# Good Websites



## TheJoineryGallery (Sep 21, 2010)

Hello All-
I currently have a website through wordpress, but have looked around at some other website companies, and wanted to know if any of you can truly recommend a company that youve done business with, and overall happy with whats offered. Also something that doesnt take alot money out of my hand tool budget 
Thank You


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## rbterhune (Jul 31, 2009)

Most companies will be very expensive…especially with the maintenance. I do my wife's wedding photography website myself for this very reason (another hobby of course). I don't have the knowledge to do her blog so I just went with a purchased template for wordpress that is fully customizable. Her blog is so nice, we've considered ditching the regular website.

I don't think you'll find a cheaper alternative than wordpress. I wouldn't give up on it yet. I would, however, look around until you find the right template. Once you do, you'll be happy.

The templates can be found all over the net and usually run less than $150…a one time fee.

Good luck.


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## superstretch (Jan 10, 2011)

Out of curiosity, you mean you have a something.wordpress.com site? Do you like the wordpress system? I do a lot of wordpress hosting with a VPS cluster I lease. Shoot me a PM if you want. I have a designer on tap if you need design services, but there are a lot of free/cheap WP themes if you're fine with that.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

The people at webnet77 are wonderful. They also have some good deals and give excellent service.


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## WhiskeyWaters (Dec 25, 2007)

I was in the same boat as you and for my money I'm happy w/ wordpress. If you are using a lot of there upgraded services, then you probably have a different experience than I have had, but fifteen bucks or so a year with blog capabilities is all I need.

Are you looking for more of a web-presence or a web-storefront?


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## Jered (Sep 15, 2010)

My host is ipage, they have excellent technical support.

I chose to use wordpress to build my site though. It took a while but I fanally got to the point where the basic layout of the site is close to what I want and I am now working on a password protected part of the site for the retailers I work with that will allow them to choose a basic design then input the options they want on a form. It is not exactly what I want but the template and all the plugins I am using were free and when I am done it will at least do the minimum I need it to. I also have a small store on one of my pages that I set up using google checkput. As has been mentioned, many wordpress templates are very customizeable so you can use wordpress for pretty much any type of site you want.

Several weeks ago, I had spent many hours trying to build my site and was not getting anywhere. So I got a friend to agree to take a look and help me out. He was too busy to get to it right away though so after a few days, I went back and tried to change a couple things. That time, everything went really smooth and I was able to find all the info right away in the wordpress codex to make the changes I wanted.

Point is, sometimes if you hit a wall, it seems it is better to take a few days off from the project. When you go back, it might not be as complicated as it initially appeared.


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## closetguy (Sep 29, 2007)

I use the server based Wordpress hosted by Hostgator. I found that the free Wordpress is too limiting. However, if you are not computer literate, or interested in dealing with Linux file structures, you may find it frustrating. It's not a "point and click" solution.

I used Pagebuzz for a number of years and loved the ease of use. It was inexpensive and required no technical knowledge to get a nice web site up and running. I quit using it because I needed more blog functionality and Pagebuzz had everything except a blog.


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## Wood_smith (Feb 12, 2010)

I use Yahoo Site Solution and am fairly happy with it. It is template driven, so adding your own HTML code is pretty tough to do. But then, most people using template style web page builders don't usually add their own code anyway. Cost is good too.
Check out my website, it was pretty straightforward to do.


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## travisowenfurniture (Jan 12, 2011)

Custommade.com is good, but it has a high fee for membership. There is a free plan, but you aren't able to receive messages from prospective clients until you sign up for a paid plan. They guarantee a sale on their Gold Plan in your first year, but the plan is something like $800 or something. Good exposure, high initial cost. However if sales are good for you, you can pay the fee with one or two projects. They also may offer your first year half off.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

All you need is C-panel hosting and a domain name - can be got for
$5 or less per month. C-Panel installs Wordpress with about 3 clicks
and you can have an independently controlled Wordpress site up in
about 10 minutes.

Wordpress is perhaps the most flexible open-source platform. 1000s
of themes and plugins make it a system that can grow with you.

The free Wordpress.com is not the same thing. Wordpress.com hosting
is very restrictive and I do not recommend it for any type of site you
want to use to grow a business or generate revenue.


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## isetegija (Oct 11, 2008)

I agree with Loren, self-hosted Wordpress is the best way to go, its free and very flexible.
I pay $3 per month for hosting my domain and on this domain I can do what I want and how I want.


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## Petewood (May 14, 2010)

I do my own site. For me, the software learning curve lasted awhile (okay, a long while). I can sail through it now, though; and if I can, so can you. I use Frontpage to publish, and Corel X5 and Photoshop for graphics. I've been using inmotionhosting for about 5 years, and their customer service is great. As wood product sites go, mine's pretty large, but for $110.00/year, I get unlimited server space and yearly domain registration is included, along with a dozen or so subdomains.
There is considerable discussion here at LJ regarding the business end of running a business. For me, every aspect of the infrastructure of my business which reduces my workload on the back end and makes the office side run smoothly and easily is critical so that I can continue to do what I'm really in business for: cutting wood.
I believe that having a website is imperative to succeeding in this business. Show me a person who conducts business solely on word-of-mouth and a handshake, and I'll show you one who is old-school, honorable, and about to get buried by competition.
I also believe that simply displaying your product and contact information is insufficient. It's important that potential customers have some sense of who you are: your level of knowledge of your trade, your experience and your dedication. In that regard, I've chosen to include some educational material, as well as some scientific data pertaining to various types of wood in my site.
And then there's your branding. I used Corel and Photoshop to design my company logo, and then hired an attorney to register it. That, the software and my local business license, were my only administrative costs.
Spend the time and what little money it takes to do it yourself; you'll be amazed at the control you have over your marketing, and you'll never regret it.
"The man who doesn't advertise in order to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time."-- Henry Ford.

Pete
Blue Mountain Wood Products


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