I have been setting up a website, using a popular very cheap discount host, and software applications that are easily installed on that plan.  My objectives:

• Learn about WordPress which so many of you bring up to me in your Moodle conversations
• Prove to "you" that a very cheap discount host isn't a bargain if you have a serious Moodle-centric business. 
• Demonstrate the relative features and foci (remember that from geometry?) of various applications including of course, Moodle
• Kill some time because I had something much more pressing to do...procrastination is the mother of creation, isn't it?

Well, I have made some surprising discoveries and rock-solid confirmations of what I already knew to be true...

• WordPress really is easy to install and use.  If you want a blog it's perfect...it's not so simple if you want a customized, commercial website.  No surprise here:  If you want a customized site, built to your specifications, you need a web designer. I called "technical support" to ask a simple question and the guy said "uh, yeah, that's what I'd do.  I see here we could offer you more service for an additional charge..." There is no such thing as a free lunch.  You want tech support and customization, get a designer/host.
• Moodle can be installed quite easily on this discount very cheap host.  But if you want to install any one of the plug-ins (such as the clock or side bars you see on this site), you'd better have a bit of techie-geek in you.  I do have this gene, but I still can't get stuff to work.  And there's no one to help me with it...mmm.  This is why you need to host with a Moodle Partner.
• I found the really cool MediaWiki which was written for Wikipedia so anyone can produce a Wiki of that caliber...WikiBee^TM, I'm going to call it.  If I can figure out how to get started, which I haven't yet!
• My exciting discovery, though, is Drupal.  It is an open source content management system (CMS).  In less than a week, I have done some pretty cool stuff with it, the most extraordinary of which is to install and use Webform.  This is a plug-in for making surveys, contact forms, etc...whatever you want.  It is EASY.  It looks great.  It is possible to set permissions, show on the menu (or not), and download the results in any number of formats...without any training (OK, so my geek side is coming out, but remember, I can't even log in to some of the other applications I set up).  Check out the Getting Started with Moodle Survey.  And unlike all of the online survey tools I found in a search, there is no monthly fee.  You could use the super cheap discount host, set up Drupal, and create surveys/forms all day long, for less than the minimum membership that other survey tool (the one that makes you want bananas) would cost you!  And you can have your own website to go with it! Note:  If you want to know how to compose great survey questions, take Voice of the Customer 101 here at BeeLearn.com!

I'm putting together one of my famous comparison charts...stay tuned. Penny