Can an average person create a successful website (not a blog)?

1. 94

   peeplesposted 9 years ago

   Can an average person create a successful website (not a blog)?
   
   If someone wants to create a website what are the skills or must knows they need? Is this something an average person with little website building experience can do?

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2. 58

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I use Weebly which is easy to use, drop and drag. You can start out with a Freebie and upgrade with paid domain which requires their starter package.  I use Name Cheap for domains. You don't need to know coding nor do you have to deal with plug-ins like you do for Word Press.

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3. 37

   ChristinSposted 9 years ago

   Yes, but there's a learning curve and your drag and drop websites are not often as search engine friendly as building a site on WordPress or through another CMS unless you are sure your design or template you use is responsive. Even if you use wordpress you don't have to make a blog a part of your site (although I would because it keeps your content fresh). Weebly is expensive for what you get in my opinion.  I have a web hosting account where I host several sites for one low monthly fee for all of them - not per site.  Most hosts install wordpress for you for free.
   
   You can use WordPress to add just pages if you really want just a static website.  Plugins are amazing things and they have hundreds of tools that can help make your pages the most search engine friendly they can be.
   
   After years of resistance, I am actually converting my sites to WP now because it is super easy to create cross-platform, responsive designs which is what Google expects now.  Coding for multiple devices by hands is just too tedious.  I taught myself Wordpress very quickly.  It's not as fully customizable as I'd like, but with so many plugins and different things you can add; it's a fine solution without reinventing the wheel. It's not difficult to learn, it just takes some time and willingness to play around.  If you run other software easily, wordpress shouldn't be a big deal.
   
   If you wait until they have a sale I would recommend getting a couple of courses on Udemy.  Once every month or two they run a sale where you can get any course for 10 bucks. Then you can get real training on it with videos etc. They have a few good courses there on WordPress and also building responsive designs from scratch if you choose to do so. You can also use YouTube to learn WP visually a lot of tutorials out there, some better than others.
   
   If you are creating a new site, you want it to be responsive if you hope to be competitive.  There are free WP templates that are fully responsive.  My newest site that I built to teach myself wordpress gets over 100 visits a day within the first week of launch and is growing daily - it's almost a month old now.  I had a great SEO plugin that helped me out and I created good pin friendly images for my posts - I get traffic from Pinterest and the 3 major search engines right out of the gate.  It convinced me to convert my older sites!

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      bravewarriorposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I built my site on Weebly. I found it easy to use for someone who had never attempted it before. It's not expensive, either. I pay $59.95/year for the Pro version.

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   2. 37

      ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      that's for one site though right? I have WP on multiple sites and pay one hosting fee per month for all of them.  If you have only one site it is ok, but WP is still the better option I think.

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   3. 58

      LindaSmith1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      For someone who is not coding savvy, etc, I found WP to be mind boggling.  I spent hours and hours for 2 weeks and never figured it out. I shut it down,  You can have multiple Weebly sites for Free without paid domain. Mine with pd $40 a year.

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   4. 37

      ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I definitely recommend tutorials or videos, but WP is an actual skill and you can also earn sideline income building sites for others on it when you master it. You don't have to know code to do WP.

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   5. 58

      LindaSmith1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Chrisin:  Weebly stays up to date with sites. Responsive and mobile friendly.  I moved content from content farms that were doing nothing, and got sales the next day and continue to do very well with sales traffic from the get go.

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   6. 37

      ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Here's some discussion on WP vs Weebly http://www.warriorforum.com/main-intern … press.html it might help to see others opinions as well peeples

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   7. 67

      Holiday Girlposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Weebly allows you to have up to ten different sites on one pro account, I believe... not just one.

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   8. 57

      zaynaliposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Totally agreed

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4. 89

   Billie Kelpinposted 9 years ago

   We have had a website (two actually) on the web since 1992.  I've used website builders at interland (now web.com) networksolutions, and presently godaddy.  I tried WP because of the add ons and the beauty of those pages but it's not as intuitive to me as godaddy.  We create educational software and games to play on line (or did) and sold to school cataglogs,etc.  Our websites kept looking more professional with the times and our one at "language rocks" with the godaddy template is very nice looking I think. 
   I love 3 things about godaddy.  Customer service is 24 hours. (I've called for help at 3 in the morning) and their techs are VERY well trained, patient and helpful.  Their mobile app conversion is GREAT!  My website on mobile app looks MUCH better than our hubpages on mobile apps.  There is a learning curve, but for me, that builder is more intuitive than wordpress.  (I only wish I could earn money building other people's websites).  Well, actually, come to think of it, our neighbor in our RV park wanted a website and I buildt his "best rv movers" site.  My children's ebook also has it's own website with it's own memory matching game that we designed. Another person in our RV park mentioned recently wanting us to build his roofing website as well. So we'll see. I am selling my old software company name and it was easy to whip up a website with godaddy just to feature that name. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the godaddy templates - they're easy to customize, but give a great basic starting point.
   
   There are two things that I wish godaddy had.  1.  I wish they had an integrated store feature.  You can get a merchant acct, but that is a different website builder and a new learning curve. (I kind of hate the store we have through network solutions)
   The second thing that we need because my husband builds the software games, is an FTP function.  We have to load our FTP files to network solutions, but my husband knows more about that.  BTW, my husband didn't build our websites with his software experience.  I did them myself - with no website building experience.
   I do like WP, but I had already worked with godaddy.  I do wish we could simply list all of our urls here so everyone could see and click on to each other's sites!  Hey.  I just go an idea !!!! This is what I'll do!!!  If you all would like me to list your website on on a "Websites I Love" Page on my "language rocks" website, just send me your url in email. Your website doesn't have to be language based, just not promoting objectionable content for parents/children/schools (cuz that's our customer base)

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5. 61

   facetubeposted 9 years ago

   Success is an achievement of those people who are above the average. Theoretically "average" and "success" are not connected logically.

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6. 94

   peeplesposted 9 years ago

   Thanks to those of you who actually answered the question! I feel like I have a good idea for a website. I am very computer savvy, but I was unsure if there was an easy enough platform to use or learn. Y'all gave me a lot to think about and consider.

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7. 57

   zaynaliposted 9 years ago

   As an average person you should know at least the basics of web designing and development. and yes these days some awesome tools make it more and most easy to make a professional website in a quick and easiest way and WordPress is the best ever example of these tools. As if you get some classes on how to use or how to make a website in WordPress then I am sure you can make a way professional site easily as an average person

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8. 60

   sitebuildersposted 9 years ago

   It depends on what you mean by ‘successful website’. If you mean a professional looking, modern website, then you can easily set up one using a drag-and-drop website builder that requires zero coding. Shauna used Weebly, and I must say it’s a great pick both for a newbie and someone who knows a thing or two about coding. I don’t think it makes sense to learn to use a sophisticated CMS in order to build a single site, if you can accomplish this task overnight with a code-free site builder, for about $5-$15 a month.
   
   But if you mean a website with high traffic, then you should realize that it doesn’t really matter what platform you choose to build your site. It all will depend on your marketing skills, the competition in your niche, and other aspects.

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