I am the author of a book titled, Gratitude and Goals. I want to launch my new book within the next 30 days and need to put a website together ASAP, with little or no money. A few months ago I had a professional create a website for me but I really don't like the way it it turned out (if you want to check it out it's my URL: staceygrewal.com or gratitudeandgoals.com). Needless to say, I had to end my relationship with him and have since decided to just build my site on my own. But I have no idea where to start. I was thinking about getting a site through 1and1.com or wix.com and I even checked out weebly.com. 1and1 seemed to have everything I need but I wasn't convinced that I could manipulate the templates. Although wix is cool I simply don't have enough photos. And weebly didn't seem to have opt in/email capture box I wanted. Nor was I sure if I could add autoresponders, etc. I want to make sure that when I switch my domain, that whatever company I choose, it will have to be able to grow with me. Today my needs are simple - a few pages, an email capture box; a sophisticated, yet fun site that soon I will need to turn into an e-commerce site when the book is ready. I really can't afford to hire anyone right now, so I'm convinced what I need is a free or cheap website, but with good support in case I have questions. ANY advice would be totally appreciated. Thank you Stacey Grewal Author, Gratitude and Goals
dutyfreehosting.com have free Site Builder with all hosting plans. There is also a full working DEMO on the site - you can actually try designing your site before committing to hosting. Also with free '1 click install' scripts like - Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, Wordpress etc to create websites. Great value hosting packages too. Best of luck.
A website made for amateurs, in my opinion, would be: http://www.webs.com/ Simple to setup, almost anyone can do it. It's free, simple to add content, and you can have a professional look to it with little effort. I used to use it, and I know there are a lot of gaming clans/guilds that use it.. and lots of them are in their early teens.
Can I make an e-commerce site with Wordpress? I would also need to have an email capture box and auto responder.
Microsoft offer small businesses free web templates and hosting. They don't look as good as a professionally designed website but check it out.
You got it! This is the best platform for newbies as well as seasoned writers. eCommerce? autoresponder? Just Google: best ecommerce plugin wordpress, autoresponder plugin wordpress
I agree with him, if you want to take wordpress as your choice, go ahead then, I think it is easy, but find the right web hosting.
You have all thos in your existing site... Some domain registrars provide Free Hosting.. some registrars who provide 10MB, 100MB hosting without Ads for free if you have your domain with them.. some offer 1GB hosting but may place their ads.. so you can transfer one of your domain to such registrars.. Some cPanel hosting has Autoresponders i think.. And for support, you can always ask it on DP... if you need some1 to design, you can find them in http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=104 all the best for your launch...