Full Version: Free Home Pages or Commercial Web Space
What do you recommend for all those amdrammers out there ... free homepages per their current ISP (or other free online provider with popup adverts) or commercial web space (full commerical features etc, possibly even a domain name of your own choosing).
I'd go for the latter everytime. I also have a loathing of pop-up advertising, Angelfire being a particular nasty one.
Speaking as someone who has just been part of a team of, erm, two, that migrated our site over to a new host (and it's quite a big site, busy discussion board and all), go for the best commercial option you can afford.
We had a very cheap deal when we originally set up the site, but have taken it up a step to a more business-like company and so far the service has been excellent.
We get so much business, ie. new members, through the information available on the website that we felt it worth paying for. The amount we pay out is equivalent to three new members in a YEAR, so it's still not very expensive!
We had a very cheap deal when we originally set up the site, but have taken it up a step to a more business-like company and so far the service has been excellent.
We get so much business, ie. new members, through the information available on the website that we felt it worth paying for. The amount we pay out is equivalent to three new members in a YEAR, so it's still not very expensive!
Separate out the issues...
1. Avoid sites that force their pop-up ads on you. No pop-up ads are relevant to an amdram audience. (When did you last see a pop-up ad for Lee Gels?)
2. What do you want on your site? Most amateur theatre sites are not managed intensively enough to warrant the use of interactivity. Mostly we are just providing basic introductory information about the society (including contacts and "what's on") and an archive of stuff about old shows. That does not need a fully featured service, and free web space is usually enough.
On the other hand, if your nucleus of web-site users is large enough to support an active discussion forum, or if the commercial benefits of box-office on line outweigh the total costs, then a commercial service makes sense.
3. If you need a domain name, you can buy it as a separate proposition and route to your site. The relevant question is "How do people get to my site?" There are four answers: search engines, links from elsewhere, bookmarks/favourites and typing the url into the address bar. The last is the least common, and the only one for which a memorable domain name really helps! (There is, of course, a secondary question of "Does my site have a professional image?" for which a domain name will help.)
What a long and boring post! Sorry
1. Avoid sites that force their pop-up ads on you. No pop-up ads are relevant to an amdram audience. (When did you last see a pop-up ad for Lee Gels?)
2. What do you want on your site? Most amateur theatre sites are not managed intensively enough to warrant the use of interactivity. Mostly we are just providing basic introductory information about the society (including contacts and "what's on") and an archive of stuff about old shows. That does not need a fully featured service, and free web space is usually enough.
On the other hand, if your nucleus of web-site users is large enough to support an active discussion forum, or if the commercial benefits of box-office on line outweigh the total costs, then a commercial service makes sense.
3. If you need a domain name, you can buy it as a separate proposition and route to your site. The relevant question is "How do people get to my site?" There are four answers: search engines, links from elsewhere, bookmarks/favourites and typing the url into the address bar. The last is the least common, and the only one for which a memorable domain name really helps! (There is, of course, a secondary question of "Does my site have a professional image?" for which a domain name will help.)
What a long and boring post! Sorry
Having tried both free space and commercial space my preference is for the latter ? much better support, greater freedom to install scripts etc. Having said that I?ve got to move our site now, as our current host is no longer able to offer reduced price domain name registration?
Commercial space is always going to be better afterall you would expect that considering you are paying for it!
I would suggest however that anyone who is considering putting an Amdram site together for the first time, uses their free webspace first to ensure that their interest is going to remain etc.
Like anything its worth taking your time and weighing up the otpions that are available to you before taking the plunge!
I would say start off with the free space, avoiding those with popups and then when you feel you have out grown that then move onto commercial space.
I would suggest however that anyone who is considering putting an Amdram site together for the first time, uses their free webspace first to ensure that their interest is going to remain etc.
Like anything its worth taking your time and weighing up the otpions that are available to you before taking the plunge!
I would say start off with the free space, avoiding those with popups and then when you feel you have out grown that then move onto commercial space.
Quite right, Simon. We started with a very cheap host (not free but fairly negligible) but as our discussion board really took off our hosts, although they claimed to be able to handle it, really couldn't cope and we ended up having a quite unreasonable amount of downtime. We've now moved to a commercial hosting company and (fingers firmly crossed) so far the reliability, speed and, above all, customer service has been very good.
I am definitely not a fan of free hosts that enfore popups, ads etc. If you look hard enough it is possible to find a reasonable host that doesn't do that and it's still free.
Free sites are obviously great for getting your feet wet in using a website and learning about web design/marketing. But once you're experience and you've got a regular, strong base of visitors you're going to want to expand, more features, more interactivity, and your own domain name (eventually). Commercial hosting space (with a domain name) can be very cheap these days if you look around, and you don't have to scrounge around the US or far east to get it either.
Free sites are obviously great for getting your feet wet in using a website and learning about web design/marketing. But once you're experience and you've got a regular, strong base of visitors you're going to want to expand, more features, more interactivity, and your own domain name (eventually). Commercial hosting space (with a domain name) can be very cheap these days if you look around, and you don't have to scrounge around the US or far east to get it either.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.