Website building and hosting help

[PiratePast40]

Anyone local have any experience and recommendations about putting together a web site inexpensively? For now, all I need is a place to put information about a course/seminar that I'm hosting. I don't own a venue so am renting out space at the VFW hall but will be using other locations as well. I don't necessarily need a signup option, only a place where people can get the information and then contact me about dates and locations. Can post dates on the web site but I really want to have people contact me first since I need to plan on how many will show up.

When I do internet searches, for web hosting, get a ton of different conflicting information. For example, it seems that some sites have your design restricted to their domain. Some provide free design software as part of the domain price. Go Daddy seems to have a mixed reputation. Some seem to like them and some say to stay away.

The business is very much in the initial stages. I've only held one class so far but have three more scheduled, one of which is teaching employees of a local company, about 10 people. The other classes that I have scheduled will be 10-15 people each. I really can't spend a ton of money on a web site since revenues are pretty low at $35/person for the class. I do have a Facebook page for the business. Lots of views but not many comments. I did do a piece at a local radio station this morning that will be aired next week so I'm getting exposure, just looking for a place to show information about the course for when people inquire.

Suggestions/recommendations?

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[sithc]

I'm a graphic/web designer with web development background and do this for a living. For your situation, requirements and budget constraints, your best bet is SquareSpace. They will handle it all, set you up with a template of choice with some customization, hosting/domain all in one. To go the custom route, you won't be able to afford it base on what you said about initial startup business. Hope that helps.

 

[PiratePast40]

Still very new at this and trying to figure out some of the terms. I see that Wordpress is also an option. Initially, I was thinking that Wordpress was just the plug and software for site design. It appears also be a hosting platform? If I use Wordspace to design my site, can I take it to any hosting service that I choose?

If I would like to have a non-dynamic page, such as a FAQ page, can I do that with SS? Do I design with SS or do I need something like Wordspace? What if I decide to allow class signup online, can I do that with SS? What about my ability to respond to people that have signed up? Is it easy to send out reminders of the class date or would I be doing that completely separate from the web site?

Am I just confusing myself and running around in circles, when my time would be better spent to just go to Squarespace and get it done? Frankly, I don't want to become very busy doing things that don't matter.

 

[oremike]

I'm absolutely not a computer guy. I'm a work in the woods guy/ dump truck driver. But I build my website with Wordpress. You can see it here: theproficientmarksman.com
I do own the domain and it costs something like $25/year. I have it hosted by a small company on the coast that costs $15.00/month but you don't have to it that way. I started out with free hosting by Epud, and then that got bought by Peak internet and they started to charge the 15 a month but I was lazy and wanted to keep the same service so I paid. Now Peak isn't doing hosting so on their recommendation I went with who I got now. The hosting service besides my website handles the domain and my business email.([email protected]) I know it's kind of clunky but it works. If you go to the contact me page the email goes to the business email account.
One thing not asked but I'll mention is you can register you business with the state by the county(s) you want to do business in so I registered my business in all the counties in the state so no else can be called The Proficient Marksman but me in Oregon.

 

[AshWilliams]

My wife's business site is a WordPress installation and it's very flexible with modules providing different functionality and a vast selection of themes to choose from. It's hosted at hostgator: https://www.hostgator.com/

 

[P7M13]

Buy your domain from a reputable source. Watch out for all the BS that other vendors will try to send and sell you about your domain.
I never had a problem with GoDaddy, but that's not to say they aren't problematic.
I maintained and edited the site for a charity, it was hosted by Yahoo, and they sucked. And also did their best to suck our bank account too.
You do want to use a platform that regularly maintains its security. We had attacks on our website regularly, and they brought us down once, taking advantage of a module that had a vulnerability that we quickly patched and were back running in a day. It was embarrassing. Script kiddies aren't much better than porch pirates. Then there are the schmucks who will attack your website, and then try to sell you web security services.
Be careful if you link to a database, your security and error handling needs to bump up a few notches in that case. You've probably seen where you click on a page to review data, and it shows you a simple error page because the query was null or faulty. That's so easily avoidable.
I'm not a professional, but have developed web applications using many different platforms. Most of my stuff was in JSP, but I don't know if you can find that anymore. The technology is always changing, so it can be daunting.
I made it a habit to avoid using anything that utilized MS's Active Server Pages (ASPX). For the most part, my server side has always been Apache, though I did use Glassfish for a short bit while the project was in development.
As far as aesthetics, your site can look great one day, then dated and crusty a week later. Literally.