# 4 Tools You Can Use To Make A (Free) Website (and website building 101)



## RGordon (Mar 22, 2010)

It's no secret that the internet is slowly becoming a booming source of leads for house painters. But for many painters, making a website is something foreign. You can hire someone to design, program, and maintain it. But that costs money. But these days there are many free/cheap tools you can use to build your own site with out having any design/programming skills.

Before i list the tools, i wanted to give some basic info on what's involved in creating a website.

*1. A Domain name: Cost $10 a year*
A domain name is the URL (or web address) that people type in their browser to see your site. There are many places to buy a domain name. I use godaddy.com. NOTE: Godaddy will try and upsell you on a bunch of crap you don;t need. Just click "no thanks"

In order for you to buy a domain name, it has to be available. In other words, if i own the domain RossHousePainting.com, you can't buy it. One cool tool to find available domain names really fast is www.BustAName.com. I always recommend trying to get a ".com" domain name. But .net is still ok if it's all there is.

*2. Web hosting: Cost:$4-$30 a month.*
A website has to have files stored somewhere. Just like you have files stored in your computer ("My Documents" folder for example) a website has to have a server to "host" the files. That's what website hosting is. For a smaller painter you should be fine with a cheap GoDaddy hosting plan, which is about $4 a month. If you are a bigger company with lots of website traffic, you probably wanna stay with godaddy and opt for a better hosting service. There are TONS of them out there. I use MediaTemple.com. 

Ok, now that you know the basics on what you need before you create a site, 

*Here are 4 free or cheap tools you can use to design a nice site that YOU can maintain.*

All of these programs have pre-design templates and make it easy to add and update text/images on the site.

*1. Wordpress* www. wordpress.org
Wordpress is a FREE blogging platform that has thousands of free designs. It's pretty easy to use and update, and is very good for search engines. You will probably need to spend a few hours messing with it and looking for videos online for how to set certain things up, but it's worth the time.

Almost EVERY website hosting company should be able to install wordpress for you. If you are going to use wordpress, check with the hosting company to make sure they can install it before you buy their hosting.

Here are some places to find free designs:
http://www.freewpblogthemes.com/free-wordpress-theme-dream-decoration/
http://www.blogohblog.com/category/wordpress-themes/
http://freewpthemes.name/paint-job-free-wordpress-theme/
http://www.leadcamp.com/content/2009/12/31/color-paint-bucket-free-wordpress-template-themes/

You can find lots more on Google

*2. Joomla *www.Joomla.com
Joomla is like wordpress but it is less for blogging and more for websites. Like wordpress, most hosting companies can install it for you for free. 

Here are some free Joomlah Templates:
http://www.joomla24.com/

*3. Drupal* www.drupal.com
Drupal is pretty much the same thing as Joomla, just a different programming language. It also has tons of free designs.

Here are some http://drupal2u.com/

*4. Square Space* www.squarespace.com
Square space is a pretty new resource and it's not free, but it IS cheap AND it has hosting included, so you won;t have to pay for or worry about hosting if you use square space.

Square Space is cool b/c it has free templates built in to it and they have TONS of options to customize it. They also have a 14 day free trial so you can mess around with it for free and see if you like it. I recommend you start with Square Space and see if you like it. You can mess with it with no hosting or domain name so it's 100% free to try (and they don't ask for credit card information)

Just remember if you DO end up sticking with square space thatyou will need to set it up so your website is not YourCompany.SquareSpace.com but rather just YourCompany.com. They can help you do that.

I hope this was of some help. Let me know if you have any questions!


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## PaintingContractor (Dec 24, 2009)

Here is my thread that I started on Contractor Talk about a week ago concerning the best Website hosting & general hosting info: http://www.contractortalk.com/f101/what-look-website-hosting-company-74811/ Website hosting should be really cheap for what a contractor's needs are for a website... I currently use HostMonster for all of my hosting and they are around $3.95 / month with unlimited everything! You can view their site by clicking here.


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