I always go to this one mosque and the Imam would like to have a website. Do you know of a good book, or a step by step site I could use? If the steps are not too complicated, please explain in layman terms.
Answer: It is not your fault you are confused. Finding a web host should not be so complicated. Web hosting is one of the most important part of your business and can mean the life or death to your business.
Common Mistakes
Though it seems that most people treated the website creation process as too difficult and complicated, but the truth is, it is pretty simple and rewarding.
Clarification
It starts with getting your own domain. Your domain serves as the unique identity of your website so that your visitors can find your site easily. You can register your domain name at any best domain registrar such as Godaddy and Namecheap. You can also take advantage on the free domain registration included in some premium web hosting package but you have to shoulder the domain renewal expense in term of renewing it.
Next is to create your premium web hosting account. Since you are creating your very own website for your Masjid, it’s better to get your web hosting service at premium web hosting companies. With a premium web hosting package, you can guaranteed that there are no ads displaying in your site that is not yours, unlimited web hosting service, full php and mysql database support, ftp support, responsive customer service, A+ BBB score, longer money back guarantee and so on. You can get your web hosting account and domain in the same company but it is advisable to get those two at different companies so that when one of your account is hacked or compromised the other won’t get affected. Ensure the nameservers of your domain name is pointing to your web host.
Use a content management system(cms) to create your site such as WordPress. The trick is to use an auto-installer like QuickInstall that can be found in your cPanel to set up WordPress in your server. WordPress is a the most-uder-friendly cms and blogging platform and it has a huge collections of themes and plugins that you can in your site. Just login to your dashboard, and from there you can change your theme, add plugins, add post, pages, videos, image galleries, edit widgets and so on.
Below are a few WordPress themes that you can use:
1. Essenza – a perfectly responsive and beautiful WordPress grid portfolio with premium options
2. Wonder – a nice, beautiful, powerful & simply wonderful Portfolio / Gallery WordPress theme
3. Wowway – a unique and highly interactive WordPress theme with 3 preset skins
Before we give you an absolute answer, these are seven qualities to look for in a good web hosting. An excellent hosting:
- has at least 30 days money back guarantee,
- gives more-than-enough storage,
- offers no limit on bandwidth,
- gives multiple add-on domains,
- has friendly Site Builder with thousands of unique templates,
- has QuickInstall to quickly install apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OSCommerce, ZenCart and more
- can be easily upgraded to VPS or one of the cheapest dedicated server plans if and when your business require.
Best Hosting 2013
To answer your question, why not try Hostgator. If you are building your first website and needs a hosting plan, experts usually highly recommend going with Hostgator because they are the hosting and domain registrar around.
With more than 4 million websites hosted, a “Hostgator sucks” comment cannot be avoided. See the drawbacks of Hostgator in the section below. Objectively, HG has an amazingly long, 45 days money back guarantee so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also do not have to pay for the first month. You can just try their fully functional hosting service – you pay only $0.01 (you need to use the special coupon code). Do you know any other hosting company that can give you that kind of assurance? Anybody can grab an account from Hostgator for almost FREE.
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Hostgator Complaints
No web hosting service is perfect. Some complaints about Hostgator plans include:
- No free domain name included – but you can easily get a domain name from the best domain registrar such as Godaddy or Namecheap for $10 or less. Would you agree that a website is not complete without a domain name?
- You need to pay full price after your first invoice – well, they need to make money too and all the support and great service do come with a cost. It is like they say, you get what you pay for.
If you are still not sure if HG is right for you, or you have specific query about anything at all, try the Live Chat at HG. They are fast and knowledgeable. Just ask and you shall receive.
coyotewild@rocketmail.com says
Try Blink Web or Wix, their easy to manage free website (or blog) has cool features that include drag and drop capability, switch designs on the fly, youtube and google video, custom html, upload images, flikr photo gallery, visitor stats and more. You can also buy a new domain instantly, or host your existing domain for free and make it your own (www.yourown.com)
If your looking for something more advanced but still user friendly then try XsitePro, Sitebuilder Designs or Calvary Studios, they have everything you need in building your own website: domain name registration or domain transfer, web hosting, web builder, site maintenance and email accounts. Everything is laid out in an easy to follow step by step instruction. Some of the features included enable you to add your own themes, videos, images or mp3 music making your site unique to you. Pricing is comparable and affordable too.
I hope that I was of some help and answered your question.
Tukajo says
Well, I personally use Adobe Dreamweaver, but that could cost you some big $ for the program. If your church can afford it, they have some great tutorials that come with the program, other than that you could probably buy some books on programming, any old HTML book should work. I don’t "believe" that you need a program to do HTML but I could be wrong.
Daniel S says
You don’t need any special program at all to make websites.
This is a good place to start:
http://w3schools.com/html/default.asp
Feel free to email me (through my Yahoo Answers profile) if you have any questions. I’d love to help.
???? says
just use Dreamwever to make a website or i can design u one for free i’m a web designer.
Just Contact me via my site : http://www.msb-coding.net46.net/contact.html
Craig R says
There are some companies who specialize in designing simple sites for churches. That might be a good solution for you. Just google it.
Nithya says
u can develop simple projects using html. So learn html.
Luke Simon says
Kendy,
It sounds like you would like to do the site yourself (rather than hiring someone to build it for you) and that you’re likely looking for a fairly simple program. I’m also willing to bet that the church is not looking to spend "big $" for a simple website.
Based on all that, I would recommend that you check out Sandvox for Mac OS X from Karelia Software (http://www.sandvox.com). Sandvox is a WYSIWYG web design program (what you see is what you get) that offers over 50 design templates for beginner website construction. Not coincidentally, the ease of use Sandvox and its ability to create professional websites makes it very popular with various churches (including http://www.asherchurch.com/). You can see a larger gallery of websites created with Sandvox at http://sandvoxed.com/.
Check out the screencast tutorial at http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/screencast.html?autoplay=YES and download a free demo if you like what you see. You should know, though, that Sandvox prices are expected to increase on March 4th.
Best of luck with your website.
LS