Free*,** site hosting for Kingston-area organizations

I’ve been meaning to get to this for a while, and with some job/lifestyle changes on the horizon, it’s time!

I think every non-profit and small business that makes a positive difference in the world should be on the web, as a matter of general principle. Whether it’s a food truck, support for dental care for the unhoused, somebody who wants to make and sell funky stickers… everyone should be findable on the Internet. Nothing makes me sadder than a business or org whose only web presence is Facebook. Facebook sucks.

So on a trial basis, I want to start offering free1“free as in beer”: I won’t charge and will never charge for this, and this isn’t some sneaky feature creep thing where I create something broken and then charge you to fix it. That said, this is going to be a very “flat” service — see below. site setup and hosting for small Kingston-area orgs that want a “set it and forget it” kind of site that will present them to the world.

These would be simple and very “flat” sites: think of them as online brochures, not full-on retail sites or complex bells-and-whistles implementations.

If you’re a restaurant, your name, address, contact info, and a PDF of your menu.

If you’re a massage parlour, your name, address, contact info, and a link to a third-party booking site.

If you’re a band, your name, logo, contact info, and links to your pages on social media, Bandcamp, Soundcloud.

That sort of thing. Super simple. Easy to implement. Not a lot of updates required. 2I reserve the right to decide what organizations I want to support: no Nazis, anti-choicers, anti-trans or TERFs, monotheism, etc. This isn’t up for debate; ‘no’ is ‘no’.

Examples:

What’s on offer

An HTML/CSS site based on one of the free templates at HTML5Up, or

Email forwarding to your own email from the site.

A professional-looking and complete website, built from the text and images you provide!

What’s not being offered

Back-end access to my hosting or the site architecture.

No forms, at least initially — this may change in the future, but for now, assume that the site will be informational only — people can get information from it but won’t be able to put information into it. Think of it like a brochure you pick up, not a two-way communication.

No email hosting. I will forward email to your Gmail/Outlook/whatever address, but I won’t set up / host mailboxes.

Online shopping. If you want to sell stuff, that’s awesome, but set up an Etsy/Shopify/Redbubble account and link to it. I don’t have the skills or scope to support anything like online stores.

Good customer service. This is a ‘set it and forget it’ kind of deal for me, not my full-time job!

Interested? Fill out this form:

*Free as in beer: I will not charge and will never charge for this service. There will be no sneaky feature creep or “bonuses” offered for fees later on. The trade-off is that this is a very flat feature set. If you’re a business over the $500K budget, I may at my discretion propose a barter or store credit arrangement.

**I reserve the right to decide what organizations I want to support: no Nazis, anti-choicers, anti-trans or TERFs, monotheism, etc. This isn’t up for debate; ‘no’ is ‘no’.

  • 1
    “free as in beer”: I won’t charge and will never charge for this, and this isn’t some sneaky feature creep thing where I create something broken and then charge you to fix it. That said, this is going to be a very “flat” service — see below.
  • 2
    I reserve the right to decide what organizations I want to support: no Nazis, anti-choicers, anti-trans or TERFs, monotheism, etc. This isn’t up for debate; ‘no’ is ‘no’.