MrSite - Website in a box

[Lemmonie]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share a little gem i have found with you all. At Pro Beauty i purchased a website in a box for just £15!!!

Basically you get your .com name and a very very easy step by step guide to building your own website.
I cant believe how easy it was and i set it up in about 10 mins!
There is probably loads more i can do with it but if you are looking for a basic website you could do alot worse.

I know i can add a shop to mine as well as upload photos, jukebox, even paypal.

Highly recomended.

Melanie

 

[fliss]

Lemmonie.......would it be possible to have a little peek at this website you have created.
I already have a website for my salon but need one for something else and have been looking at the Mr.Site packages as I don't want to spend a fortune.
Neither am I very technically minded so it would have to be VERY simple....lol.

Some of the ones I have seen on Mr.Site look great but would like more information from someone like yourself who has actually used it.

 

[Lemmonie]

Hi, of course!

www.daisyboonails.com

Now i have to say that i knocked it up in five mins and im one of those people who cant wait for anything so i threw it up and will titivate with it later!

BTW I brought the beginner one. I think there is more the the pro one.

But if i can do that anyone can!

 

[fliss]

Thankyou Lemmonie....that's really helpful.
It looks good considering the time it took you..................think I might have to order one too !!

 

[tigi]

I have a mr site website too! actually i have two and one of them is using the pro version, if you are interested, am happy to give the website address. it was sooooo easy to do.

tigi

 

[Ruth Mills]

Hmm, I wonder who coded Mr Site?

Judging by the W3C validation errors on www.daisyboonails.com - [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.daisyboonails.com/ - W3C Markup Validator - it would appear that it's starting list entries with a <li> tag in lower case, but closing it with a </LI> tag in capitals. It's also doing naughty things like not putting all the attributes on <a> and <img> tags in double quotes. Which is pretty fundamental stuff - am sure that Microsoft Front Page Express never made mistakes like that when I used it many moons ago, for example.

Not your fault at all, but it does make me wonder how much effort the developers of Mr Site put into testing their product if errors that serious get through into a production version that they've put on sale!

 

[del3]

Hmm, I wonder who coded Mr Site?

Judging by the W3C validation errors on www.daisyboonails.com - [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.daisyboonails.com/ - W3C Markup Validator - it would appear that it's starting list entries with a <li> tag in lower case, but closing it with a </LI> tag in capitals. It's also doing naughty things like not putting all the attributes on <a> and <img> tags in double quotes. Which is pretty fundamental stuff - am sure that Microsoft Front Page Express never made mistakes like that when I used it many moons ago, for example.

Not your fault at all, but it does make me wonder how much effort the developers of Mr Site put into testing their product if errors that serious get through into a production version that they've put on sale!

Ruth I love you but you lost me:lol: you sound like my brother...my eyes glazeover when he starts talking computer:lol:
My brain siezd up at at W3C....please explain in the SIMPLEST terms, pretty please
xx:hug:xx

 

[siteforsoreeyes]

These free or cheap sites are all well and good for the purpose of people who want their family album online or to tell people they went train spotting Friday and businesses that dont mind the advertising all over what is supposed to be a reflection of their business.

This to me as a web designer is like you being told that the person in the salon down the road was a motor mechanic who has just bought a ship load of stick on nails & super glue from the pound shop and is now saying they are a fully skilled nail tech, oh and their prices are 70% less than what yours are.

What do you think the quality of work will be like with the cheap materials and the inexperience??

Please shop around before making the mistake of trying to build something you are not experienced in. Just like our friend the motor mechanic and his super glue.

 

[siteforsoreeyes]

Hmm, I wonder who coded Mr Site?

The trouble with Mr site is that it expects Joe Bloggs to fully understand the strict validation process that xhtml brings.
With no massive benefits of xhtml yet I really dont see the point in providing a service that brings more troubled websites to the net.

 

[Ruth Mills]

Ruth I love you but you lost me:lol: you sound like my brother...my eyes glazeover when he starts talking computer:lol:
My brain siezd up at at W3C....please explain in the SIMPLEST terms, pretty please
xx:hug:xx

Aha... well to try and put it in non-techie terms, web sites are designed in a language called HTML (or XHTML). Like English, HTML has rules which say how it should be written (like grammar and spelling in English).

The W3C is an international consortium who agree on what the rules for HTML are; there are several versions of HTML around, but the most common ones are HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 - each with their own set of syntax rules.

So if an off-the-shelf web design package churns out HTML with errors in it, then it's like someone writing a letter in English full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

And the bottom line there is that you're then depending on how clever someone has written your web browser to deal with such mistakes. Most web browsers admittedly are fairly lenient when it comes to most mistakes, but you might risk a situation where, for example, your website looks fine in Internet Explorer, but looks a complete mess in Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome. Which would then not provide a good impression to customers viewing your site using those browsers.

Further to that, there may be additional issues for someone who is blind or disabled trying to view your web site, particularly if there are things like missing "alt" attributes on images (the "alt" attribute on an image gives an alternative text description for users who can't view images for whatever reason). This is most serious if you have an image with text in it, e.g. a heading for your site in a fancy font. Likewise for search engines - Google won't be able to read text in an image, but it will be able to read the text in the "alt" attribute...

 

[del3]

:idea::idea::idea: wow its gone bright in here :lol:

Thank you Ruth
:hug::hug:

 

[hippy-chick]

I got the mrsite package, I started with the beginners but quickly upgraded to the next level.

take a look

www.guruholistictraining.com

 

[Ruth Mills]

I got the mrsite package, I started with the beginners but quickly upgraded to the next level.

take a look

www.guruholistictraining.com

I do like your site Ann (you know I do), but that evil W3C validator came out with 353 errors on your home page! Similar issues to the other sites on this thread. Ironic really, you are fab, and your site looks fab, but as a computer geek I'm still shocked by the sort of errors that Mr Site churns out! But again it's definitely not your fault! :hug: :hug:

 

[siteforsoreeyes]

I got the mrsite package, I started with the beginners but quickly upgraded to the next level.

take a look

www.guruholistictraining.com

Again you need to read Ruths post regarding validation, this page may well be pleasing to the eye but its what you cant see is where the problems start.

Try www.http://validator.w3.org/,

This is why these free and cheap sites are bad.

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

Ruth you seem like some kind of computer einstein! lol I think we can safely say that the majority of us geeks know little about the ins and outs of building webs and the things you talk about....I kind of get the idea of what youve just been saying...but even then I wouldnt know how to spot errors and this that and the other that you talk about anyway SO please please please please PLEEEASE can you tell us all who you would recommend us all use to build our websites....bearing in mind that alot of us (particularly when just starting out) just cant afford to pay out too much for a website...or pay someone to do it.... pretty please lol x

one ive been looking at recently is microsoft small business live (think thats right) is this another no-no?

I need to get a web up and running but like many...am so confused with it all! x

 

[redsadie]

I'm with Godaddy and my renewal is up in April.

I don't like the way it's set up, it's too restrictive for me and when I want to put a new text box in, it won't let me put it where I want to, it just gets shoved at the bottom of the page with the template I have (which honestly is the best of a bad bunch)

Not sure what I expected as I only paid £46 (I think) to set it up with the hosting for one year, so it's time for me to start looking about for different ones now.

Lemmonie, your site aesthetically looks lovely, but with all those back office errors........

xx

 

[Ruth Mills]

Ruth you seem like some kind of computer einstein! lol I think we can safely say that the majority of us geeks know little about the ins and outs of building webs and the things you talk about....I kind of get the idea of what youve just been saying...but even then I wouldnt know how to spot errors and this that and the other that you talk about anyway SO please please please please PLEEEASE can you tell us all who you would recommend us all use to build our websites....bearing in mind that alot of us (particularly when just starting out) just cant afford to pay out too much for a website...or pay someone to do it.... pretty please lol x

one ive been looking at recently is microsoft small business live (think thats right) is this another no-no?

I need to get a web up and running but like many...am so confused with it all! x

I think the Microsoft sites that I've seen have had some errors but not quite as severe as the Mr Site ones that I saw earlier. Lainy82 on here recently finished designing her site using that, and it looks really nice, Home

So, who would I recommend otherwise? Well, to be as impartial as possible, I'd say have a look at Seanny, Extensionize (Carl), Siteforsoreeyes and (ahem) me on here, and anyone else that you have been recommended, have a look at sites they've done already, quiz them on price, and then go with someone who's work you like that you can afford.

 

[R_O]

I've never used FrontPage myself, but I've heard nothing but bad things frankly. If I were going to pay for a program to create a website with I'd go with Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 (or 4 now I suppose).

But if your only website is going to be a business one, I would consider wordpress. It's free, there are a huge number of free templates available, and it lets you customize your site however you like without having to know anything about coding. Most people think of it as blog software, but it actually functions very well as a system for creating normal web pages as well.

wordpress.org is the site for wp; godaddy can set up a wordpress based website for you, so all you have to do is find a template you like and upload it and then write your content. If you ever need a more customized site, you can simply pay to have a custom template created and drop it in--your content won't be affected.

A custom site by a professional designer is almost always the best option, but if you can't afford that, I'd go with wordpress. There are a lot of similar options out there (drupal, joomla, etc.) that are all free, but wordpress is the most newbie friendly imo.

 

[fifitrix]

What I think you have to remember is, it is all well and good having a site but.......

It has to be seen, therefore a good web designer worth their salt will optimize your site on google etc. I think a lot goes on behind the scenes, that I wouldn't even want to think about.

I got Seanny to do mine and within weeks I was no.1 on google, brings me business and I love being able to just ask him, can you update, pay him and the headache isn't mine, althougth I may be his!!!!!!! :lol::lol::lol:

 

[Lemmonie]

:-( Its like my fireworks have been p*ssed on!

LOL!

I havent got a scooby doo what anyone is talking about! Could someone please tell me how the back office errors will affect my website?

Thankyou!