Help with website!!

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Help with website!!

Postby kojaysnana » Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:39 pm

Hi All,

I am trying to help my husbands gospel group setup a website. From this forum, I learned about bravenet (free websites.) We don't much about these things and would like some much needed assistance. Will someone please take a look and let me know why it is so big. As soon as the site comes up, you have to scroll to see the whole page.

It is still under construction and we are trying to come up with a better layout. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.gospelmelodies.org

Thanks for any help

Karen

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby joemav57 » Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:30 am

It looks fine to me. I wouldn't worry about the size. People will scroll if they are sincerely and truly interested in it. Remember this, if it has the right content people will enjoy it. It doesn't matter what it looks like. As long as you're getting your message out there. The photo and the text work well. The only real way to get a professional look is to hire one, which can cost you more than what you probably want to spend. As for me, my H.S. baseball website is on Lycos Tripod, which is another free site. I have had my site up on there since March of 1998, type in any search engine, "Moon Area Baseball" if you want to see it.

Lycos Tripod allows you to use MS Front Page. I prefer using my own HTML.
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Re: Help with website!!

Postby debngar » Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:55 am

I don't know much little to no html or CSS coding but am wondering if a blogsite might get you what you need. No need to know coding and such. It's easy to change and update. Posts are instantly searchable by search engines like google etc. and you won't have to wait for someone to update the site, uploading files via the server, etc etc.

If all you need for this is a small web presence and a way to quickly upload pictures, post/announce upcoming events/concerts and search all those entries, this might be the least complicated way to do that.

A wordpress blog is free, includes 3 gigs of storage and might take you a couple of hours to figure out.

http://wordpress.com/
http://en.wordpress.com/features/

If you get to the point where you need more, you can host your own web space by paying for a hosting service and the "wordpress" part of the website name is no longer required for your domain name. You can then redirect the old free blog to the new site later so there is no break in links to the public, making it pretty seamless. There are free templates to choose from. It's a little more involved if you don't know how to manage files via a hosting service, webspace, upload to a server, etc. so at that point, you would want to read the information on the link below to find out how to do that:

http://wordpress.org/

Essentially if you buy webspace/hosting service from godaddy.com for instance, you install wordpress into your file area (all within the hosting server area online) and just pick a theme to get started. Godaddy can help you with that (or whoever you get to host your blog). Then you'd have to do some learning on your own, reading the info and watching tutorials on WP website to move you along. But really, there is no coding needed for a simple blogsite.
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby charlie4031 » Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:37 am

Hi Karen,
I agree with Debbie. You might want to set-up a blog instead. It's easier than you might think. There are many sites that offer free blogs but the ones I would recommend you use is either wordpress or blogger. Here are the links to it.

http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.blogger.com

Let me share with you some benefits of using a blog instead of writing your own website

1. You can choose from many different free layouts for your blog. The free wordpress has about 77 (I just created another one today) blogger has a little less I believe. But the layouts are professionally done to make your site look great.

2. No need to learn any HTML or CSS or coding for that matter.

3. Easy to set-up. You can have it ready in just a few minutes.

4. Easy to update. Updating your site is just like creating a word document, type and publish. No complicated HTML coding needed.

5. Lots of tutorials available on the internet to help you

6. Wordpress and blogger have a great community where you can get help if you are stuck. Of course a lot of people in this forum can help you out too. :D

7. Hmm what else... Its Free! No need to get a domain or a hosting. Of course if you want to get your own domain and hosting you can also do that. But that will require a little more effort in terms of the installation.

I guess that's about it.

It's really very easy, I personally have setup a lot of wordpress blogs already both the free and the self hosted ones and it really makes having a website very simple.

Charlie
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Re: Help with website!!

Postby kojaysnana » Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:15 am

Thanks for the replies.

joemav57, I will look up your website, but more than likely go with Deb and Charlie suggestions as we are both so busy right now, I don't want to try to learn another thing at this point. Although I am going to look into blogging, can you tell me offhand if you can play music. They want to be able to play some of their music while people browse the site?

Thanks and have a Happy Thanksgiving weekend

Karen

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby joemav57 » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:28 am

I don't really know of any blogs that will play music. Also, most free website hosting entities don't allow it because of the baudwith it uses. If you really want to play music on the site itself, you probably need to look at a website. Blogs will allow for photos. Good luck with your project whichever you decide upon doing.
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Re: Help with website!!

Postby debngar » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:53 am

I host my own blog and using a template I bought. I can insert an mp3 player in mine but I choose not to include it in the new site here for the time being.

http://fourfeetfotos.com

You can see/hear a player at the very bottom of this older "self-hosted" blog below. I can either insert the player at the top or the bottom so I chose to put it at the bottom and turn it off so it's not annoying to people. If I new how to insert one in a text widget, I think that would be very doable. There are ways, I just don't know how. Click the play button to turn the music on or off if you like.

http://deborah-green.com

Not sure if the free WP blog allow for a player. They restrict certain applications because they are hosting them for nothing and I'm guessing they have it that way to keep the system more secure but can't say for sure. I just tried a test by attempting to insert an mp3 audio file into a test post in my older freebie blog. But for some reason, it wouldn't let me upload it.

I can totally appreciate the feeling of not wanting to learn more new stuff. It's easy to get on brain overload from so much information! :roll:
Last edited by debngar on Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:04 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Help with website!!

Postby bellzerr » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:57 am

You should be able to embed a YouTube "video" to play your music. Use ProShow to produce a show with your music. The Slide can be a still shot or just text - it doesn't have to include any actual video. Then upload to YouTube and use the HTML supplied by Proshow to embed it in your site. I should think this would work for a blog as well if it support HTML. Why is the bandwidth not an issue? Because and embedded YouTube video is actually playing back from the YouTube servers, not from your web or blog host. Pretty cool, huh? Thanks to Photodex Online Training for this tip.
Mark

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby debngar » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:12 pm

Yes, that would be a work around of sorts. Too bad it doesn't have the option of looping. I have YouTube shows embedded in posts in my old freebie blog which worked well.

The music needs to be royalty free of sorts though because YouTube will often strip the music out of regular stuff. So if the music group is doing cover music written by someone else that is not public domain, that could be a legal problem if they aren't licensed to use that music in that way.
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby Slidewizards » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:26 pm

I don't think this answers your question but you might find it helpful.
Software that is very easy to build web site. http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/
Take a look at mine http://www.slidewizards.comTook me just a FEW MINUTES TO GET STARTED. THINGS LIKE RESIZING AND ADDING MOVIE SOUNDS IS A SNAP. Hope this helps a little, and you have much succeeds in your web site and building. Larry
It is so easy to use and not that expensive $39.95 it makes making web site a dream.
Here a few things that can be done.
• No HTML knowledge needed!
• Drag and drop objects from the toolbox on the page anywhere you like!
• Site Management. Easily add, edit, clone and structure your web pages from a single file.
• Customizable menus, toolbars, keyboard accelerators, dockable windows, tabs, autohide windows.
• Form layout object to create forms, including actions, hidden fields etc.
• Supports Form fields: Editbox, TextArea, Checkbox, Radiobutton, Combobox and Button.
• Form Wizard to create form in 4 steps. Select from a dozen ready-to-use forms.
• Rich text support: text object can contain different fonts, colors, links and sizes.
• Custom HTML object to insert your own HTML or Javascripts.
• ActiveX, JAVA, Flash, Windows Media player, Quicktime, Real Audio and other Plug-In support.
• Publish your entire web site, a single page or a group of pages (to local drive or a web server) .
• Built-in Photo Gallery maker, with lots of cool features like picture frames!
• Built-in Banner maker.
• Rollover images.
• Bulleted Lists: Circle, Disc, Square, Numeric (1, 2, 3), Alpha (a, b, c) , Roman (I, II, III) and custom images.
• Image maps.
• Customize scrollbar colors for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Navigation bars.
• Tab Menus.
• Slide Menus.
• Ready-to-use Javascripts.
• Template support. Already more than 100 templates available!
• Slide Show component .
• Support for third-party add-ons (extensions), using the Web Builder Extension Builder.
• Import existing HTML pages.
• Hyperlink Style Sheet, to customize the colors/formatting of hyperlinks.
• Built-in Popup support.
• Show optional rulers and ruler guides.
• Page transitions in Page Properties.
• Inline Frame component (IFRAME).
• Go menu: easily create a drop-down navigation menus.
• Menubar: powerful menu script that can mimic complex menus found in popular GUI applications.
• Shape object (Rectangle, Round rect, Ellipse, Diamond, Hexagon, Octagon, Parallelogram, Triangle,
Trapezoid, Arrows, Flag, Flower, Heart, Signs, Stars, Talk Bubbles and much more!).
• Master page object. This allows you to re-use objects from other pages (master page concept).
• Layer Object for advanced layout possibilities.
• Validation tools for form components: EditBox, Combobox and TextArea.
• Rotation for shapes and images.
• Ability to group/ungroup objects.
• Image tools: Contrast, Brightness, Hue/Saturation, Flip, Rotate, Resample, Crop and Stencils.
• Image effects: GrayScale, Negative, Sepia, Blur, Soften, Sharpen, Noise, Emboss and more!
• Drawing tools: Line, Line + Arrows, Scribble, Polygon, Curve and Closed Curve.
• Photo gallery border styles/ photo frames.
• Images, shapes and form controls have a new Events Page, to easily add actions to object events!
• The PayPal eCommerce Tools are the quickest and easiest way to add eCommerce to your web site!
• RSS Feed object with podcast option.
• Blog with built-in RSS feed option.
• Google compatible sitemap generator

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby silverfox » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:40 pm

Great program. Thanks.

Like you website ... you have put a lot of work into it.

Curious about one thing ... What percentage % of your business comes from your website?

thanks again for web software suggestion ...

silverfox

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby bellzerr » Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:00 pm

I'm curious about how much business is generated from website is well. I have one in the works - I found a template that I like - otherwise the task would be simply to daunting. I'm planning to use my website primarily as a place for sample shows and to present a professional image, but I'm not expecting it to generate much business on it's own.
Mark

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby Slidewizards » Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:38 pm

Curious about how much business is generated from the web site is well.
To those who asked: I am sorry to say not very much. The web site a lone does little, unless you can get it marketed or ranking. I've had it for years and because of that I get hits on it because of the time the site has been there and the articles I've left there. I advertise it in a lot of local church bulletins and small local news papers there I have my web site printed and that draws hits. However, the web site by itself, it pretty much a waste of time I have found. I need it to post private shows for the few customers I get. I also enjoy posting different unrelated stuff I feel news worthy for people to see. Nevertheless, ask others who have a web sites maybe they know something I don't know. I love to get more hits and business from it myself.
:arrow: :arrow: :arrow: So if any other's readers of this forum want to jump in, please do. Hop this helps. Larry :)

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby quikchip » Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:20 pm

I agree ... website alone does not generate business ... however when using newspaper ads, church bulletins, with professional website - it can help.

Larry, are you using TextAloud to create the voice messages on your website?

Quincy

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Re: Help with website!!

Postby debngar » Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:21 pm

Slidewizards wrote:Curious about how much business is generated from the web site is well.
To those who asked: I am sorry to say not very much. The web site a lone does little, unless you can get it marketed or ranking. I've had it for years and because of that I get hits on it because of the time the site has been there and the articles I've left there. I advertise it in a lot of local church bulletins and small local news papers there I have my web site printed and that draws hits. However, the web site by itself, it pretty much a waste of time I have found. I need it to post private shows for the few customers I get. I also enjoy posting different unrelated stuff I feel news worthy for people to see. Nevertheless, ask others who have a web sites maybe they know something I don't know. I love to get more hits and business from it myself.
:arrow: :arrow: :arrow: So if any other's readers of this forum want to jump in, please do. Hop this helps. Larry :)


Have you thought of possibly redesigning the site? There is a lot going and seemed like my senses were overloaded. I was confused as to where I'd go first to find out more about the service.

There is spoken voice, music, stuff to read and movement in 11 places on the page. The brain just can't effectively take it all in. Any movement tends to draw the eye but where does a person first look? Probably not where you want them to look.

These are things I would change:

Simplify the site by removing all the moving elements, the voice over and the music.
Place the demos under a menu tab to get the excess text off the first page.
Have one single purpose for your site and only one. Remove all content unrelated to your service.

Beyond that, you could also try a simpler color scheme. Here is a website that could you can play around with to help select colors.
http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/newest?time=30

I would consider a blog before a regular website. But maybe that's because I found what works for me. You may like the website better if it's working for you though.
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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