Website Template And Hosting Advice

[Smithson]

Does anybody have suggestions for companies or free services offering web templates. I would like to build something simple, but attractive myself and then pay somebody to handle the uploading, domain registration and hosting.

I have seen a number of companies offering templates, however their range tends to be limited. Something with a little bit of Flash would be ideal.

[bangkokcitylimits]

Good choice of free templates:

Dotcom Webdesign

Dream Template

Ewisoft (template maker)

Free CSS Templates.com

Free CSS Templates.org

Free CSS/HTML Templates

Mycelly (free CSS templates)

Open Source Web Design

Quackit HTML Templates

Yes Templates

Edited February 22, 2011 by bangkokcitylimits

[bangkockney]

I would suggest you do the opposite.

Pay for design and take care of the domain reg etc yourself.

Paying someone to form fill or perform simple upload tasks is a waste of money IMO.

Edited February 22, 2011 by bangkockney

[Smithson]

Good choice of free templates:

Dotcom Webdesign

Dream Template

Ewisoft (template maker)

Free CSS Templates.com

Free CSS Templates.org

Free CSS/HTML Templates

Mycelly (free CSS templates)

Open Source Web Design

Quackit HTML Templates

Yes Templates

Thanks for the links, looking thru them it doesn't seem they are really free, most often there seems to be a catch. I'm trying to decide whether to go with a Flash website or not. It seems the Flash sites are slow to load, which may be a problem in some parts of LOS. I'm not sure if they're always compatible with Firefox either.

[Smithson]

I would suggest you do the opposite.

Pay for design and take care of the domain reg etc yourself.

Paying someone to form fill or perform simple upload tasks is a waste of money IMO.

I've built sites before, am OK with Photoshop and have the necessary pics, so using a sitebuilder/template isn't that hard and the results are better than the cheap sites I've seen advertised by local companies.

Wading through all the free stuff to see what have to pay for and what you get is tricky. I'd like something that had a little flash and the rest HTML..

[NMK0789]

Hi Smithson

I agree with Bangkockney,, except to go further and say why not do the design yourself.

The company I use is definately best of breed, and they ain't just a hosting company, uploading and domain registration everything.

They provide all the tools needed to build and design a site. If you want something simple they have hundreds of templates or if you want all the bells and whistles, no problem.

All this costs me about 900Bt a month for every tool and resource I'll ever need. You should find the links below very interesting.

Best of luck.

http://tools.sitesell.com/NM0.html

http://compare.sitesell.com/NM0.html

http://wordpress-or-sbi.sitesell.com/NM0.html

http://webmaster.sitesell.com/NM0.html

http://webhosting.sitesell.com/NM0.html

http://www.sitesell.com/NM0.html

[innerspace]

With web design, like most things, you get what you pay for.

Its very rare that talented individuals will be giving away quality products for free - we all need to make a living.

When they do there is normally a catch, or an alternative source of income such as advertising.

There are really only 2 kinds of "Free template site builders".

The better quality ones will have lots of designs, options and allow you to make a reasonable site. However they don't give you the source code and force you to host it with them, sometimes free, sometimes paid, sometimes with ads in your site.

The downside of these is that you are stuck with the provider - if you wish to move hosting its the tricky business of download each file one at a time and rebuild it elsewhere.

The other kind are better in that they give you the site contents but are lacking in any quality designs.

A better option would be to find a hosting provider which offers a free site builder software with the hosting.

In this scenario you are already paying so its not really free, but the hosting provider has a reason to offer you quality.

You will (normally) end up with full access to the source code within your hosting account and the designs and features are better than the truly free offerings.

Godaddy is a hosting provider that offers a site builder - I have used them in the past, massive company with hard to beat prices. I no longer use godaddy for any hosting and wouldn't recommend them for a business site but from what you are saying they sound suitable.

However the biggest problem with site builders is that they build bad websites.

Not only are you highly restricted in what you do and how you do it, due to the automatic nature of them they create very, very bad code.

Bad code results in increased chance of errors, slower page loads and a hard job if you end up editing manually.

By far the best way to go would be with a proper web editor which has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode.

Dreamweaver is the industry standard and has a free trial - download a copy and give it a try.

As for the flash - you will struggle with "site builder" style things for flash, flash is a complex file to develop.

Also my opinion would be to forget flash unless you really have to use it.

1) Your visitors need flash installed which doesn't come as standard with most browsers, without they can't see your site

2) Flash uses lots more bandwidth and is slower to load

3) Flash is a lot harder to update

4) Flash is not search engine friendly

5) iPhone....

6) I could go on all day - flash does have its uses but no site should rely on it.

[dddave]

"Godaddy is a hosting provider that offers a site builder - I have used them in the past, massive company with hard to beat prices. I no longer use godaddy for any hosting and wouldn't recommend them for a business site but from what you are saying they sound suitable."

Would you mind elaborating a bit on why you no longer use Godaddy for a business site? What is their downside?

I was just about to commence building a small business site using their "Website Tonight" builder and their hosting service.

[bangkokcitylimits]

Before thinking of going to Godaddy better read some here first !

Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names

Instead go for JustHost or One.com !

JustHost gives you a whole lot of of extras, live chat support also for non-customers, One.com has the best customer care you can imagine, both are very inexpensive but outstanding service and products.

JustHost offers you 3 or 4 different page creators, hundreds of templates, One.com offers a pagecreator too.

Dynadot is very good too and offers .co domains, but no live chat support.

I have domains / sites hosted by all 3 of them.

Edited February 22, 2011 by bangkokcitylimits

[elshaheen]

Before thinking of going to Godaddy better read some here first !

Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names

Instead go for JustHost or One.com !

JustHost gives you a whole lot of of extras, live chat support also for non-customers, One.com has the best customer care you can imagine, both are very inexpensive but outstanding service and products.

JustHost offers you 3 or 4 different page creators, hundreds of templates, One.com offers a pagecreator too.

Dynadot is very good too and offers .co domains, but no live chat support.

I have domains / sites hosted by all 3 of them.

Justhost is good, and very few complaints. If your service ever experiences any problems, or issues. They will be quick to reply, very quick. Usually within 30 min at the least. This is speaking from personal experience.

Godaddy.com, stay away. They are well known to just take your money and cut you off there and then. No way to get any hosting or your money back. I've had a few website developers both in Thailand and in the U.S. who've been royal screwed by this company.

Bluehost is ok.

[Crushdepth]

Just get your domain from Google Apps. $10 with private registration, and gmail/docs/calendar/sites etc under your own domain and the DNS is set up for you automatically.

[bangkokcitylimits]

Few very sneaky JustHost tips:

When signing up: enter discount code: 50OFF to get 50% off the price instantly.

Don't register any extra's options.

After few weeks, 'cancel your new account' via: cancel.justhost.com then you will be offered a heaven of free options, lifetime free hosting etc. if you stay

Make me happy and use my affiliate link so I earn $60

Just Host gives you your own free domain name with their Just Plan and 3 free with their Premium Plan! With all plans you have the ability to host as many domains as you wish together in 1 account without extra costs.

[innerspace]

"Godaddy is a hosting provider that offers a site builder - I have used them in the past, massive company with hard to beat prices. I no longer use godaddy for any hosting and wouldn't recommend them for a business site but from what you are saying they sound suitable."

Would you mind elaborating a bit on why you no longer use Godaddy for a business site? What is their downside?

I was just about to commence building a small business site using their "Website Tonight" builder and their hosting service.

The hosting is a little slow compared to many providers since they cram numerous sites onto one server to keep the costs low.

Also some relatively standard features such as php mail() are disabled or unreliable - however you won't use or notice these if you are just making a plain html website.

When trying to create more complex interactive sites I simply found them too restrictive - but as I said initially, you get what you pay for.

I suggested godaddy because I have used them in the past - they are one of the cheapest out there and the quality is good for what your paying. More specifically i know they have a site builder which suits your needs.

However there are hundreds, probably thousands of other hosts out there offering similar packages - look around google.

One other point of advice, whichever host you use try to make sure that they actually own and manage servers and are not just a reseller of another companies products.

Resellers may offer good prices but when things go wrong are a nightmare. If they have any support at all then you need to speak with them, then wait while they speak with their provider who looks into the matter. Much better being able to go to source.

Also as someone mentioned with a link, never let a domain with godaddy miss its renewal date - they will retry payment once and after that they keep the domain since they had already renewed it themselves.

If you want it back you have to buy it at auction. However keeping the auto renew switched on with valid card details will avoid this.

It is also often a good idea to keep the domain name and hosting with different providers, that way you have total control and bad service from one will not stop you form moving.

[dddave]

"Godaddy is a hosting provider that offers a site builder - I have used them in the past, massive company with hard to beat prices. I no longer use godaddy for any hosting and wouldn't recommend them for a business site but from what you are saying they sound suitable."

Would you mind elaborating a bit on why you no longer use Godaddy for a business site? What is their downside?

I was just about to commence building a small business site using their "Website Tonight" builder and their hosting service.

The hosting is a little slow compared to many providers since they cram numerous sites onto one server to keep the costs low.

Also some relatively standard features such as php mail() are disabled or unreliable - however you won't use or notice these if you are just making a plain html website.

When trying to create more complex interactive sites I simply found them too restrictive - but as I said initially, you get what you pay for.

I suggested godaddy because I have used them in the past - they are one of the cheapest out there and the quality is good for what your paying. More specifically i know they have a site builder which suits your needs.

However there are hundreds, probably thousands of other hosts out there offering similar packages - look around google.

One other point of advice, whichever host you use try to make sure that they actually own and manage servers and are not just a reseller of another companies products.

Resellers may offer good prices but when things go wrong are a nightmare. If they have any support at all then you need to speak with them, then wait while they speak with their provider who looks into the matter. Much better being able to go to source.

Also as someone mentioned with a link, never let a domain with godaddy miss its renewal date - they will retry payment once and after that they keep the domain since they had already renewed it themselves.

If you want it back you have to buy it at auction. However keeping the auto renew switched on with valid card details will avoid this.

It is also often a good idea to keep the domain name and hosting with different providers, that way you have total control and bad service from one will not stop you form moving.

Great information; thanks. I remember reading warnings that some low cost domain registration and hosting providers actually keep the control of your domain name so you cannot move the site later. How does one determine if this is the case? Is there particular terminology to look out for?

Also, I know this is pretty basic, but what do you mean by "plain HTML website"?

Thanks again.

[innerspace]

It is very rare that a registrar will actually take control of your domain, except when they give a domain for free along with a "free" website. In these cases it was never really your domain anyway.

What godaddy do is renew your domain automatically, even if you do not request or pay for a renewal.

Then, assuming you don't renew within a week or so, they will take ownership themselves.

You haven't paid your renewals, technically you no longer have a right to this domain, godaddy have done nothing wrong.

The problem however is that rather than becoming publicly available, where you (or anyone) could grab it again for $10, the domain instead goes into godaddys auction for $100+.

For domain names godaddy are actually very good. Cheap prices, free email, free DNS. Just don't miss a renewal payment.

And by "plain HTML website" I mean a site which just displays text and images and has no dynamically changing content.

And I have just realised that I completely forgot to mention the obvious solution - wordpress.

Very easy to use, 1000's of templates, easy to create and update pages and 1000's of plugins to make the site do more.

Ignore my previous advice - find a host which offers easy installation of wordpress (most do via Installatron or fantastico), find a suitable theme and build your site yourself.

If you can use photoshop you can easily customise an exiting theme to suit your needs and end up with a professional, reliable website that is easy to maintain.