Hi everyone:

i need to know which free template is the best for a temporary site? I have absolutely no money to hire a designer and as much as I like Wordpress, I just simply don't understand how to customize it. I'm thinking about Vistaprint which gives me 30 days free, and then I can go from there. I like Webs but they have ads. Vistaprint does not.

Just wanted to get other thoughts before get started on my site tonight.

Thanks,

Caroline

Hi Caroline,
I'm fairly new around here. Like you, my business efforts got interrupted by a family illness recently. I'm plugging along though.

I know Wordpress pretty well, and wouldn't mind helping you get up and running with it. What type of customization are you looking for? I'm thinking Vistaprint isn't going to offer much customization for free. You'd probably be farther ahead in the long run starting with a simple WP site that you can build upon. There's a lot of inexpensive hosting companies that start off around $9.95 for hosting and a few dollars thrown in for a domain name.

Let me know if I can help you out. Think of it as doing me a favor to help me build my rep

Ramona

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Ramona
geekgalfriday.com

Ramona, you're lovely. How kind of you to offer.

And I honestly don't know. Wordpress literally makes my head hurt; I simply cannot make heads or tails of it. So I don't even know I need, I just know I don't know enough about wordpress to figure it out LOL!

Where you suggest is a good place to start looking at features to map it out?

Thanks,

Caroline

Try wordpress.com first. There's a Features tab in the navigation at the top of the page. You might find that it offers all you need to get started. A lot of people start off there. It's not as customizable, but there's a ton of stuff you can do. If you don't think you want to blog right off, you can usually make that less prominent or hide it all together.

If you'd like to discuss things in more detail, let me know.

Ramona

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Ramona
geekgalfriday.com

Wordpress isn't as complicated as you might think and most templates are based on the same premise so I think you'll be in the same situation no matter what brand you decide to go with. You can choose from hundreds of different templates and upload your content quite easily with images etc.

Another option is Weebly and I'm sure others can make other suggestions they've tried out themselves.

As Ramona said, you will probably find that Vistaprint is more limited.

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Sabrina L. Williams
For a bird's eye view of your business

Weebly looks like an easy way to go also. That's a good suggestion, Sabrina. I've never looked at that. It also has html/css control, so customization wouldn't be a problem. I'd give that some serious consideration, Caroline. It looks like Weebly offers free domain mapping too. Wordpress.com is only offering that with their $99/year upgrade. With Weebly you'd only be looking at paying a few bucks a year for a domain name. I can help you get up and started with Weebly too. It looks spot on simple. You may not even need my help with Weebly

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Ramona
geekgalfriday.com

Thanks, Ramona!

I am still thinking about which way to go. I actually really like Vistaprint - you can actually make a pretty decent website on it. Webs is my second favorite (from the perspective of what I am able to do myself) I just think wordpress offers more options, so I am really going to see what I can do.

I honestly wish I just pay or barter someone to do it but oh well

Cheers,

Caroline

Hi Caroline,
There are a couple free websites you can start with. Weebly, Wix, Webs, Squarespace. I personally love squarespace....it's very easy to use and the interface is simple to navigate. I once signed up for a free hosting account with 000webhost and got a .CC domain name, then followed Youtube videos to set up my Wordpress website. There are many tutorials out there for setting up a wordpress site....it's endless. But I personally love squarespace.com. I hope this helps!