Business website using wordpress

sandt

Hi guys,

I'm looking to build a website for my business - just to advertise my business, not actually selling through the site.

I have some limited experience using dreamweaver but not enough to build a professional looking website, so I've been looking into building it through wordpress. Having done some basic research on it, it seems like it is a fairly easy to use system, with some great themes, plugins etc. freely available.

I'm completely new to this so I'm have a bit of trouble finding out what exactly i should be doing here!

Should i use wordpress.com or wordpress.org?

I know i need to purchase a domain name, what are the best/cheapest available? godaddy etc..

Hosting.....here is where I'm really at a loss!! Why do i need this?? Is it to actually 'store' my web pages online?
What is the best option for me here? are the any free web hosting services available?

Should i use the same company to buy the domain name and the hosting to make it simpler?

I am in no rush to get the site live, which is why i would like to tinker around with it and do it myself to make it my own (and not get a professional to do it). I plan to have approx. 12 pages on my site.


Any help/guidance as to where i should go from here would be greatly appreciated.

off.the.walls

Honestly, go to a coder/designer/professional that way you can be sure your website wont F**k up all the time

dory

Go with workdpress.com and then get a nice theme and go from there. I did it a few years ago and it worked out well. As long as you can sit through a lot of tutorials.

mneylon

Self hosted wordpress ie. wordpress.org + your own domain

You can get a nice template / theme for less than $50

dory

I use Elegantthemes.com. It costs $39 and you have access to about 70 themes.

off.the.walls

Do you not need to know some html for wordpress though?

mojopolo

Try weebly.com. It's really easy to use.

TsuDhoNimh

mojopolo wrote: »

Try weebly.com. It's really easy to use.

It's really easy to use because the options available are so limited and ends up with a performance to match. It's fine if you want to get 'something' up online and start to learn the very basics of publishing online content, but the first thing you'll hopefully learn is that using a publishing tool such as weebly isn't the right way to go about producing a professional business site.

In the long run, it'll be wasted time and effort getting to know a tool that will ultimately be of no value to you once you move on to the type of setup you should have simply started out with.

dory wrote: »

Go with workdpress.com and then get a nice theme and go from there. I did it a few years ago and it worked out well. As long as you can sit through a lot of tutorials.

wordpress.com is fine if you just want to get content up online again, but for a business site it just isn't suitable. If you don't take your site seriously enough to invest in your own domain and your own hosting, and if you don't consider your content valuable enough to warrant you being in control of it, it's hard to convince others to take your business seriously.

Proposing using wordpress.com is basically the equivalent of suggesting using Facebook as your only online property and keeping all of your content on that platform. Except at least in the case of Facebook it has some advantages in terms of being able to reach your target market who do have a preference to that platform. In the case of wordpress.com, it's all negative with the exception of saving a few €'s which is the only positive.

Blacknight wrote: »

Self hosted wordpress ie. wordpress.org + your own domain

You can get a nice template / theme for less than $50

+1 to this.

Self hosted is the only way to go if it's for a business site and you want to do it right. It means you have the ownership, have the control and have the flexibility to do things right. For the few euros it will cost above the 'free' solutions, there is no comparison in terms of which is better value for money (free is never free, it'll always cost you somewhere... be it time, resources or functionality).

off.the.walls wrote: »

Do you not need to know some html for wordpress though?

Due to the popularity of Wordpress as a CMS there are a huge number of good guides out there should someone wish to pick up the basics and start doing it themselves. There are also a huge number of designers and developers who specialise on the platform meaning it's easy to outsource all/specific elements of the project.

Sure it helps if you have the knowledge to begin with, but that's the case with pretty much anything you'll ever do in life.

sandt wrote: »

I know i need to purchase a domain name, what are the best/cheapest available? godaddy etc..

I'd need to double check what the specific rule is, but I'm pretty sure suggestions of which hosting provider to use (and possibly which domain registers) are banned here on boards.

Check out the prices of the various suppliers (most will have special offers and the likes, so dig out the best prices each offer), have a look at the customer service they offer and how their customers speak about them (so ranging from the quality of service to the way they handle questions/issues), and then make a decision on which one you think can provide the best value for money by combining them.

sandt wrote: »

Hosting.....here is where I'm really at a loss!! Why do i need this?? Is it to actually 'store' my web pages online?
What is the best option for me here? are the any free web hosting services available?

Yes. They 'store' the information on public servers that give that information (the various files) to users when they visit your site.

If you just want to play around with a self hosted copy of wordpress to get to grips with it, you can do so on your own machine (takes a little bit of playing around to set up, but if you google it I'm sure you'd be able to follow the steps).

The best option for you here is to pick the one that will provide you the best service (quality of your host is very important, downtime with your site can be a nasty problem should it become frequent), help you when you encounter problems (again, very important when it comes to hosting) and at a price you consider fair. Again, you want to go for the best value for money here not just the cheapest.

sandt wrote: »

Should i use the same company to buy the domain name and the hosting to make it simpler?

It's an oft suggested rule to use different providers for hosting and registration for a variety of reasons. However it's something I personally disagree with and put no weight in it.

For both services you want a trustworthy and reliable provider, so keeping them separate for reasons like "they can't hold you ransom" is a moot point in my mind.

Investigate the two independently and make a decision on who you feel the best provider for either/both is. If it happens to be the same company, so be it. It does simplify things a small bit if you have both with the one provider, but not enough to make that the reason for choosing one. Personally, the fact that one provider impressed me in terms of standard of service or level of customer service would be a far higher reason for putting both with the one business.

smcelhinney

Hah TsuDohNimh. I had to say your username slowly to understand it. Clever.

Also, try themeforest.net for WP Themes, and frameworks. Some nice templates there. If you need WP assistance, gimme a shout.

KonFusion

This article may be of interest http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/wordpress-tutorials-designers-1012990

adm

just fyi. you can use your own domain with wordpress.com for a small fee.
But I would also suggest getting your own hosting. most providers provide a one click install of wordpress so its really simple.

uck51js9zml2yt

adm wrote: »

just fyi. you can use your own domain with wordpress.com for a small fee.
But I would also suggest getting your own hosting. most providers provide a one click install of wordpress so its really simple.

To add to this....use an Irish provider. It makes communication easier if you have any problems.

B1gft

If you want to do it yourself, I would suggest getting hosting and domain name. Install WordPress and leave it.

I would then set up a sub domain, say test @ yourdomain.com. (should not cost you any more, than you will have all ready paid) a lot of hosting companies have videos on how to set up sub domains. Again install WordPress on the sub domain, and go and test and change and do what ever you want on the sub domain. When you learn enough do it on your main site. If you mess it up, its only your test site. You will be able to find a lot of information on WordPress if you Google.

On the themes, WordPress has tens of thousands, that with one click you can download onto your site. For (my favourite word) free.

TsuDhoNimh

B1gft wrote: »

Again install WordPress on the sub domain, and go and test and change and do what ever you want on the sub domain. When you learn enough do it on your main site. If you mess it up, its only your test site.

If going this route, I'd suggest simply setting up WordPress on your own machine with a local server environment. It means you've more freedom to play with things (with no concern of what might be seen) and no potential for it to cause SEO issues going forward.