domain registration and hosting if you don't already have those set up. There are all sorts of budget hosts out there, but a lot of times you get what you pay for. And for what you're doing, I wouldn't pay more than $5/month if that much.

Hope that helps a little bit. Best of luck!!

[jojestta]

Thank you. I will start looking around. I dont' know why I didn't think to ask someone from the high school. I will not give up though. Thanks again.

[jojestta]

I have microsoft front page. I have worked on how I want it to look. What I am having trouble with now is what is a good hosting or domain (don't really know the difference) to purchase. This is just a Memorial Scholarship so I won't be making any money off of it. It is really just for Honoring him. Can someone tell me what they think?

[newmom-jen]

Hosting is the actual space where your website is stored - think of it as a computer somewhere in the world that is always on and is letting people visit. You have to pay someone to host your site, depending on how much space (in terms of memory) you need.

The domain is the name of your site that you are reserving so noone else can use it. This isn't as big of a deal unless you are competing with other people for a very specific domain name.

FrontPage is a great program for beginners - there's a LOT you can do with it once you get started.

Best of luck to you - web designing can be lots of fun.
If you have any questions on more specific issues, feel free to PM me.
Jen

[momma2girls]

Candace is really great with this kind of stuff and I agree about Frontpage.

[newbabysmell]

I've always wanted to make my own site. I've always been an artist in cartoons and still life. Wanted to make an artist site where its a combination of art and entertainment. Never understood HTML and was somewhat afraid of it. I will definetly try your sites Deb. Thanks for the links.