Low cost website

Communication

Low cost website for a small historic transport club

By Chris Dugdale

Low cost website proves ideal for small club to communicate with members, articles of interest, details of club events etc. If the majority of members have internet access then it can save a fortune in paper, envelopes and stamps each year, not to mention the time taken in processing - just a simple click and the Newsletter can wing its way by email!

The local Commercial Vehicle Club to which I belong held its AGM last month and someone piped up from the floor that the Club should have a low cost website. Our President looked across to me and said "I am sure Chris will do that" and I suddenly found I had been volunteered for the post of webmaster! I have just put together four or so pages so far which give an overview of Club activities and if fellow members care to send in articles of interest then these can be posted up on the site at a later date, it is very easy to keep adding content once you have the basic design up and running. Low cost website? the real cost was negligible, the registration of the name was under £12.00 for the year and the cost of hosting on a server for 12 months just £25.00 odd - not something that is going the break the bank. You can see this simple site HERE

I am certainly no computer nerd - born in the mid 1940`s, I still have dificulty setting up a Video recorder! However; about three years ago I decided I needed a low cost website for my business which supplies body hardware and trimming materials, rubber extrusions and the like for enthusiasts rebuilding vintage and classic vehicles. This has lots of illustrations of parts, but once the basic format was worked out it wasn't that difficult to do, expecially as I built it up page by page. Apart from the name and hosting, the only cost was my time - mostly in the early hours of the morning!

The truth is, a simple low cost website can be built by almost anyone who has a computer, it is even possible with MS Word but so much easier with, say Microsoft Front Page - a relatively inexpensive programme that will give you a choice of readymade templates, all you have to do basically is fill in the pages with the information. Of course, Adobe 'Dreamweaver' will give you everything a professional could wish for, but at a price! I know Bob is now a convert to SBI and having discussed it with him I would certainly consider it if I ever decide to start building another low cost website again from scratch.

I think the point to remember is to keep the Home page simple, this is the page that the visitor will open when they access your site Too many pictures here will slow the down loading of the page and it is a well known fact that the punter expects their screen to spring to life almost immediately - a 10 second wait and they will probably click away with the end result being a lost customer.........

You can always have the pictures on other pages, further into your low cost website, remember the resolution does not have to be high to give perfectly acceptable results on a computer monitor. There is no need for high resolution, it just takes longer to load, and no need to spend a lot of money.

I look forward to you joining us on the world wide web............

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