Over the last several years I’ve made quite a number of websites, which means I’ve experienced a number of site-building services and hosting platforms. If you’re making a website for your business, you’ll save a lot of money and energy by doing your homework up front.
So here are some thoughts:
- TypePad
When I first started out with TypePad I thought they were a great service. This was several years ago, and at the time, it seemed like they offered quite a lot of options and made it very easy to set up a website and blog.
I’m afraid to say that over the last several years, TypePad has just not kept up. Their interface is clumsy and offers little flexibility, they have frequent downtime, and their blogs and websites all look like they were . . . well . . . designed several years ago.
- SnapPages
I think SnapPages is a great service and I recommend them often. The upside is that you get a pretty easy out-of-the-box interface with which you can make some nifty pages. The downside, for me, is that you are still bound to the preset options they offer.
So for instance, you could never hire a programmer to make a special modification to your site. And with any service like SnapPages or SquareSpace (or TypePad!), you are locked in monthly or yearly payments.
- My current favorite option: WordPress
If you’re reading this website, you are reading a WordPress site – you may also have followed my blog posts here about moving my site PianoBlog.com away from TypePad and onto WordPress.
Yes, you will have to spend a bit of time figuring out the WordPress interface, but the upside is huge. There’s an enormous support community of users, and you can choose from any number of incredible website designs. And if, down the road, you want to find a programmer to really fancy up your site, you have complete flexibility.
If you decide to work through WordPress, I would highly suggest using a host that has “one-click” setup. This makes installation of the package literally as easy as clicking a button. My host of choice is SiteGround (affiliate). That’s the host I use for No Boss Ninja, PianoBlog, and will soon be the host I use for your-piano-lessons.com
Happy Website Building!
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my Page on Website Resources as well as Getting Set Up on Word Press.