Club Websites
21 October 2021
Whether you paid someone to create the website for your club and now can’t get updates, or just want a fresh look to promote the business, the most common question I get from clubs is around building websites.
There are essentially three ways to tackle a new website build. Firstly, you can pay someone to create it for you. That’s the easiest option provided you have the cash. Secondly if you’re not quite up for the challenge of creating your own from scratch, but do have some computer knowledge, there are many providers that allow you to create a website using their templates with a drag and drop approach. Lastly if you have the knowledge, or a lot of time to invest in learning, you can rent some hosting space and build your own website using the tools provided by the hosting space provider. We are going to look at each of these options in more depth, and provide some recommendations for you to explore.
1. If you have the money and want to get someone to build your site for you, ask around the club for local providers.
There seems to be an abundance of people offering this service from home. Make sure you have a clear agreement of what is included and at what price. I have seen open ended agreements blow out to many thousands of dollars. Make sure the agreement is also clear regarding ongoing updates. Most clubs want to advertise upcoming events, etc so make sure there is provision for regular website updates.
If you don’t have anybody local to work with, and have a clear understanding of your requirements, check out sites like www.fiverr.com where you can hire programmers and developers from around the world to build websites, design logos, and much more, often for considerably cheaper than what it might cost locally. Make sure you go through the fiverr website for making payments, etc, to avoid ripoffs.
Another good option used by a number of clubs is Fatweb (www.fatweb.co.nz). They create websites for clubs for free. The site is paid for by a slideshow on your homepage promoting local business. An example of their work is the Hamilton Cossie site - www.cossie.org.nz
2. If you don’t mind doing some work yourself and have ok computer skills, saving some money by using one of the many template based offerings is worth considering.
Mailchimp is a relative newcomer to webhosting, though is well known for their email subscription services. They have a reasonably simple setup process using templates to get your club online. Integrated with their email subscription service, it can get expensive quickly depending on how many email subscribers you have. NZ$25 for up to 500, then $85 for 2500, $170 for 10K, $270 for 15K, etc. If you are already using Mailchimp for email, then it might be worth having a look at this as part of your existing package.
https://mailchimp.com/features/website-builder/
Wix is a popular website building option with hundreds of templates and drag and drop to get your site created and online fast. It also has a trial so you can give it a go without spending any money and see if it will work for you. Plans starting from US$8.50 monthly up to US$26 month depending on features required.
https://www.wix.com/upgrade/website
Squarespace is another template option, with good e-commerce functions when you are wanting to sell products online. Starts from US$12 per month up to US$40 per month depending on what e-commerce and marketing features you require.
https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
Shopify is probably a little overkill for most clubs, but if your focus is on e-commerce and you don’t mind paying a little more for top quality, its a great option. Plans start from US$29 monthly for a basic plan, up to several hundred dollars for the advanced plan.
https://www.shopify.com/nz/pricing
There are a bunch of these though including www.websitebuilder.nz www.bigcommerce.com.au etc, so do your research and see what works best for your own workflow. Many have free trials and some are more intuitive than others, so find one that makes the most sense to you.
3. Rent some hosting space and create your own.
As much as this has become a lot easier in recent years with tools like wordpress, plesk, and cPanel, be prepared to spend some time learning, and probably being frustrated, to get your head around this. You often require some knowledge of things like domain names, DNS, HTML, etc to get everything working correctly.
My favourite domain name provider in NZ is 1st Domains (www.1stdomains.co.nz). They offer good rates and their interface gives you access to the entire DNS panel to enable easy setup of additional domain name facilities. They also provide web hosting space, and I have had no issues with this to date. Our www.clubpos.co.nz is hosted on their servers.
There are loads of hosting space providers out there though. As it will be mostly New Zealanders based locally that will be visiting your site, I recommend finding space that is hosted in NZ. This will greatly speed up your website compared to if it is hosted overseas.
I hope this overview has given you something to think about in regards to your own club website. As always please don’t hesitate to contact Leigh at National Office if you have any tech related questions.
