Choosing the right way to build your website is important and there are a lot of different options out there. Generally speaking, if it’s free or open source, it requires some expertise, like using Drupal. If it’s for purchase, like Homestead, it’s probably going to be much easier and user friendly. The reason being, people at Homestead spent a bunch of money hiring programmers to make complex tasks very easy and user friendly.

Most of the paid sites, Homestead included, actually can give you very advanced and professional sites in a short amount of time without requiring you to hire a Drupal programmer or the like. That’s why it costs $100ish a year to have a site with them.

When it comes to building a website there are not shortage of choices. The first thing to do is to decide what you want your site to be used for.

Static Website – A static website refers to a website that isn’t constantly updated with new data from users, or really even the owner. This is perfect for a business that wants to have a site full of pages about their business (no correct minimum or maximum). You can add on technology like a Facebook like button, or a feed from your blog or even a constant contact form for collecting website visitors email address. The fundamental difference here is the site isn’t going to allow users to create accounts and either upload their own content or comment on yours. The site is for viewing and you are the only person who can add content to it. If a static website is right for you, then I’d recommend using a good template. This removes the need to know CSS, HTML and Photoshop, or the like. I would recommend using Homestead. They have over 2,000 professional templates for you to choose and then just add the colors, photos, text and gadgets (like a facebook like button) to your site. Another option is Dreamweaver, but Dreamweaver is extremely expensive to buy and the learning curve can be semi-steep.

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Content Management System (CMS) – A Content Management System refers to a site that allows users to create accounts and interact with the site. You can add or limit the type of functionality that you want users to have. For example, perhaps you want users to be able to upload and share vidoes, like YouTube, a CMS would be perfect for this. These sites are extremely popular right now. There are three main CMS and they are Drupal, Jooomla! and WordPress. It’s worth mentioning that the learning curve on all of this sites is steep. It takes a lot time to learn how to build websites using a CMS and they are each different. Drupal is my favorite, but it also has the steepest learning curve. If you choose to use a CMS you need to buy a host through either HostGator, GoDaddy or another and install the core files on your new server. Once they are installed just go to your domain name and log into the site as the administrator and start building your new website.

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