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Atheist · Mar 24, 2009, 05:12 PM

Hey guys... I've got a friend here on the French side of the island that owns a restaurant and wants me to put up a relatively simple website. It would be mostly static, but he would like the ability to update his daily specials.

Although I have plenty of experience, it's only in large scale enterprise solutions. I'm not sure where to start with regards to this. It's got to be a Windows-friendly solution but other than that there are no limitations. I presume there are one-stop shops that provide the hosting and tools to maintain a decent looking site? Maybe even browser-based editors?

Anyone have any advice/recommendations they can pass on?

Gavin · Mar 24, 2009, 09:55 PM

Many DNS registrars have a simple web site builder. lots of them are free with the service.

try enom or even godaddy and play around with the demo to see if your friend could use it.

On the apple side there is iweb + mobileme. I imagine there are similar things on the windows side. I know yahoo has one. try searching on "site builder"

You could also go with a blog if his main thing is updates.

Site builders can be very clunky and non-intuitive, make sure he tries a few out before committing to one.

shifuimam · Mar 24, 2009, 11:11 PM

Stay FAR away from GoDaddy. Their customer service sucks and their online interfaces are atrocious.

You could try something like Dreamhost or Lunarpages...I believe they both have site builders, but I'm not 100% sure.

Or you could just get a VPS and set up a server for your friend with an open source site builder installed, if you're into geeking out over that kind of thing. You could also find a lightweight CMS and just design a template for them to use for the content.

I use APlus.net for my domain registrations. I think they have hosting available, too.

Also, FWIW, any web host is Windows compatible, as long as you can SFTP or FTP to them. Now, whether or not they support Frontpage Extensions...

besson3c · Mar 24, 2009, 11:53 PM

I think that you should focus on finding the best CMS for this site, not the best host or domain registrar. I'm a fan of WordPress.

indigoimac · Mar 25, 2009, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

I think that you should focus on finding the best CMS for this site, not the best host or domain registrar. I'm a fan of WordPress.

Another fan of WordPress for this kind of job. Dreamhost is good and I have had good experiences with GoDaddy as well, though their interface is a total POS... it does the job though.

Atheist · Mar 26, 2009, 01:11 AM

Thanks for the input. I'm afraid you lost me at CMS. As computer geek type people we have a tendency to expect that everyone understands computer technology as well as we do. My friend can barely spell email. I need something utterly foolproof. I'll check out some of these web-based solutions to see if he can handle it. Thanks again for your suggestions.

BTW... what I meant by Window-friendly is that he will be using Windows to administer/edit the site so something like iWeb is out of the question.

Chuckit · Mar 26, 2009, 03:24 AM

The computer geek answer is "Tell him to write a custom app in Django." Setting up a Wordpress site, as people are advising you to do here, is something I'd do for my grandma. In what specific ways is Wordpress too "geeky"?

Gavin · 01:17 AM

Originally Posted by Atheist

BTW... what I meant by Window-friendly is that he will be using Windows to administer/edit the site so something like iWeb is out of the question.

well, LIKE iweb is the key here. I was thinking something like this:
http://www.coffeecup.com/designer/
http://kompozer.net/
http://www.weebly.com/

they all run on windows and claim to be simple (I haven't tried any of these so I really can't say). Real applications are usually much easier to use than web based site builders.

Another alternative is to have someone build a site for him and make a simple php script to allow him to change the menu. He can log in with a minimal interface (like a single text box), drop in the special and he's done. Giving him no way to touch the rest of the site is the best idiot proofing.

besson3c · Mar 29, 2009, 02:37 AM

I would strongly suggest that you avoid desktop WYSIWYG editors like the ones listed above and iWeb. A CMS is a much better option, and one that intentionally constrains you with what you can do with your content to confirm with your global stylesheet. a WYSIWYG editor is a great way to produce really bad code, and pages with really bad code are penalized in a number of ways, including Google search results. It is difficult to grow your site when each page is setup with ad hoc styles as well.

There are 0938409384029 existing WordPress templates out there if you don't want to learn how to code your own. I would find one that works well for you, and go this direction.