Adam Gifford: Site makes it easy for parkers to pretend they're moving

Parking internet domain names is all very well and good, but the site that usually comes up is often less than informative.

For example, "My Great Idea is parked at this registrar" tells the world you haven't got round to doing anything with your great idea yet.

Iconz subsidiary Free Parking has made it easy for name parkers to at least pretend they are doing something.

It has struck a deal with a United States firm, Soholaunch, to offer white-label versions of its template-driven web creation tools.

Web Studio, renamed FreeParking Single Page Site, will allow customers to make a free page for any domain name registered with Freeparking. For $200 a year, they can use FreeParking SiteBuilder, the rebadged Soholaunch Pro Edition, to build a multi-page site containing up to 10MB of server space - enough for 25 pages or so.

The fee includes an email and hosting account.

A package allowing SiteBuilder to be used for larger sites will be launched later.

So how easy is it to use?

I have a couple of domain names at FreeParking. They used to be redirected to a website I maintained, but they have been in limbo since that site was taken down.

Logging into the domain management section of my FreeParking account, I disable the redirection and click on the Manage Single Page Site button.

That points me to an edit screen, where I name the new page, choose the layout from the pre-set templates and add my words.

If I had any photos or images, I could add those using a File Manager command.

I click another button and the page is created. That was too easy.

Of course it was too easy. All the text runs together in a single block.

SiteBuilder is another one of those PC-centric beasts that needs Microsoft Internet Explorer to do some of the grunt work.

On my Mac I did not have access to all the editing tools. This is not a problem at this scale. I go back into the editing screen and add html tags to my text. I click the button again and it comes up the way I want it.

FreeParking general manager Richard Shearer said within a fortnight of its launch about 200 customers had thrown up sites.

"It is a good way to start building up a brand," he said.

Remuera accountant Roger Farnsworth has created a one-page brochure site promoting his accounting and property management businesses, and another site for his SPI Wine champagne-importing business.

"I have a website being developed for the wine business, but this is a suitable filler until it is ready," Farnsworth said.

"I spotted the service when I was on the Freeparking site a few weeks ago and spent an hour or so playing with it. It was very useful, a good experience and easy to do."

Farnsworth has the .nz domains for the wine brands he imports, so they all show the Spi Wine. He decided to stick with website professionals for his main site.

Auckland artist Sally Blyth has gone further, using the full SiteBuilder tool to create a multi-page site to promote her work.

Blythe said paying a website designer was out of her budget.

"I wanted a cost-effective solution that gave me control," she said. Her Masquerade site took about 12 hours to create.