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Looking for advice/expertise. I'm chair of a group that's obtained funding for a pumptrack build and we're about to set up a club but reckon we need a website.
Nothing too fancy but need a few pages: front page, page with document links, a page showing booking dates (doesn't need to be a live booking page) and a few others.
Any suggestions as to the easiest and beat way given we'll be doing it from scratch with no real experience.
I hate to be that person but you'll need to replicate everything on a Facebook page anyway, so how about just making a decent Facebook page?
(I'm currently hitting myself for suggesting this)
Look into building your website off of Wordpress. While things like Wordpress and Squarespace excel at you taking a template or framework and customizing it to your own.
With that said, Wordpress has a serious library of plugins and widgets you can implement. It'll take a bit of learning how to use their platform but it's well worth it.
With it you can have an up & running site in about 2 hours:
Buy a domain. namecheap.com is a good registrar (go with privacy registration to keep anonymous!)
Buy hosting and setup WordPress on the hosting (separate the hosting & domains provider)
Connect domain to the hosting. A bit techie but eventually it's filling of just 3 fields (nameservice).
Got to WordPress admin (usually www.your-domain.com/wp-login), login, got to themes. Find some nice, free WP theme on Google. Install WooCommerce plugin. Add basic shop.
Now, still in WP, got to pages -> add pages, post. See if everything works.
spent 2-3 years battling with Wordpress trying to understand it all, transferred our business site to Wix about 2 months ago and it is soooo much simpler. I vote Wix.
Agree with the Facebook part for stuff like posting events and announcing info but don't you find if you go to a 'Page' it is such a hassle to navigate? I can understand wanting a couple of decent static pages with all the club info easy to find and read.
I used Wix for my website. Pretty straightforward. Lots of templates and that to make it easier.
I'd still say you need to have a bit of intuition about it though.
https://www.blackteaonesugar.co.uk/
I hate to be that person but you’ll need to replicate everything on a Facebook page anyway, so how about just making a decent Facebook page?
GOD NO NO NO. Facebook is not the internet, please stop with this shit. Don't go giving Mark his walled garden of creepy spyware.
As above. Wix is probably one of the easiest options these days.
If you have any technical understanding, by all means give Wordpress ago, and there are an endless number of plugins if you require anything specific.
Create a facebook page too, but it's all too often forgotten that not everyone has or understands Facebook, and even when they do, stuff just gets lost in the timeline.
and even when they do, stuff just gets lost in the timeline.
I think that is actually one of the pluses. You get to see what is active rather than a website that may have last been updated years ago. I think the format on Facebook works well for clubs. You can keep a few pages of fixed information then use posts for up to date information or just general chatter and pictures.
You get to see what is active rather than a website that may have last been updated years ago.
... which is a good point in itself. A website isn't generally fire-and-forget, it needs maintaining. I've seen any number of club / hobbyist sites where their "latest news!" page is from three years ago. If you're not prepared to do that then Facebook might be the better option.
(Of course, the correct answer here is probably "have both," you can use FB to drive visitors to your site.)
not everyone has a facebook account, and if they dont, they will never find you.
If you do WordPress really do consider a managed Wordpress account. It's not trivial to maintain a Wordpress to keep it secure and stop it turning into a spam farm every few months.
1) Work out why you need it
2) Work out what you want on it
3) Work out who'll build it
4) Work out who'll maintain it
5) Use Wix
6) Do it as simply as possible, both visually and technically
'Amateur' websites are often terrible, as they try too hard.
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid
Thanks lots to consider. Yes there will need to be a Facebook presence and yes I think a webpage for things like club docs, procedures etc. Good points about being maintained.
Another Wix user. I had a dabble with Word Press, but didn't find it intuitive.
Suspect I fell into the "too many pages" thing quite quickly, but it sounds as if you don't need much complexity and a simple home page with maybe 2 or 3 pages linked from a top bar would be fine. I managed to create mine fairly easily, though it took me a while just due to the writing and image loading I needed for what I wanted to do. I am reasonable with computers, but a long way from expert and entirely self taught.
What has been said about maintenance is very true; I'm guilty of neglecting mine quite a bit in the last year thanks to a change of job, though have 2 or 3 new blog articles in the pipeline now.
Wix can also handle mobile optimised views which is important these days (though it can mean extra work as the software sometimes rearranges the Mobile version strangely).
With a blog, e-mail, domain and other plugins etc, I probably pay about £100 a year now, but you needn't.
For reference: https://www.wildernessisastateofmind.co.uk/
Wix or this :
If you do WordPress really do consider a managed WordPress account. It’s not trivial to maintain a WordPress to keep it secure and stop it turning into a spam farm every few months.