Cutting the Cost of Your Online Presence
Posted by Susan Normandin on Mon, Nov 02, 2009 @ 07:42 AM
how to create a free website for your organization
The challenge for many small businesses and not-for-profit organizations is how to develop a website without spending the entire marketing budget in the process. The answer may be easier than you think.
Wordpress was developed in 2003 as a blogging platform. It was the creation of several developers who collaborated and applied their talents to what would be a free, flexible means to blogging. The original concept grew and thrived until the number of users exploded with 3.8 million downloads in 2007 alone.
During its evolution, Wordpress went from a pure blogging platform to content management system built around the standard features of a blog. With the development of new themes or templates, Wordpress is able to take on more of a website appearance and less of a blog appearance. Here lies the potential savings for a small business or not-for-profit; Wordpress is free.
The original developers of Wordpress wanted to keep their creation a free, open-source project from the beginning and it remains so today. Because the open-source concept means that that Wordpress is enhanced through the work of non-paid volunteers, the organization keeps the blogging tool a free product.
Getting started is simple
So how does a small business or not-for-profit get started with a Wordpress-based website? It’s very easy. Wordpress offers two versions of their product; either Wordpress-hosted or self-hosted. This means that you can let Wordpress host your website or you can do it yourself through a hosting company. The latter is the preferred method since this offers much more flexibility and greater functionality.
To self-host, you would need an account with a hosting service. The hosting service should support Wordpress and should make installing Wordpress an easy task. If you are comparing hosting services, look for those that offer Simple Scripts or Fantastico for installing Wordpress. Also, if your organization doesn’t already have a domain name, you will want to make this small investment and get one. Domain names can be as little as ten dollars a year. Your domain name can only be used if you go the self-hosting route.
Your domain name should be on the name server at the hosting company you use. If you can’t figure out how to do this from the hosting services’ general instructions, then ask a customer or technical service person to do it for you. With the domain name on the hosting service’s name server, you should next use Fantastico or Simple Scripts to install Wordpress under that domain name.
Customize the look of your site without spending a dime
Now the fun part begins. One terrific advantage of Wordpress and the open-source concept is that thousands of web designers have created themes or templates to help style your new website. The Wordpress directory has more than a thousand alone. You can find their selection at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes
A search of the Internet using the terms ‘Wordpress’ + ‘themes’ + ‘free’ will result in pages of additional free themes. While shopping these free themes, it’s important to make certain that the one you select works with the newest version of Wordpress; most likely the version you installed.
In addition to themes, there are hundreds of ‘plug-ins’ that further enhance Wordpress’ capabilities. The search engines like Wordpress, so with the right domain name and keywords, your new site may eventually rank well with the search engines. This is also a function of adding enough good content. The cost of your new website; zero. The benefits; just as great as the site that could have dinged your budget for thousands.
