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Simple guide to FREE website creation
for the church mouse and anyone else who's interested!What does it cost to make a website?
You could do the whole lot DIY for free! If you choose to pay people to do things, the largest cost would normally be the initial development cost for your site. Your initial outlay would normally be a few hundred pounds but will vary depending on the size and complexity of of your site - and the value and integrity of your chosen developer.
Running costs (i.e. webspace and domain name registration) for most sites should not exceed £5 per month. You may need to pay for updates if you don't want to do them yourself. Usually updates involve simple graphic and text changes, rarely more than a half hour's work. You shouldn't be paying more than £12 for most updates and you shouldn't have to wait long for the work to be carried out!
What do I need to make a website?
You need some web pages which form your site, some webspace to store your web pages on - and a domain name such as www.athand.org which enables people to access your website.
Now you know what you need, here's how you can get them:
web pages
When you plan a website there are lots of different questions you should be asking:
What is your message or purpose? How will your information be presented? Will visitors understand how to use your site?
As you can see, website production involves a number of skills including art, design, advertising, language and communication skills. You may have some of the required skills yourself, or within your organisation. Other skills can be learned or hired...
The expertise of a web developerA web developer may be a single person or a company. The web developer should have (or have access to) the wide range of skills considered above but be aware that the provided service can vary immensely. Have the right questions been asked and correctly addressed:
- What is your business or organisation? - What is the aim of your site?
- How will people know about it? - How will you need to promote it?
- What kind of people will have an interest - and who are you interested in?
- What can you presume about your visitors' understanding?
- Will people know what your site offers before they visit? - Will they visit again?
Questions like these need to be asked before web design can begin. A developer may have the technical ability to create web pages but make sure the right skills are being applied to planning, advertising and design.
for help and advice on finding a decent web developer. Off-the-peg websites Some developers offer off-the-peg websites that can be configured for your needs. This saves on programming and design time because your site will have the same design as all the other sites using the same template.
Using a pre-designed template works if your requirements fit the template but that's rarely the case and we wouldn't recommend tailoring your requirements to fit the off-the-peg website: Your requirements should be more important!
Do it yourself for free!
You can learn the skills and do it yourself. If you do, it needn't cost you a penny - but it could cost you a lot of time! If you're keen to get into web development, you'll need to learn HTML and, sooner or later, a few other programming languages. HTML is the main language of websites and is basically a document containing text and tags. The tags are instructions that tell browsers such as Internet Explorer how to display the text among any other media specified by the tag details.
It doesn't take long to get basic HTML web page displayed online but the design and creation of a fully functional website can involve a number of different programming languages
and a number of extra issues such as browser compatibility concerns (does it work on Explorer, Firefox, Safari?).
Arriving at the end product can be very time consuming. If you're only planning on creating one or two sites it's not likely to be a viable option.
Some companies offer systems or software that help you create your own site at a higher (more visual, less programming) level, reducing the learning curve; but then you've got to learn a new software package and your development becomes less portable (difficulty taking the code and using it elsewhere). You're also more prone to hit limitations down the line and by then you may be stuck with a system you're no longer happy with.
All in all, if you're looking to do it yourself just to save money, be aware that your attempts to find and apply a solution will consume (and likely waste) a huge amount of your time. Alternatively you could have a site developed for you but learn the basics of HTML, as and when required, enabling you to make simple modifications to your website so you'd save on regular maintenance costs.
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if you want to learn HTML and various other web languages and skills.
W3 Schools have many online tutorials available for free.
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One extra money saving tip: If you've got a decent digital camera you may wish to take your own photos where appropriate. Photos on websites are very low resolution compared to the print quality photos your camera takes so you or your web developer should be able to edit most mediocre photos and make them look quite professional with no need to call out a professional photographer.
webspace
Free webspace (aka free hosting) is offered by a number of web hosting companies but when something's "free" there's usually a catch or two.
We decided to investigate the most promising "free" hosts to see how usable and valuable they were. When we'd found and tested the best one, we used their expertise, experience and equipment to form Bart Hosting - so you could benefit from the best free hosting at the best price: $0 !
for step by step help in setting up a free web hosting account.
- Bart or Blue? - 
If you want more space or more bandwidth, weigh up Bart Hosting's other plans. You should get a good deal for a few dollars a month: with current exchange rates, the cost converts to peanuts rather than pounds! If your needs point to Bart's "Altogether" hosting plan, you might like to check out BlueHost also.
to compare Bart Hosting's plans or
for BlueHost.
The above suggestions are shared hosting solutions: your website will be stored on a server along with a number of other websites, sharing resources and saving you money. Just to note, there are other possibilities for larger or more complicated sites which are beyond the scope of this guide and well beyond the pockets of poor church mice!
domain name
You can use a domain name that's associated with somebody else's domain name. Usually this would be in the subdomain form such as yourname.theirdomain.com - this option is sometimes offered for free.
It's rarely a good idea to use a subdomain unless you want to place yourself under a particular umbrella: for example bristol.anglican.org is the web address for the Bristol Diocese of the Anglican Church. The Diocese can be pretty sure that its subdomain will always be made available to it, which is vital: If the Anglican Church ever chose to stop pointing the subdomain to Bristol's webspace, people would no longer be able to visit the Bristol Diocese website!
You can register a domain name for a fixed number of years and point it to your webspace. This option is sometimes included free by a web host. Bart Hosting and BlueHost both offer plans with free domain name included but you may want a domain name related to a specific country such as .co.uk and these aren't always on offer.
to find out how to decide on, and deal with, domain names.
Good News - best of all!
If you manage to save time and money or get a better hosting experience after reading our informative advice then that's great! If we helped you get the lot for free then we're as pleased as you! But the best information, the best advice and the best news we can share with you is this:
Life has meaning We were created by God to His design and for His purpose! Until you know what the purpose of life is, you can't live it to the full.
Jesus said "I came so that you may have life - the fullness of life!" (John 10:10). In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God shows us the Way to journey through life. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God can help us know how to live life as it's supposed to be. You only get one life: Don't waste it - learn how to live it!
Explore the meaning of life - Is this Good News for you?
Check out the Alpha Course, available worldwide:
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