Expert: Mark Jenkins - 2/15/2005

Question
I work in a small office that has three locations and I'm looking to setup a web page. I know some html and a little FrontPage. I really want to put up something simple, with a few pictures of each location our address, phone number and directions, our class schedule, a little information about each class and the class fees. Nothing too fancy for now, however, sometime in the near future we would like to set it up so that we can accept credit cards for payment.

I wanted to know if there are any sites that are good and low cost (or free if possible). However, if there is a really big difference between the low-cost sites and the not so low-cost sites, we'd be open to the higher priced sites if it was necessary to meet our needs.

I was wondering if I should use FrontPage or just go to one of those sites where they have a wizard and you can setup a site in about a half hour – any thoughts on that?

Lastly, any tips on improving the number of hits we would get and also any ideas on design would be helpful. Also, if I've left anything out, let me know.

Thank you,
Landon

Answer
Hello Landon,
Sorry for the lateness of this response, but I have been very busy for the last month or so, due to the acquisition of a smaller web hosting company.

Many times, there is a lot of difference between low-cost and higher priced sites. You could probably get by with a simple low cost web site. However, in terms of search engine traffic or "hits" a site must be very specifically designed, and optimized. That doesn't necessarily equal grossly expensive.

It means that you need a competent and experienced web designer to build a simple web site for you. This you should be able to get for low to mid hundreds.

As for the concept of getting more “hits”, this is complicated, and involves a bit of art and science, and I couldn't even scratch the surface without a half hour phone consultation, or at least direct e-mail.

As for web hosting, cheap is definitely not the way to go. There are a lot of reliable hosts out there (myself included) that offer up affordable sites, that are reliable. You also seem to be a bit new to this, and budget web hosts will not usually be much help to you in this case, for good reason. They have to have hundreds of  customers to break even. In such cases it will be tough to get a few minutes of help.

Finally, get your own domain. Even if you have to choose low priced host, still make sure you have your own .com name. If you want to build traffic, this is imperative, and you can always upgrade to a more stable host at a later date. (carrying your unique domain name with you)

My web-site is http://www.nfldweb.com if you want to know a little more. You can find my contact info there.

I will leave that address here for 48 hours, and then I will delete it, to avoid getting “viagra'd” to death.

Regards,
Mark J