Website Builder

[Toetagger]

Hey all,

Currently we are looking to revamp our media inside and out of the church and our website was brought up. I am starting to take over the upkeep of it and currently I don't prefer our website building provider (eDirectHost) and was wondering if there were other ones that may be suggested.

Second option is I do have some good tech knowledge and although it is not in the website feild I think I could (and would love to) learn things such as html or wordpress (my brother just brought me onto this) I guess what I am asking is would it better to learn one of these languages or systems and build a website and just get it hosted or just use a builder like we do currently?

Our website is gatewalife.cc if you need to see what we have page wise and media wise. Just know we will be adding an audio podcast soon. Oh I almost forgot, we would also like to be able to have email addresses as well, I believe we have around 20 people that have an email address.

Thank you all for the time and effort you all put into building up the people and churches that come to you for help. It is very comforting knowing that there are people who are ready to spread their knowledge for the Kingdom. Thank you.

Justin

[greg4god]

A correction on the URL:

http://www.gatewaylife.cc

(Suggestion, make sure you volume is turned down, just had a bunch of heads turn and look my way when I browsed there LOL)

If you do have the interest in learning and can pick up on things pretty easy, WordPress can be used in amazing ways. The big hurdle IMO for someone new to it, is that it can be overwhelming till you get used to all the ins and outs of it.

(I'm too impatient, I just write my own, but I'm a web application developer by day)

-Greg

[petereit]

You might want to take a look at WordPress. Our media director recently switched our web site over to a WordPress theme and he says it made his job maintaining the site much, MUCH easier, not to mention that it looks a LOT cleaner and more professional than our previous design.

[Toetagger]

Anyone have a suggestion on the best way to get started with WordPress?

[petereit]

Best place to get started is right at the source: http://wordpress.org/

Start on the Docs tab. There are LOTS of informative introductory articles. Move on to the Forums and read what others are doing. Subscribe to the blog to stay informed on developments and new features.

(LOL! I sound like an ad.)

[Toetagger]

Go now and save $5 on the promo price of...

Haha just playing man, thanks for all the info and I look forward to seeing what I can do with this.

Is there another option if this does not work out or the powers that be decide against it because it would be exclusive to those who learned it. (A protection plan for if I were to ever leave or take a vacation)

[petereit]

Whatever you go with is going to be "exclusive to those who learned it". At least with Wordpress your pastor can point someone new to wordpress.org and say "here's everything you need to know."

[TrinityEB]

Originally Posted by Toetagger

Is there another option if this does not work out or the powers that be decide against it because it would be exclusive to those who learned it. (A protection plan for if I were to ever leave or take a vacation)

If that's a concern then you are definitely better off using a CMS like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal to create and manage your site. All three are open source, there's plenty of documentation and user forums to learn from, plus a ton of add-on modules and extensions allowing your site to accomplish just about anything you can dream up. Another advantage is that you wouldn't have to be tied to a specific hosting company like you are now. Most hosting providers support the major content management systems on their servers, and migrating your site to another hosting company is possible if the need ever arises. Just do a google search on "Wordpress Church" or "Joomla Church" and you'll see all of the resources available.

LeAnn B should be able help you with any Joomla questions, and Nathan J can help answer any questions about WordPress.

[Toetagger]

Awesome thanks for the input TrinityEB. I think I am going to try out WordPress and see how well I can work it. I am going to try and install it all locally so I don't have to pay for hosting to test it out. I am working on downloading Xampp for installing and running mySQL and the apache web server so I can locally play with Wordpress.

Peterit, your right. What I was trying to say is that the updating of the site is simple point and click and can be taught in a couple hours right now versus something more complex.

[Toetagger]

Peterit did your media director build your website all from wordpress or was it designed and he now updates it from Wordpress?

[DesignHideout]

I just launched a re-design for our church website this week and we are using wordpress and are very happy with the results. Ton's of plugins and support online.
You can really do a lot with wordpress as a CMS system. Feel free to check out our site to see what is possible. ovationchurch.com

[sandywony]

Looking Web builders..? I had the site address where they provide web designs. Not only them, they also provide Web hosting, blog development, flash design ought one every thing will be provided their. It was webdesignersatwork.com/. Go for this and I hope your problem gets rectified.Good luck.