Waiting Years And Years For “Them” To Add A Contact Form?

The good news is that 2016 (and 2017) is the best possible time to setup your web pages because it's easier than ever... and web pages have never looked better than ever!

You used to have to learn HTML, CSS, uploading FTP files, maybe even a little scripting and then you'd have to test things with Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers until you had it right...

Now, many things are point and click, such as with Paper Template.
(click to see a quick video demo)

• WordPress (click a button and you have a blog)
• Paper Template plugin (install and now you can create sales letters and landing pages within WordPress)
• add any other plugins you want to add a contact form, legal pages, pop-ups, caching, security, SEO...

So, it's a great way to get started fast and do all the things you want... BUT...

I honestly don't believe that the "hosted platforms" are really up to snuff. If you use some sort of hosted service that runs it all for you:

1. you are now tied to their business (if their sites are down for 2 hours, your site is down for 2 hours)
2. they don't do everything (maybe they're missing an autoresponder)
3. you have to take a bunch of extra steps anyway to host your own .com domain and make it look like it runs on your own websites (sometimes you have to install your own WordPress blog, and their WordPress plugin on your site, just to run their service... weird)
4. they might not do all the cool stuff that you want. For example, with WordPress you can just grab a quiz plugin if you want that. Grab a contact form plugin if you want that. On a hosted service, you have to wait for them to "get around to it"...

I honestly believe this is the best of both worlds... easy to setup, uses WordPress, create landing pages in addition to your blog or let it take over your site... and then add plugins or tweaks as you wish. The Paper Template WordPress plugin lets you have your cake and eat it too.

Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Website Creation • WordPress