posted
I am starting a foundation to promote science and engineering in Oklahoma. I'm going to need a website (among many other things), but I know nothing about this. What do I need to do? How much would it cost to have someone design a webpage? How do I get e-mail to route through my domain name and to my personal e-mail?
Any advise would be great.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
The website cost completely depends on how much content you want on it and what you plan to use the website for (as a landing page to sell something, merely as an informational site, as an ecommerce site with a shopping cart, as a community networking site, etc.) and how "professional" you want it to look. You can hire a designer for less than $500 for a 5-page site, say, but it might not look top-notch or do much more than just present your content. You can pay $15,000 for a good designer to create a fairly decent site with some advanced capabilities.
For just one page, with you supplying the text, images, and logo, you're probably looking at $75-$250, depending on who you hire and what kind of services you need.
You can create your own site, too, if you want. Most larger web hosting services include some kind of site-building tool that lets you create a small website based on a template. Then you can do it for free if all you want is a few pages to tell visitors about your organization. It won't look that great, but it might be all you need.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Depending upon your needs, you could use your domain name to run a blogging software, such as Wordpress or Typepad (I suggest Wordpress). There are a lot of very top-notch themes out there that are free (or relatively cheap), and don't look too "bloggy". And it's pretty easy to take out parts (like comments sections) that you don't like.
Just a low cost option to consider.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
You may want to call other non-profits in your area and see how they've resolved this issue. Unprofessional websites are the bane of small foundations.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
What you need is a HOST. That is, some place to put your website. Yahoo will happily host your website and give you a hand full of email addresses, and free domain name registration.
The have a lot of design tools and even design templates where you just add your information to a ready made website. It's a little difficult to find the page with details about the various packages, so here is a direct link -
The STARTER site is not adequate from most people, so go for at least gold.
Most Hosting site now have many tools to help you design, and maintain your website. Many of the even include things like 'Leave a Comment', Chat, blogs, opinion polls, and many other features.
There are virtually an unlimited number of hosting sources out there. Likely since you already have internet access, your internet service provide can probably arrange a domain name, hosting site, and design help. It is even possible that you have domain space that you've never used. It comes with most internet access accounts.
As for email, you don't need to have email forwarded to your personal email. Simply configure your email reader for your new user account. This will establish new and specific locations on your computer to store those 'business' messages, and keep them separate from you personal messages.
Personally, I use Mozilla Thunderbird, to read my business emails, but in that copy of Thunderbird, I have two separate email addresses related to our business. One is a Yahoo back-up email address and the other is our standard personal domain name email address. I have the same in Mozilla Seamonkey for my personal email addresses. I have one email address for normal correspondence, and another fake-name email address for more sensitive correspondence.
I believe the $10 1and1 account gives you 2000 personal email address, so if you have other employees or people assisting you, you can assign them their own personal email address.
Yahoo gives you 1,000 email address which you assign on an as needed basis.
Homestead only gives you 5 unique email addresses but how many did you really need?
The give you 25 to 100 email address depending on which package you select. They also have another nice feature that allows virtual email addresses.
Since I receive all the email for our company, we have one true master email name (my_name@ our_host.com) but we want to look professional, so my business partner has a virtual email in his name, and we have several general names like sales@ out_host.com, marketing@ out_host.com, etc.... Yet, all those get routed to my master email address.
As far as getting a nice website on the cheap, check you local high school or college. You can probably get a student to do it cheap, and since this stuff is second nature to them, it will probably be very professional.
Again, it depends on how complex you need it to be. As I've said, most hosts have many tools and templates to make it easy for you. If your site is simple enough, just plug the information into the templates, and at best add a few specific need pages.
posted
How much do you know about the initial size of your organization? Will it just be you doing the work?
As previously stated, if you want maximum control over your page, you should find a reputable and affordable host. I use 1and1.com, and have found that they scale nicely from "I have no idea what I'm doing" to "Rent me a server and back off". I'm sure there are other hosts out there who are as good or better, though.
I second the suggestions to checkout free end-user solutions like Wordpress, Google Apps, etc., and to ask other non-profits what they've done (ask the np's with nice sites, though!). It might also be a good idea to contact a local college and see if they have web or graphic design students who would like a chance to add to their portfolios. You shouldn't ask them to work for free, but you can ask for samples of their work and discuss fair compensation with them.
I'm graduating from my Fine Arts/New Media undergrad program at the end of the month, and I happen to work for the web unit of my university, so I have some insight into the kind of work you're looking to get done. Feel free to ask about specifics as they become known.
posted
The cost of designing a website is dependent on what you want your site to do, and how many bells and whistles you want it to have. I've had clients that I've built sites for 500ish, and I've had clients with sites in the 10,000 - 20,000 range. So without knowing more, it's really impossible to say.
Posts: 324 | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I want a professional looking website that is informative and functional. This foundation will be responsible for hosting a Lego robotics tournament and there will be data about that that will need to be updated regularly.
Here is the website of a sister foundation. Much of the content will be the same, I just want it to look a little nicer.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
You might point out to them that those wishing to donate would be more confident were 'Detuctable' spelled correctly . . .
I might take a stab at an updated version of that website, which you could easily adapt to your needs. You'd still need to get yourself hosting and domain name, but there are many options for that. 1&1 is good, and I've heard good things about http://www.icdsoft.com/ from several hatrackers and others. You might also be able to receive free hosting from someone due to your NFP status, but I wouldn't count on it.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
brojack, if your email address listed on the site is up-to-date, and if you want, I could email you to discuss in more detail what you want, and what it would cost if I was designing it for you.
Posts: 324 | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, my e-mail is accurate. Once you e-mail me, I'll give you another address that I check more often.
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I would rather pay someone I "know" for the design than just a random company.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
The sample web page you link to - Arkansas Lego League - is pretty straight forward. It uses mostly standard HTML and to duplicate a similar website should be relatively easy.
I suspect if you can find someone at the local college or high school to make a similar site for you, it would be very cheap. Likely for very little money more, they can dress it up nicely.
I would suggest that you avoid excessive use of JAVA and other advanced programming languages. They do have their place and when used properly, they can be valuable, but most people tend to over do it, and it actually makes the web pages harder to use.
One drawback to the mostly JAVA self-development tools provided by most Hosting sights is that you can't always guarantee that it will look the same as you laid it out, or that it will look the same on all browsers. Still, if you stick to the provided templates, that's not going to be a big problem.
However, a knowledgeable college student can whip this stuff out fast and easy, and get excellent results.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
