My wife wants to build a simple website to announce and manage activities leading up to a family reunion. She is very techphobic so at some point I expect I will be dragged into this. Any recommendations for a free hosting and website building tool (eg Wix, webs.com, etc)? Won't need things like e-commerce, etc but would be great if it could integrate calendar, e-invites, messages, social medial (eg connect to Facebook and/or twitter).
I believe they have a free option at Wix.com But your domain will be something like: SmithFamilyReunion.wix.com It's a great site. Very easy to use.
I have used Yola to create a website for a friend. It was pretty simple to use. Definitely something you can handle yourself if you are even barely competent with a computer. I spent an hour and a half (first time doing anything like that) and had a pretty nice little site built.
WordPress.com, or Wix.com for free... But, for just $9.99 and the price of a domain (about $10) you can get a year of shared hosting and a domain from NameCheap. https://www.namecheap.com/hosting/shared.aspx So, $20 a year and you're set. I have had NameCheap for several years, and it is solid service and support.
Looks like Facebook is all you really need to be honest. Create a private group, invite family members, use the group to announce events, etc.
Thanks everyone. Went with Wix and so far its allowing me to do everything I want. I didn't think of Facebook (good suggestion, thanks) as a standalone solution but did think to connect the web site to Facebook so people can post things there too. I am including a blog where I hope people will post updates about their family (I seeded it with a few family updates). I like how it embeds Google maps.
it is not free, it will cost you 20.00 a month, but THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED: Basecamp: www.basecamp.com. Basically basecamp is a cloudbased project management software. It allows you to upload photos, assign projects to individuals, a to do list that EVERYBODY can see. And just so you know, when you sign up for basecamp and start a project, nobody else has to pay for basecamp to join your project. So you spend 20.00 and you can have 200 free users that can interact with the project free of cost.
