where is a good place to get a website statrted??

[smitty76]

We want to expand our family sugaring operation to a website. Does any one want to share their experience or know were i could get some direction or info from?

[BryanEx]

smitty76... is it safe to assume that you are not really familiar with HTML, hosting, and SEO? If that is the case and you don't want to pay the big bucks for a web designer and system administrator a few options I would recommend checking out are;

GoDaddy Website Tonight
http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx
This is a template system that you basically choose the design you like and change text and photos to suit. All inclusive with excellent support costs you $60/year with one email address. I have over 1 dozen producers listed on Sugarbush.Info using their service.

Small Farm Central
http://www.smallfarmcentral.com/
Includes domain, web site templates, and small farm marketing starting at $100 / year. I have close to a dozen producers using their service listed on Sugarbush.Info as well.

Square Space
http://www.squarespace.com/
Another template site that includes hosting except it's not exactly a template. This is the grand-daddy of pre-formatted web sites and will cost about $144 / year. Check out their demo to see how awesome this service is.

The final option I recommend is to buy HTML for Dummies (like I did) and just start mucking around with things. It will take a ton of time so be sure it's a hobby and not something you just want the end result from. Domain name about 10 bucks a year, hosting about 6 bucks a month, various software to design things with is up to you (free to $1000's).

Whatever route you go plan on spending a good amount of time on it to get the text or photos just right and then contact Bryan Ex for advice. He's pretty decent at knowing how the Internet works. ;)

[smitty76]

Thanks BryanEx, and you hit the nailo right on the head as i am not familiar with this stuff.

THANKS AGAIN, SMITTY76

[BryanEx]

Well good luck with it smitty and like I say, be prepared to send more time on getting things set up than you may have bargained for at the beginning. This is one area I am actually researching for 2012. I would like to offer pre-formatted web sites as part of Sugarbush.Info specifically for maple producers but there may be more involved than I can handle as a free hobby based web site. I will keep you posted if this comes to be and keep us posted on your progress with your own web site.

- Bryan

[BryanEx]

I've been doing a ton of research on offering pre-formatted maple web sites and figure I could do it for about $50 / year not including the cost of registering a domain name for each producer that wants one. The disadvantage would be that I can not offer the resources a giant like GoDaddy can offer but the advantage would be that being a maple producer myself I could offer industry specific support and advise. To make it work I would have to upgrade my existing hosting to be a hosting account myself which is about a 500 dollar investment to start. That means I would need 10 producers interested in an easy format web site to make it work. Would you be interested in having your own web site for $50/year? If there's enough interest I'll give it go for 2012.

- Bryan Ex

[smitty76]

yes, I am interested. I would like to have it up for the 2012 season. I am currently remodeling the out side of the sap house so i would like to have that done before i create a web site. sounds like our time lines might line up. everything has come to a stop here do to the severe flooding, should soon be back to work on sugar shack. keep me postede Bryan Ex

[Timberwolf]

I have a small farm operation and used David McMillin. He providede what I asked for at a very reasonable cost. He also set it up so I could maintain the sight myself with little or know web experience. I would recommend atleast trying him: davidmcmillin@cox.net.

Originally I tried setting up my own as I am pretty computer literate, but not having much web experience I soon found out that I could setup a simple website using a so so template, but as soon as I wanted any bells and whistles I was left scratching my head.

[mathprofdk]

If anyone is interested, I might be willing to help with a set-up. I do web design as a hobby, and would be happy to work out some sort of trade. (I'm just a backyard producer in the suburbs, and so I don't make a lot of syrup each year. I actually ran out already!)

As an example, I designed the website for a local coffee shop here in town: http://www.limestonecoffeetea.com/

The front page has changed a bit (and they actually recently closed), but you can at least get a sense for what I can do. Send me a message if you're interested or even just want some tips.

~DK