Need to make a new site - advice?

[Colin]

I built my sign business website many many years ago with the now-ancient and discontinued software “Frontpage 2000”. It’s worked well so far (although it doesn’t work well for mobile), but FP sites are slowly becoming unsupported by most all hosts now, and my particular host is ceasing support for FP sites next month! The site will still display, but no edits possible after that. So I have to totally re-do my site, using some more up-to-date software, and this is where I’m lost, not being a web guy.

My hosting company has their own “Presence Builder” with templates that I could use, but I sense that I’d be SOL if I ever changed hosts in the future as that would be proprietary. It also isn't very easy or intuitive to use.

I use Weebly for a separate, hobby website, but would that be a viable option for a business page? I fear that if they went out of business, I’d be SOL.

Just saw this:

16 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Website Builders – Tyler Horvath – Medium



The main thing I’d like to maintain is control of my site, not having to call my web person every time I want to make a change.




Any advice?

 

[AKwrapguy]

There are several things you can do depending on how involved you want to get. If your looking for something simple and have a few hours to learn something new you can look at Adobe Muse. You can download an template and put you own stuff into. It's no to complicated to learn and you build the site graphically rather than with code. Again it is some what limited but its fine for 'portfolio' type sites. It can also be 'responsive' for mobile and different screen sizes which is nice.

I've heard a lot of people using Wordpress. I don't know much about it but it's got a pretty big following and pretty helpful community.

You can also pay someone to create a site for you. Again depending on what your looking for, this might be a great option cause you can tell them the key things that your looking for and it might be less expensive than you think.

 

[OADesign]

Be prepared my friend. You are probably going to get many responses to your post, from all angles. For some reason there seems to be a hatred on most things CMS here. Not sure why. At least from the responses I've read to similar threads. I for one love them.
Weebly is a fair option, especially since you are already familiar. I do feel your fear about them going under. You should hit up their tech support/FAQ. There usually is a thing about moving content or hosting your own blah blah. Good info and may decrease your stress in that regard.
As far as CMSs go. Check WordPress.org. (Note. that wordpress.com is something a bit different, albeit worth looking into). Also check JOOMLA and DRUPAL.
Depending on your comfort level / desire to make it happen, you can do a ton on your own with templates and plugins with all three of the aforementioned CMSes.
Put on a put of joe ( or grab a two pack of redbull, whatever your caffeinated vice of choice) and take some time to read up on them all. If you can make it happen with Weebly, you may enjoy the additional freedom of the these content management systems i've mentioned. They all have pros and cons, just like any thing else. Good luck and have fun!

I built my sign business website many many years ago with the now-ancient and discontinued software “Frontpage 2000”. It’s worked well so far (although it doesn’t work well for mobile), but FP sites are slowly becoming unsupported by most all hosts now, and my particular host is ceasing support for FP sites next month! The site will still display, but no edits possible after that. So I have to totally re-do my site, using some more up-to-date software, and this is where I’m lost, not being a web guy.

My hosting company has their own “Presence Builder” with templates that I could use, but I sense that I’d be SOL if I ever changed hosts in the future as that would be proprietary. It also isn't very easy or intuitive to use.

I use Weebly for a separate, hobby website, but would that be a viable option for a business page? I fear that if they went out of business, I’d be SOL.

Just saw this:

16 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Website Builders – Tyler Horvath – Medium



The main thing I’d like to maintain is control of my site, not having to call my web person every time I want to make a change.




Any advice?

 

[Colin]

Thanks so far. Another thought I just had: Would there be a different host than what I use now that will continue to support Frontpage created sites?

 

[ams]

Avoid wordpress and any drag and drop website builder. Also avoid wix.

What I do is download a free css template or my current one is a better paid one, then I alter all the content in it. I do have some web design background so I know what I am doing, but for you, it's merely just change the text and photos to what you want. I am always between 1st and 3rd on searches and mobile friendly.

 

[particleman]

You could say I've built a few websites. When someone asks me this sort of question I refer them to Wix. You can get something that looks semi professional with little effort. Wordpress used to be my answer, but now it is a minefield of security issues and half baked plugins. You can make something nice with Wordpress but not as easy as something like Wix.

 

[Rick]

Thanks so far. Another thought I just had: Would there be a different host than what I use now that will continue to support Frontpage created sites?

Can't exactly recommend hobbling along knowing that at a certain point, you may have past the shelf life of your site and support.

You don't say how long your site has been up, but since Frontpage 2000 came out in 1999, it's safe to say your site (and the support) may have run its course.

How important is your site to your business?
Could the design use a refresh - I imagine you must be a better designer now, than 19 years ago - is the navigation antiquated?
How much more income can you expect if you have a modern responsive site?
What are you doing to draw more people to your current site?

I think it's safe to say that the response you get current online presence may reflect the effort you put into it.

We have a sign website that is showing it's age but for the advertising end of the business, we are building a responsive site using Muse. Since we can design modern responsive websites, it's not a monumental effort, but since you are a sign shop, why not use a responsive template? We recommend Muse-Themes.
Muse-Themes.com - Adobe Muse Templates | Muse Widgets and Blog

Also remember, your site will start showing it's age at a certain point... you really are lucky to get the mileage out of your current site, though since I have no clue what it looks like, it may have looked old in 2004... I was looking at a members site today thinking that his site does not reflect the quality of his craftsmanship. He may rely on word of mouth (like most of us), I would hesitate to call him based on the quality of his site... like most promotional collateral, it represents him in his absence. I'm sure he does not think he needs it, but will a little effort, why not spend the time having a site that represents the quality of his work... even though I have never seen your work, it applies universally.

 

[Colin]

Can't exactly recommend hobbling along knowing that at a certain point, you may have past the shelf life of your site and support.

You don't say how long your site has been up, but since Frontpage 2000 came out in 1999, it's safe to say your site (and the support) may have run its course.

Yes, I fully agree. I've been feeling like it needs updating for quite some time. I guess I just meant that a host that will continue to support FP sites would allow me a little more time to get a new one done. Thanks for the tip on Muse, I'll look into that. Would you say that it is fairly easy to use (WYSIWYG), or does it require the user to know code? I am completely code illiterate.

 

[equippaint]

You can find themes for any platform you choose, drupal, wordpress etc and wont have to mess with any code if you dont need custom functionality. Unless this is something that you really want to learn to do for some reason, I would just pay someone to make your site. You could probably get something decent for $500. Someone could have it all setup for you to go in and edit text, add pics etc in a couple days. They will handle getting all of the files uploaded, basic run through of how to edit it etc. Spend the time getting your content ready like a banner, pictures, text etc while they deal with the basics.

 

[AKwrapguy]

We have a sign website that is showing it's age but for the advertising end of the business, we are building a responsive site using Muse. Since we can design modern responsive websites, it's not a monumental effort, but since you are a sign shop, why not use a responsive template? We recommend Muse-Themes.

What do you think of Muse so far? I've been messing around with it for a little while and the responsive aspect of it is a little frustrating at times trying to get everything to be responsive and still look good. Adding the breakpoints in nice but I found that you definitely need to have an 'idea' or some sort of mock up to be efficient. Are you doing a single scrolling page or a multi page site?

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Muse can be vexing if you're trying to do something it doesn't support, but it's also pretty awesome that it's much easier for people (like me) who are used to working with Illustrator and know next to nothing about coding.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I've worked in Dreamweaver (stopped with CS6 for the usual CS v CC reasons). It was fairly good on getting what you wanted even if just working graphically. I would imagine Muse now would probably be better then Dw then, but I could be wrong as I've never used Muse.

I will be honest though, there are times that I've had to insert code (and I haven't messed with web code in a looonnnggg time and that was using notepad for the coding) to tweak something that wasn't an easy option (that I could find) graphically. That can also be the case with web based template tools as well (those that allow you to use the code anyway).

But there are tons of info out there to easily help that out, so don't let that concern you if you need to do some coding to refine things that the graphic tools don't let you.

 

[Colin]

Yes, I too stopped at CS6, so I take it Muse requires a subscription?

 

[myront]

I have very little experience with web building so I don't have any advice with that. I can tell you things I dislike about some designs.
1. If I type in the url I should go right to the homepage not another "flash" animation where you have to click another icon to enter/go to the homepage.
2. Don't use the original sized photos. All graphics should be saved according to pixel sizes needed. A page full of 3mb photo files will take too long to load
3. Their are ways to build the homepage to automatically size itself to fit most common screen size. Shouldn't be any left/right/up/down scrolling

I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Yes, I too stopped at CS6, so I take it Muse requires a subscription?

Well, all of the Adobe stuff now requires a subscription with the exception of Acrobat. I still think you can get a perpetual license for Acrobat Pro, but it's been awhile since I've looked into that.

I don't think Muse was ever available for CS even though the first version was out in 2012, which is when I think CS6 was as well (I've slept since then, so I can't remember all that well). About 2012, still had the option between subscription and perpetual, but they had to have some options for "help" people adopt CC. But I digress.

 

[lynettewilson]

USE WORDPRESS!!!
I have over 12 yrs experience with web design. That's what my degree is in from the Art Institute. I currently freelance after being Manager of web team for a marketing company. I have been building sites in Wordpress for the past say 5-6 yrs. I love the ease not only for designers and my customers but for SEO targeting Google search. Google loves WordPress! Let me know if I can be of any help.

 

[FactorDesign]

Squarespace.
Wordpress is OK, but seems to really slow down and always has security loopholes popping up, and of course you have to go in and make sure every plugin and theme is updated, as well as the wordpress install (some of these can be automated). I like wordpress better for some things, especially quick micro stores, but I've found the speed and clean design of squarespace to be very simple and easy to recommend to those who just want to build a site and not worry about code or constant maintenance.

 

[Colin]

Squarespace.

I tries SS a few years ago and absolutely hated it. For my hobby website I went with Weebly which was much easier to use. Apparently, SquareSpace, Weebly and Wix (et al) are terrible for SEO. shrug

This person wasn't happy either:

I'll Never Use Squarespace Again

 

[jkdbjj]

A little known site called livesite by camelback is what I started with and probably would still be with if my site wasn’t deleted accidentally by most host company.

I made the leap to Wordpress and while I now like WP more I don’t have anything bad to say about livesite.

Truly code free and seo friendly.
Support staff is excellent.
They make there own plugins so they gautentee the work.

They even have practice login where you go and play in the sandbox and do whatever to a temporary site to see how to use it.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Rayg]

I built my sign business website many many years ago with the now-ancient and discontinued software “Frontpage 2000”. It’s worked well so far (although it doesn’t work well for mobile), but FP sites are slowly becoming unsupported by most all hosts now, and my particular host is ceasing support for FP sites next month! The site will still display, but no edits possible after that. So I have to totally re-do my site, using some more up-to-date software, and this is where I’m lost, not being a web guy.

My hosting company has their own “Presence Builder” with templates that I could use, but I sense that I’d be SOL if I ever changed hosts in the future as that would be proprietary. It also isn't very easy or intuitive to use.

I use Weebly for a separate, hobby website, but would that be a viable option for a business page? I fear that if they went out of business, I’d be SOL.

Just saw this:

16 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Website Builders – Tyler Horvath – Medium



The main thing I’d like to maintain is control of my site, not having to call my web person every time I want to make a change.




Any advice?

Control of your content is key! I just completed my site in 4.5 days, and can change photos and and copy on the fly. Not to mention the SEO and marketing very easy. www.http://hobokensign.com

WIX.com was the answer for me.

I built my first site in Flash, second site with html.(need experienced coders) my final site was built on Word Press. Also more complex than marketed as. Good Luck!