I’m asked sometimes about building websites, and it’s a lot simpler to do now than most people realise.
There are two magic phrases to use when building websites. You might have come across them before.
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Cascading Style Shet (CSS)
Once you know that you have instantly more leverage when designing and building a site.
A content management system is a system which allows you to edit the content of your website easily.
A cascading style sheet is the look of your website, including fonts, colours, where the menu bar goes and more. The same site with the same content can be made to look two different ways with a cascading style sheet. These are sometimes also called themes, styles and more.
Systems I’ve used and can recommend include Typepad and LightCMS.
Typepad
• Easy to set up
• Free trial, then about £3-£7/ month depending on what package you choose.
• originally designed for blogs, but works very well for simple websites
• About £10/ month to run
• Plenty of free designs
• Can get custom designs too
LightCMS
• free 3 page website
• £30+ per month for bigger websites
• some free designs, but only a few
• £300 for new design