DIY websites for the technically challenged

[clovis]

I know I've seen the threads somewhere, but can't find them:
I need to scrap my old, perpetually-unfinished and embarrassing website, and build a new one. Someone *cough* was supposed to do this for me like, four years ago, and never...finished...it. Sorry, the eye twitch is distracting me.

So. I've seen Weebly mentioned, and I think "Webskins" or something similar. What does the Bhuzverse recommend for a camel who's all toes but can work hard to plug all the images and text in, owns her domain name, and...er, yeah, that seems to be it. I just want to be able to take care of everything myself, and not have to depend on anyone else to understand how important it is to me that it looks well and is--for the Love of Gaud--finished.

I'm with Godaddy right now, but the current site construction takes some know-how that I just don't have.

[_Tanya_]

wix.com is pretty much flash sites for dummies. But having an all flash site has it's disadvantages.

[clovis]

Thank you!

[SatinWorship19]

I'm shelling out the big bucks for a web designer because I'm terrible with tech-y stuff, but my temporary site is on Weebly. It's decent and serves its purpose, but Weebly acts insanely glitchy and tempermental once in awhile. The templates also kind of stink, unless there's a possibility you can create your own.

Wix has some nice looking templates, but I'd second what Tanya says about the many caveats to a website that's strictly Flash.

[jamielynn]

For a really simple, but multiple page abiblity which is nice, website, Wetpaint is good. You can plug in pictures easily. A friend of mine is selling her photos on there so I think you can link it to paypal. Not sure about that though.

[clovis]

I'll go give Wetpaint a looksee. I'd love to be able to afford a competent web designer, but I've got some sort of people curse--my mutant power seems to be the ability to inflict anyone I depend on with a general malaise. Ask me about my rolling dies someday, but be prepared for a special bottle from the Woe is Me Whinery.

I need to be able to update the gallery myself, at 3am, then jump in and fix the mispellings and punctuation-abuse that result from 3am tinkering. Then I'll have no one else to blame but myself, which is a truly wonderful thought. And somehow simultaneously deflating...

[clovis]

Oh, and what are the pitfalls of a mostly Flash site, by the way?

[_Tanya_]

My Website is all flash and I can tell you the drawbacks first hand.
-It takes a bit longer to load images and other flash elements then if the site was in java or html. This is not a huge problem unless the person viewing the site has dial-up, mobile internet or other slow device.
-Often times google and other browsers can't comb though the site for search terms so you really really have to make sure you keep your tags updated.
-Often times people go way overboard on flash sites, too much animation, noise, movement, pictures etc... if you plan on going with a flash site keep it minimal and easy to navigate.

You can take a look at my site, I use Wix (but I designed the template myself.) Updating the site is super easy and I've had no problems thus far.

[clovis]

Thanks for the recommend, Tanya. I just finished my new website with WIX! It's at The Copper Camel--Copper Coins for Belly Dancers , if anyone wants to tell me what they think.

One of the things I don't like is that if you're building it from scratch, you can't merge or flatten the construct after you're done, so each....component...loads...separately...every.... time. But that's okay---I has a FINISHED Website!
Hurrah!

[_Tanya_]

Its looking good, the only suggestion I have is to make the menu options bigger on the pages where you define your design options. I had to look really hard for the home page button.

[clovis]

You're right--I just went and changed the buttons to a different color. Hopefully that will draw the eye better without being busy.
Thanks for looking;o)

[pepiacebo]

Looks nice, but it's done in Flash, which means poor search engine readability, making it harder for your website to be found online.

I use very limited flash and add a significant amount of searchable text so that our website shows up in Google Searches.

I'd suggest going back and trying to use GoDaddy's CMS (Content Management System) now that you have an idea of what you want your site to look like. Most CMS options today include good HTML structure, which really help with getting found.

All the best,

Pepi Acebo

[clovis]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I signed up for a month to see how I like it. It honest-to-god can't do worse then it has been for the last three years. I've got google analytics, so I'll have good stats to look at.

My Etsy store already comes up pretty high on a google search for the key words a dancer is likely to use for products like mine, and WIX makes a point of the fact that its websites are search-engine friendly--I guess we'll see. :o)

[HubicRuzz]

Actually that WIX site is not as search engine unfriendly as I thought. There is content in the html that mirrors what is in the flash. You just need to make sure you have the keywords you want to rank on the pages and in the title.

[clovis]

HubicRuzz,
Yeah, I just did tags today, after the (haha) final fiddling I intend to do until I have new designs to update.

They've got a fairly helpful wiki, and I was really surprised at how easy it was to build--just like playing around in an average graphics suite.