building website for a ministry

[webdog]

Not a lot of money to spend, but what website hosting platforms are the best for non profit ministries? I'm starting a Trinity Fitness in my city soon (www.trinity-fitness.org) and while I will have a chapter page on the main site I want one reflecting our chapter for sponsorship reasons. Trinity Fitness Mentor.

 

[Revmitchell]

Andrew who owns this board has web hosting. It all depends on what your experience is with building websites or how willing you are to spend lots of time learning.

If you are a novice and have little time or patience learning you want to get hosted by someone who has a website builder platform.

If you have some time a wordpress platform is pretty good and used more and more by non profits. It is fairly multi directional but does take some understanding. For example if you want to accomplish one goal of making a link or building a page you may have to set up two or three different things first like "sections" or "categories".

A CMS like Joomla is very expansive but it takes much more time and learning if you are not familiar with it.

Do not be afraid to use a basic website builder platform. They have really come along way over the last few years and might accomplish just what you want without a lot of extra time put into it.

 

[InTheLight]

Years ago I needed a website and I had a graphics designer build one for me. She hosted the site on GoDaddy. GoDaddy does have sleazy Super Bowl commercials but they are a solid web hosting company, with very low prices, and great support. I looked into switching a few years ago but found the competitors didn't have all the stuff that GoDaddy could provide. Plus the hassle of moving the website to a new host didn't interest me. A couple of alternatives that looked promising back then were FatCow and HostGator. I presume you don't need a shopping cart or e-commerce capabilities?

 

[webdog]

Years ago I needed a website and I had a graphics designer build one for me. She hosted the site on GoDaddy. GoDaddy does have sleazy Super Bowl commercials but they are a solid web hosting company, with very low prices, and great support. I looked into switching a few years ago but found the competitors didn't have all the stuff that GoDaddy could provide. Plus the hassle of moving the website to a new host didn't interest me. A couple of alternatives that looked promising back then were FatCow and HostGator. I presume you don't need a shopping cart or e-commerce capabilities?

We dont. We will be selling apparel eventually, but would like online giving definitely.

 

[webdog]

Andrew who owns this board has web hosting. It all depends on what your experience is with building websites or how willing you are to spend lots of time learning.

If you are a novice and have little time or patience learning you want to get hosted by someone who has a website builder platform.

If you have some time a wordpress platform is pretty good and used more and more by non profits. It is fairly multi directional but does take some understanding. For example if you want to accomplish one goal of making a link or building a page you may have to set up two or three different things first like "sections" or "categories".

A CMS like Joomla is very expansive but it takes much more time and learning if you are not familiar with it.

Do not be afraid to use a basic website builder platform. They have really come along way over the last few years and might accomplish just what you want without a lot of extra time put into it.

My e-tech knowledge is somewhere between my kindergartner and 3rd grader

 

[Revmitchell]

My e-tech knowledge is somewhere between my kindergartner and 3rd grader

Godaddy has really good prices for those with a low budget. We host our church website there. They also have a website builder platform that is pretty nice. It is easy to use and later if you want a better platform you can always make the change. Their support is pretty good as well and it is 24 hours. I would go with them and stick with the website builder platform they have to get you started. If you need any help building it get a hold of me I will be glad to get you going.


I do not believe you can go wrong with that.

 

[InTheLight]

Godaddy has really good prices for those with a low budget. We host our church website there. They also have a website builder platform that is pretty nice. It is easy to use and later if you want a better platform you can always make the change. Their support is pretty good as well and it is 24 hours. I would go with them and stick with the website builder platform they have to get you started. If you need any help building it get a hold of me I will be glad to get you going.


I do not believe you can go wrong with that.

This is good advice. Their website builder platform is pretty good, once you get the hang of it. It's basically a bunch of templates that you customize with content. There are a lot of template options so you won't get the dreaded "cookie cutter" website appearance.

If you have a passing knowledge of word processors and a basic knowledge of how to work with images you should be able to make something presentable. Then once it's up and running you can tweak it.

 

[annsni]

As a church and Christian ministry, I'd never use GoDaddy. Ever.

My husband has his own server but he's thinking of shutting it down because the other day, within 10 minutes or so, he had 12,000 hits trying to get into the server by hackers all over the world and he's getting frustrated with that. I'll ask him who he'd recommend.

We've used Drupal to build websites and I know WordPress is very good as well (Drupal is more versatile but you do need a bit of computer knowledge to set it up).

 

[InTheLight]

As a church and Christian ministry, I'd never use GoDaddy. Ever.

Why? Because they have questionable Super Bowl commercials?

This gets back to the whole question of "Who should Christians boycott?" And apparently in this day and age, it's everyone.

 

[HAMel]

WebDog..., post your needs on www.guru.com and in just a few hours you'll have tons of folks to pick from. All you do is register and post your needs.

or...

I've got one (website) in the works right now (under 400 bucks). They are in India and seem very capable. If you'd like, send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with them.

 

[preachinjesus]

I tell our staff that you get what you pay for, and if you pay for free you'll get corresponding support.

We use Bluehost for our website. It works great, support is wonderful (I've heard) and we get done what we need. Its not terribly expensive and is scalable.

 

[Don]

Why? Because they have questionable Super Bowl commercials?

This gets back to the whole question of "Who should Christians boycott?" And apparently in this day and age, it's everyone.

Not just the Superbowl ads. They're also one of the top providers for pornography websites.

I'd say contact Andrew. There's another one called Praise Jesus as Lord (pjlhosting.com).

 

[InTheLight]

Not just the Superbowl ads. They're also one of the top providers for pornography websites.

Yuck, I did not know that. They are probably the largest web host company in the U.S.

 

[Don]

Yuck, I did not know that. They are probably the largest web host company in the U.S.

That they are, because, as you and Rev pointed out, they're the cheapest. However, this is the first time I've heard that their tech support was good; the usual chatter on the tech sites I frequent indicated their tech support left something to be desired.

 

[InTheLight]

That they are, because, as you and Rev pointed out, they're the cheapest. However, this is the first time I've heard that their tech support was good; the usual chatter on the tech sites I frequent indicated their tech support left something to be desired.

You can find a lot of tech support on their website. They do have operators 24/7, so you can call them (no 800# though, so it's a charged long distance call). The tech support people I've connected with have all spoken excellent English, they sound as if they are in the U.S. and they know the troubleshooting script/flowchart way better than Comcast or other places I've called.

 

[annsni]

Why? Because they have questionable Super Bowl commercials?

This gets back to the whole question of "Who should Christians boycott?" And apparently in this day and age, it's everyone.

As Don said, there is more to them to dislike than just the ads although I find the ads to be enough to absolutely disgust me as a woman and a human being, no less a Christian! The first time I saw their ad, I knew I'd never ever use them or recommend them and the more I find out, the worse it is. I don't want our church to be associated with such a disgusting company as GoDaddy.