Low-maintenance website for a freelancer?
July 28, 2016 5:50 PM   Subscribe

I'm setting up a website for my freelance consultancy. What infrastructure should I use?

I'd like to keep the site quite simple, with just a few pages - About, Services, Testimonials - and I wouldn't even be perturbed if those were all on one page. I'd prefer not to use a service like Squarespace, but please tell me if I'm wrong about that. These are my imagined requirements:

- Some images and embedded videos
- Easy for me to maintain/modify
- Looks good on mobile and desktop (Bootstrap?)
- Portable - not locked in to any particular host/service
- Write headers and footers once, not on each page
- Not too hard to set up a blog in the future

I got Jekyll installed to serve this up over GitHub Pages and thought: "Do I really need all this stuff for three pages?" I still think GH Pages will work, but I'd be grateful for advice about getting set up. Thanks!
posted by McBearclaw to Technology (9 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
There is also wordpress.com, which allows you to pay pretty reasonable fees and have a hosted, fully managed copy of wordpress with a lot of template choices. If you're used to wordpress this might be a way to go.
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:34 PM on July 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm going to be embarking on this soon with Wordpress hosted through DreamHost which pushes updates frequently, you can decide when to install them and back things up first, etc.

You have to use a Wordpress plugin as far as I know to have the universal header and footer--the one I use is literally called "header and footer on every page" and works well.

If there's no reason to avoid YouTube I recommend hosting your videos on a dedicated YouTube account and embedding into your site that way vs. making it more complicated. Then you also have a YouTube presence to drive people to you if they stumble upon you that way.
posted by aydeejones at 7:32 PM on July 28, 2016


For images I'd stick with PNGs and JPGs hosted on your site. I haven't looked into this in awhile, but typically images are more of a malware vector when you're using heavy metadata formats like WMF or displaying banner images from ad hosting sites that can be compromised once with the payload spread everywhere. You're less likely to be directly targeted that way as a small target but if a Wordpress-specific attack is unleashed it's certainly possible your site will be targeted individually or with a mass distributed attack.
posted by aydeejones at 7:38 PM on July 28, 2016


Just make a static site using one of several static site generators. Folks in my office are having a great time with Hugo, which is super easy to get started on and you end up with none of the headaches that serving stuff via a CMS gives you. The whole site can just be plopped on a vanilla web server or cloud storage bucket, so hosting is basically free.
posted by rockindata at 8:13 PM on July 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


I use Wix for my class website - very easy and professional looking templates. Works fine on my students' phones. It couldn't be easier to maintain and update.
posted by NoraCharles at 9:43 PM on July 28, 2016


I just gave Grav a try and it might fit your bill. I've used Wordpress for a long time and wanted to get up and running quickly, and it's flexible enough to use as a portfolio site.

I'm also using Koken as a portfolio site - mostly because I can upload photos directly from Lightroom (and update already uploaded photos). Not as easy to make pretty if you have those requirements though.

All is self-hosted.
posted by monocultured at 1:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


I tried Wix and Squarespace, and eventually found that Weebly was far easier to use. Really easy drag-and-drop. And I researched the first two options for about a month before realising this..Weebly has saved me so much time! I recommend it.
posted by cornflakegirl at 6:12 AM on July 29, 2016


Voting for using a hosted service. Why spend the time supporting infrastructure when you don't have to? I mean, if your consultancy is web development or web infrastructure, sure. Otherwise, pay someone else to do it for you.
posted by cnc at 9:18 AM on July 29, 2016


Xara Web Designer does all you want. It runs on your PC and uploads to whichever cheap hosting you have. If you are on a Mac get Sandvox.
posted by Sophont at 6:17 PM on July 29, 2016


« Older Where can I find schichttorte in New York?   |   A Natural Twenty on Your Diplomacy Roll Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.