Are our own websites a primary advertising medium?
- Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
There has been so much in the last round of responses on this subject that I haven’t got my head round who sent what. I don’t have broadband or 24/7 free connection so I copy from the Forum and, off-line, paste into Word and compile my replies there. It’s an ideal way of getting lost!
§ Listing Sites -v- Personal Websites. Point taken, even if a Personal Website is not much more than a brochure it can contain as much or as little as one wants.
§ Personal Webites. I am not up-to-date on this but I think you could get up-and-running very, very quickly with a basic personal website by going to www.geocities.yahoo.com/home/ or www.angelfire.lycos.com or www.tripod.lycos,com or www.webjump.com. There’s probably lots more. I understand they all include a wizard that takes you through creating, publishing and hosting free web sites.
§ Spreading the word. I do get requests for multiple prints of my brochure. 5 sheets of double-sided photo paper make for an expensive and slow process. In the right circumstances a Personal Website could be a better option. Also, why not add a signature clause to your e-mails, including your exact Listing Site address and/or your personal website address. In Outlook go to Tools/Options/Mail Format. I do and it works.
§ PDF’s. Many, many, many websites include a “printable version� button. Almost without exception that takes you to an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the page in question. Of course, it is more work for the author but in the PDF you don’t use banners or navigation bars, etc., you concentrate on the “message� and you design it to fit the A4 sheet of printer paper including proper page breaks. As it is much smaller than the equivalent MS Word file it is also suitable for e-mailing.
Alan
§ Listing Sites -v- Personal Websites. Point taken, even if a Personal Website is not much more than a brochure it can contain as much or as little as one wants.
§ Personal Webites. I am not up-to-date on this but I think you could get up-and-running very, very quickly with a basic personal website by going to www.geocities.yahoo.com/home/ or www.angelfire.lycos.com or www.tripod.lycos,com or www.webjump.com. There’s probably lots more. I understand they all include a wizard that takes you through creating, publishing and hosting free web sites.
§ Spreading the word. I do get requests for multiple prints of my brochure. 5 sheets of double-sided photo paper make for an expensive and slow process. In the right circumstances a Personal Website could be a better option. Also, why not add a signature clause to your e-mails, including your exact Listing Site address and/or your personal website address. In Outlook go to Tools/Options/Mail Format. I do and it works.
§ PDF’s. Many, many, many websites include a “printable version� button. Almost without exception that takes you to an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the page in question. Of course, it is more work for the author but in the PDF you don’t use banners or navigation bars, etc., you concentrate on the “message� and you design it to fit the A4 sheet of printer paper including proper page breaks. As it is much smaller than the equivalent MS Word file it is also suitable for e-mailing.
Alan
That's a generous offer, can't wait to see it!
But....always one of those...how is Tansy going to update her new website? What software are you going to use to build it?
Joanna
www.propertyangels.com
But....always one of those...how is Tansy going to update her new website? What software are you going to use to build it?
Joanna
www.propertyangels.com
This is a free Yahoo Geocities website, created using their Page Builder software, starting with a blank page, not a template.
www.theoldfield.com
They are very happy with it, but I wouldn't advocate taking this route. As soon as you start getting hits on the site, they block it, holding you to ransom until you pay for web hosting, which is better elsewhere, AND since their software is not compatible with anyone else, if you move it, you'll have to start from scratch. Having said that, personally, I found it a good starting point and manageable as a novice.
Joanna
www.theoldfield.com
They are very happy with it, but I wouldn't advocate taking this route. As soon as you start getting hits on the site, they block it, holding you to ransom until you pay for web hosting, which is better elsewhere, AND since their software is not compatible with anyone else, if you move it, you'll have to start from scratch. Having said that, personally, I found it a good starting point and manageable as a novice.
Joanna
Last edited by A-two on Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
I have no experience of the free hosting services but I imagine there must be a downside to them. I like ipowerweb.com. It costs about $100 a year, including the domain name. It gives you good visitor statistics. The interface is really simple, and you don't need FTP to upload files. Tansy would have to learn a little html editing to update a site, or get really friendly with someone who can do it for her.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
Hmmmm...you have not been paying attention! (I know, this another thread). I repeat, do NOT fall for the "buy webhosting and get a free domain name" ploy. BAD IDEA. Anyone who offers this is putting themselves in as admin contact for the domain, which means they control your domain name and can hold you to ransom on the webhosting unless you know your way around the domain name transfer system. Not many do, so if you want the webhosting, fine, go ahead, but register your own domain regardless, and be happy to pay the extra $10.paolo wrote:It costs about $100 a year, including the domain name.
Once you buy your domain name, they ask you for your server reference and if you don't know, just leave it "parked" at their site until you buy webhosting. When you buy webhosting, they give you the server reference. You just need to match those together, and be patient. It takes up 72 hours to work, then bingo, your website appears. It's easier to learn how to do this, which is a one step process, than to learn how to get your domain name back from a webhosting service that has gone bust, which can be impossible.
Joanna
No offence taken!
As one of the "techies" on the forum, I just had to jump in and say I certainly wasn't in the slightest bit offended by the post. The web isn't everything - it's just a topic people on this forum are bound to lean to.
I'm really NOT a fan of self-build sites, for all the reasons in the original message. However as someone who doesn't know a hammer from a wrench, I get builders in for EVERYTHING (including picture hanging). That doesn't mean I don't understand the attraction of DIY!
Love the project you've started, happy to help if I can. First off: fonts. They're a little small and don't scale properly (try View > Text Size in Internet Explorer). For those without 20/20 vision, this makes the site more readable. Use an EM-based font size to fix it.
Hehe - getting technical again! Have fun!
Rich
I'm really NOT a fan of self-build sites, for all the reasons in the original message. However as someone who doesn't know a hammer from a wrench, I get builders in for EVERYTHING (including picture hanging). That doesn't mean I don't understand the attraction of DIY!
Love the project you've started, happy to help if I can. First off: fonts. They're a little small and don't scale properly (try View > Text Size in Internet Explorer). For those without 20/20 vision, this makes the site more readable. Use an EM-based font size to fix it.
Hehe - getting technical again! Have fun!
Rich
you have not been paying attention!
You sound just like my wife! (Are you my wife?)
It's not true though, the admin contact is me, according to the whois information. Check out the whois for provence-rentals.org for instance.
The other thing that drew me to ipowerweb is it is extremely popular and has huge take-up, which makes me think it is less likely to go busto.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat