DIY Websites

[Foxandsot]

Hello

I've bought myself a DIY website (I think that is what you would call it???). Haven't done anything with it yet, the box says that it is seriously easy! Are they??

Just wondered if anyone else has used anything like this before? What are the pros and cons?

thanks

Michelle

[Alan Knighting]

Michelle,

Simply for the purposes of complying with a “Club� membership riles I recently did a DIY Web Site on Wanadoo.

Being template based it was terribly straightforward but being template based it was very limited in it’s facilities, and the “domain name� would mean nothing to anybody.

Before I started I prepared all the text in MS Word and I saved all the pictures in a separate folder. That way, all I had to do was chose a template for each page and then copy and paste the text and pictures. It was all done on-line so there wasn’t even any FTP involved.

I suspect that Google’s offering might be a little more comprehensive.

If you want to consider something which offers everything from DIY to the full thing take a look at http://www.bluevoda.com – it might have you are looking for.

Alan

[Nightowl]

Alan, I am still struggling with my own website and had a look at this and it looks like the answer to my dreams.

Thanks so much for the tip.

Is it free or is there a cost involved at some point (ie, after a few months?) Or are there any limitations in it's useage you are aware of? I have downloaded a couple of freebies recently only to find that they are a 3 month trial and then you have to sign up to a space provider or that they can't be used on any other space provider than their own. At first look I can't see any nasty surprises and the feedback from satisfied users is certainly amazing.

[Alan Knighting]

Knightowl,

I think the answer is that the BlueVoda Website builder software is free but you will need to take, and pay for, a hosting package if you want to publish the Site. Go to http://www.vodahost.com/ to see their offerings.

I would only be guessing if I said you could host the Site anywhere you like, I don't know.

Alan

[Nightowl]

Thanks Alan

I only had a chance to have a quick look last night (I was at work and it was busy...) but I will take a proper look at it all sometime over this weekend. Cheers

[Gareth]

As new entrants to the world of holday rentals, I recently used "Back to the beach" Web Studio 4.0 software on 30 day free trial to have a crack at doing a web-site for our Portugese rental properties.

I found it dead easy to use and was pleased with the results so bought the package for £60. Quite enjoyed doing it as well !

If you are PC literate and have a reasonable eye for design, but no HTML experience, it's a good starting package that I'd recommend.

Of course now I'm into it and will now be looking to these boards for advice as to how to improve the site. I've just had 360 degree photos taken and am trying to figure out how to use these to best effect on the site.

[TravelPixel]

As new entrants to the world of holday rentals, I recently used "Back to the beach" Web Studio 4.0 software on 30 day free trial to have a crack at doing a web-site for our Portugese rental properties.

I found it dead easy to use and was pleased with the results so bought the package for £60. Quite enjoyed doing it as well !

If you are PC literate and have a reasonable eye for design, but no HTML experience, it's a good starting package that I'd recommend.

Of course now I'm into it and will now be looking to these boards for advice as to how to improve the site. I've just had 360 degree photos taken and am trying to figure out how to use these to best effect on the site.

gareth you maight want to have a look at this thread for a discussion of panoramas:

viewtopic.php?t=1896

[pinkeyemedia]

There are also plenty of free open source content management systems, which all contain WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, so you can design websites just like using Microsoft Word for example. You have to get your domain and hosting and install the script (which can now be done at a click of a button) and after reading a few tutorials, hey presto, youre well on your way to your own site.

Example of open source cms are Mambo or PHPWCMS, the latter I highly recommend.