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If you are poor as a church mouse - like me - you’ll be pleased to learn that you can have a professional, first rate web site, with all the trimmings (just like your Thanksgiving turkey), for about the best price around the globe. In fact, you can go several ways. I will give you an overview of your options here, and then in future issues describe some of them in more depth.

In all cases it is assumed that you will need to go register a domain, however, they are dirt cheap at GoDaddy.com, like under $10/year. In fact, some less popular ones like .us or .ws are less than $5/year.

Choosing the domain name you want to register is very important, but I won’t go into that here.

Secondly, you will need to rent space for it. This is called hosting. Think of it like paying rent for a store unit in a shopping mall.

If you come to me I can set you up with three different hosting packages, but a new startup site doesn’t take much space, so my Basic at $12/year would do just fine. That’s 100 MB of space to park your site, and it will take you a while to fill it. (Mainly text means you could get a shelf full of books on it; if you use lots of photos or graphics, then maybe just a couple).

Your big choices come in how you will create or build your web site. I suggest that I can help you in four different ways.

You Choose:
1. I can design a main template for your web pages. This assumes you know enough html coding so that you can put in your content, and link your pages together, and create your own little dynasty in cyberspace.

2. I can design a template and prepare a handful of skeleton pages, with instructions for maintaining your site yourself with minimal html skills. You use the template as a cookie cutter, or mold. You simply add your new content (words and pictures), add suitable meta tags, and name the page. Gradually you would learn some html coding, as you get more familiar with what you have. After a while you would be proudly referring to yourself as your own web designer. Basically, you just pay me … for the main template, and …. for each skeleton page.

3. I set up a Blog-based site for you, using WordPress (which is free). No need to learn any html coding skills to run this yourself. My fee would only be for setting it up. (or if you twist my arm…)

4.You purchase a SiteBuildIt! site, and I give you some set up assistance. (This would not be hosted by me; it’s included in the annual fee at SiteSell). Html skills are optional. Larger cost, but much more powerful! It comes with exciting modules built in like, automatic search engine submissions and re-submissions, blogging and ezine modules, a store module, and excellent support!

5. Other Free Content Management Systems (CMS) - There is a tremendous rise in Content Management Systems on the internet. Dozens have appeared already, and many of them are developed by the Open Source people. This means that if you are willing to learn how to install a system on your domain, and to learn to operate the dashboard buttons (Administrator’s area), you are set with a good site too.

You really don’t have to worry about designing the “look” because you can go through hundreds of templates that are offered on the web for free, and pick several. Then narrow down your choices after you try them out.

I’ve just discovered that the WordPress system which I use for my blogs can be used for all the static pages too, and can function easily as a whole site Content Management System. That only takes a few days of intensive exploring and setting up, and you are good to go!

At present I’m leaning to use another free CMS called Mambo. It has a steeper learning curve, but comes highly recommended and I understand that others who have figured it out, are charging up to $2000 a site when built with Mambo! That does come with all kinds of wonderful features; blogging, news management, RSS, membership site control, and modules can be added for e-commerce (read shopping cart), etc. Since Mambo is part of the free Fantastico programs that come with my hosting services, like WordPress, it doesn’t take but a few minutes to install the system, and then you can go in and start entering the articles and information and links, or whatever you want to do. I would just caution you to allow some time for learning how to use that deluxe pilot’s cockpit and dashboard.

6. I suppose there is a sixth way - teach yourself everything by trial and error the way I did. It’s a lot cheaper, but it takes about six or seven years, and you have to keep learning because things change on the net every few months.

My goal would be to help you set up your site, and to turn it over to you, the owner to maintain by following simple steps - that can - if you pay attention, lead you to designing more pages on your own.

On my site, Azaleas Web Design I’ve created a few sample templates to show what I would or could do if you wanted me to make one for you. Naturally, you are not stuck choosing one of those templates. We can adapt, but the simpler your design, the faster your site can be up and running.

My secret lies in designing templates for each site or “area” so that when I want to create a new web page for say, an article, I just pull up a template in my web design editor insert the article at a certain point in the long page of HTML gobbedly-gook add two br enclosed in angle brackets <> after each paragraph, put < b > before words I want to make bold, and < /b > after them. I insert the title in a certain marked spot, and I change the meta tags at the top to match the contents of this new page. Then I name it with the file name I want it to have on the web, and save it.

I open the index page, (and/or the includes files), also always saved on my computer, and add a link to the new page. For that matter, on all other pages too, so that visitors will be able to discover this new one. The “includes” file, if linked to from all the other pages, allows us to instantly add a new link to ALL the other pages. Clever stuff!

Lastly, I upload all these new and updated pages to my site, which takes a trice. The heavy pictures or graphics can take a few more trices, or minutes. Voila. Done.