If neither Wix nor Wordpress meets your needs, check out these resources for choosing another website building toll or web host.
This guide is targeted to library staff with little or no coding experience. If you'd like to take a deeper dive into coding your own websites with HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc, check out these resources.
Because this guide is aimed at the small, rural library and because there are many, many ways to build a website, we are focusing on website builder tools that do not require that someone has coding skills. And we're further narrowing down to two popular website builders - Wix and WordPress. Check out the left-hand side of this page for links to additional resources if you'd like to explore website building in more details.
If you're here and you haven't created a website before I STRONGLY encourage you to look at the design section of this guide. Know before you go!
Wix is a popular website builder with what for many is an easy learning curve. It starts out free, but a paid subscription will eliminate ads and allow you to purchase a custom domain. Meaning that you could be someAlaskaLibrary.org instead of https://YourNameHere.wixsite.com/some-Alaska-library.
Whether you use the Wix Editor or Wix ADI, you will have a website within an hour of creating your account. It can be customized as ne
One feature I like is the small customer relations manager (CRM) built into Wix called Wix Ascend. You can answer messages from your contact forms within your Wix website and even create simple newsletters with subscriber lists. Purchasing a separate subscription to ascend unlocks more features.
I've used WordPress for a number of years and it is the service that I recommended to libraries wanting to create their own websites. I started noticing that people weren't enthusiastic about WordPress even though it runs about 40% of websites worldwide. So I took a harder look at WordPress looking at reviews and creating a new WordPress site from scratch. I can see where it might be complicated for beginners. If you are going to run a blog though, I do think it is a great choice.
But don't start a blog if you're not able to commit your library to at least weekly blog entries. An untended blog is like an empty reference desk.
The resources below may help you during and after the process of building your website.
