Create your own website

Getting started with building a new website

If you are just starting out as a web developer (like me), then consider using Google Sites. Creating websites using Google Sites is fun, easy, and very cheap. The hosting by Google Sites is free. With Google Sites, one can easily get a new website up-and-running quickly, or keep the existing one updated. The back-end coding is automatically handled behind-the-scenes, letting inexperienced web developers create sites that are smooth and responsive, including for mobile phones.

A custom .co.za domain is only R100 per year through GoDaddy, meaning that you can use a custom URL for your new website for a very low price. Other top-level domains (such as .com) are far more expensive. But, in South Africa, .co.za domains are cheap, so you might as well just stick with .co.za domains.

One doesn't need a custom URL though, to create a site. Perhaps you just need something even quicker, say just to communicate some information to a class you're teaching, for example, running a class representative election. Then, Google Sites gives you a sites.google.com URL for your website.

Please note that:

This blog post is just an introduction, from my own anecdotal knowledge. For further resources, see the official Google Sites Help site, for info on how to get started (or how to customize your URL, with the CNAME record). Also, please read up on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in Adam Clarke's Kindle book, right from the get-go. His book is a hundred times cheaper than employing an SEO specialist yourself.

Other Content Management Systems

I also manage http://hermanuscamp.co.za on Wordpress. Wordpress is more complicated (the previous web developer's choice of CMS), but I just delve into what's necessary for me to keep the site looking good.