Posterous: the quickest way to create a web page

Posterous is almost certainly the quickest way to create a web page and get it online. Post a simple text message, or include additional content such as an MP3 file or a picture. Unlike traditional blogging and publishing services, such as Blogger or MySpace, you don't even need to sign up for an account. Just think of something to say, then email it to post@posterous.com. Within a few seconds, you'll get back a reply telling you the address of your published page. Click on the link, and it's there for you (and the world) to see. Web publishing doesn't get easier, or quicker, than this.

Free (and very simple to set up) websites

Back in April I blogged about ways to set up a free website. I have just come across two new services, called Roxer and WebSketch, which blow the rest out of the water. Each is beyond simple to set up - you just drag things around the page. The WebSketch site has a helpful demo video walking you through the process. And you can do many things which are almost impossible in the other free services, for instance layering objects on the page. The gallery of website examples compiled using either Roxer or Websketch contains some very impressive examples. And your web address is much the same as you would get with other services: eg, http://myaddress.roxer.com I suspect this will not be particularly suitable for complex websites (and in the case of WebSketch, you are limited to 15 pages per site), but for home, hobby, club or small business use (and many of the gallery sites are small businesses), these look to be absolutely ideal. Now, how do I convert my club site from Wetpaint to Roxer?

Free websites

A small sports club of which I am a committee member wants a club website, but has no spare cash to pay for one. Fortunately, there are many options available.
For instance, a very good service is provided by Tripod, and I actually operate two sites using them. (If you like romantic stories, you can visit one of them here.) A similar service is offered by Yahoo via its Geocities project. In each case, the site will automatically place adverts on your pages, but you can specify within certain limits what kind of adverts you would prefer (or not, as the case may be). Apart from the advertising, two downsides are that to build satisfactory pages, you really need some knowledge of web authoring, and there is not much scope for others to contribute to the site.
A club website really needs to have the ability for people to interact, which led me to look at what are called Wikis, Wikipedia being the best-known example. I have settled on Wetpaint as the system for our club site. It was very easy to set up (you can choose from a range of templates for the design), the web address has our club name first, and there is lots of flexibility to add material. Of several systems I checked out, Wetpaint came out on top for ease of set-up and general user-friendliness. You can set up a site literally in minutes, with absolutely no knowledge of html or web authoring.
Google also offers a website option, called Google Sites, but although I looked at this, I decided it was not flexible enough, and too limited.