BS: advice on making a web site

Subject: BS: advice on making a web site
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 12:11 PM

My church has just merged with another and tripled in size, and I think it's time we had a web site. I have no idea how one goes about creating a web site.

All I want to do is list things - calendar, hymns for this week, whom to e-mail with a question. I don't want to solicit donations.

If it's not too hard, I might want to let people hear some music.

Can you recommend any good books? Any tips?

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 12:54 PM

leenia... there are places that have pre-set 'templates' that you just fill in details. The very first Mudcat pictures were put up on one by ME...having no idea what I was doing. It's easier now.

I did it at http://www.fortunecity.com/

small sites free... larger ones cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 01:09 PM

Hi, Leeneia-

I got Web hosting and e-mail accounts at http://www.networksolutions.com/ for ten bucks a month, and it's much cheaper if you pay five years in advance. The rates are cheaper at http://www.godaddy.com/, but I decided maybe it wouldn't be a good idea for a women's center to be hosted by a company that has such sexy advertising.

Both companies can give you a domain name, plus e-mail accounts at that domain. I use a free program called WinSCP to upload stuff to the Website. I do page design in raw HTML using Windows Notepad - I learned HTML through the HTML threads here at Mudcat.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 01:45 PM

You could of course have a facebook account, where only the people you allow can see the information and you can have conversations with such friends. You can also create links to music etc.
That way you don't need to learn anything about websites.

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 03:06 PM

Arthur_itis has a good idea there. Loads of churches on facebook. Just set up a group. It does mean that members of the church who want to see what is happening will need to create a personal facebook account which for some may be more trouble that it is worth.

Have you thought of e-bulletin? Create a church email account on hotmail, yahoo, google or whatever. Then let people sign up to receive electronic bulletin by email.

Whatever goes in the printed bulletin can go into an email as text or attachment. When you create th bulletin before you send it to be printed, send it in an email.

Easy to do distribution lists on Outlook so you can send to many people at once. But remember to send on bcc (blind carbon copy) so you are not sharing all those email addresses with everyone you send to.

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 05:28 PM

For what you want to do, GoDaddy is probably your best bet. Most economical and pretty easy to use. The domain name will be of your choosing subject to what is available. So there is no visible affiliation with the go daddy girls. Carol and I were using Godaddy before we saw the ads. We find that since then we have had no trouble ignoring the ads.

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 06:34 PM

thanks for all the insights. please feel free to add more.

Subject: RE: BS: advice on making a web site
From: Maryrrf
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 08:00 PM

GoDaddy is good. Personally I like Freeservers . They have a free service but of course it has ads, but their paid plans are very reasonable. For what you need to do, the templates they provide would be fine and it would be easy to update.