Do you need to create a website for your non-profit charity in Ireland, but do not want pay thousands to a web designer? Are you a new web designer needing to create a website for a disaster relief community in Barbados, but want to start small with big result? It does not matter your location and why you need a community website.
Making a stunning community or charity website can be expedited and should be affordable to any organisation. You should learn these secrets that wealthy web developers do not want you to know.
- Always pay the cheapest for domain registration.
- Use a hosting that has knowledgable support team so you do not have to pay money to programmers when you got stuck
- Choose the most popular and user-friendly content-management system to quickly create a website that is optimized for top search results, and update the website yourself whenever you want.
- Make use of a ready-made design to create awesome website look and feel
- Remember to make income from the website (the website should at least pay for itself)
Cheap Domain Name
You can pay $17.99 at Godaddy or $35 at Network Solutions. But what you can pay as low as $10.99? This is the best price we found, and you can get the cheapest .ORG domain name at a domain registrar called Name.com.
For more info about best domain registrars, go to bestdomainregistrars.org/cheapest.
Which Web Hosting is Best
When it comes to choosing a host for your website, many experienced web designers recommend Hostgator Baby Plan.
Hostgator has a very long, 45-day money back guarantee, so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also can try them for almost free for the first month.
You can try Hostgator for a penny and use the coupon code CPANELHOSTING.
You can try also reduce 25% from your first bill if use the coupon code SERVERHOSTING.
If you have question or if you get stuck at step of the process, try to contact them.
For more info about cheap web hosting, go to bestdomainhost.org.
We always recommend going with separate hosting and domain registrar (use two different companies). This can make sure you have the best people serving the best purposes, i.e we let the best host to manage our website hosting and let the best registrar takes care of our domain name. But if you prefer to have both at the same place, you can actually save a bit more money by getting a free domain with the hosting plan. For example, Dream Host gives free domain with every hosting plan.
Use a Content-management System to Structure Your Website
WordPress is the most-used content management system (CMS) today. But what seasoned web designers do not want you to know is that you can use WordPress to build the framework for a search-engine-friendly, top-ranking website. Think of WordPress as the structure of a house.
After you install WP using QuikInstall (if using Hostgator), it is a straightforward matter to set up your site, starting with the installation of WordPress themes. If you are building your house, WP theme is the finishing of the house which includes carpets, wall decoration, gardens etc. This is what makes the house complete and we can call it home.
You can find a great many of the themes on the internet, both commercial and free.
Ready-made Template
You can opt for the free ones here.
On some occasions, we may prefer to get some good-looking themes so that your website will look different from the rest of the web. One thing to be aware of is that not all themes are equal, and you often get what you pay for.
Here are some good looking templates most suited for a community website.
Make Some Money
If done right, you not only can cover the cost to create your website, but you and the non-profit charity (or your specific community) can also make extra funds from it. So how do you collect some money from your website? There are many ways, but here are the best ways:
- Put Adsense advertisements – for more info, go to wordpressadsensetheme.net
- Online Fundraising – for more info, go to paypal.com/webapps/mpp/donations
- Promote Other Merchants Products or Services – for more info, go to businesswebhost.org/best-affiliate-programs-for-beginners/
What is The Next Step?
With the inspiring community website already made, you can target your members through the community with relevant new information that they would expect to find through the community website. With the power of WordPress plugins such as Buddypress, the next possible step is to develop your website into social network community that represents and connects people that share common interests.
Now go and have a chat about how to proceed with your website.
