Sidengo

Sidengo?(free for basic site, pro from $10/month)?can help you create a single landing page, and it'll look great, but it can also help you produce an entire little website (with pop-ups more than actual pages, but why quibble?). Unlike the competition from About.me and Flavors.me?(Free, or $20 with extra options, 4.5 stars)?, which both favor individual expression on personal Web pages, Sidengo is geared toward small businesses, though it can work as well for a one-person site, too. If you're willing to pay for the service, your site can get extras like a custom domain, QR code, Google Analytics and Facebook Page integration, and more.

Registration
Setup starts on the home page by creating an account and picking a site name that will reside at sidengo.com/sitename. You can point a domain name at the site and Sidengo has instructions on how to do so. It doesn't facilitate the registration like Flavors does, however; you'll have to register your own domain on a site like Register.com. Support for a custom domain is only on the pro version of Sidengo, which is $10 a month (or $90 per year) for one site.

Site Creation
The important part is setting up your website with the Sidengo interface, and that's a breeze. The drop-down Builder menu is similar the one found on Flavors or About.me, with a floating control panel hovering over your design. Make a change and you'll see it instantly. The site itself has areas in the main template for a site logo, slogan, and links to "pages" for About Us, Products & Services, and Contact Us (you can set this to be invisible, if unnecessary).

I put "pages" in quotes because what Sidengo actually provides is a single Web page with HTML5 layers that pop-up to mimic extra pages. You're not creating a new HTML page for each section. You create up to three such sections, plus a media gallery specific to media on one of three sites: Flickr, Youtube, or Vimeo (you can't combine them). Links from your Sidengo site to social network sites are limited to YouTube, Twitter, SlideShare, and Facebook Pages (not individual Facebook profiles)?this is Sidengo keeping it professional, not personal.

Don't get it in your head that Sidengo is just a bunch of links, like other landing page builders. You need to be enough of a writer to fill in data about yourself and your business, project, or products. Think about product lists, menus, business plans, whatever customers will want to see. Prepare them before you build your Sidengo site. Once the right data is in place, a small biz using Sidengo not looks good and has a great online point of contact. Plus the sites are instantly mobile as well, so you can share them with smartphone using customers.

Options & Extras
The Sidengo dashboard has pro options such as utilizing Google Analytics to track page traffic on your Sidengo site, setup for that external domain name, custom favicons and iOS icons (for those who'd bookmark your site like it's an app), QR codes to link to your site, and best of all, direct integration with your business's Facebook Page. All of these are free during the beta test, but will cost? you after July 1, 2012. What's nice is, you can setup multiple pro-level sites at Sidengo, up to 5 for $15 per month, or 15 sites at $25 per month (less if you pay annually). Pro sites are always free for non-profits.

Sidengo is a great option for a SMB with little or no online budget, and compares very favorably to Jux, which also builds mini-sites but is more geared toward a multi-media portfolio. Neither currently offer the simplicity of creating a single-page, free personal Website for individuals like our Editors' Choice, Flavors, but if your needs are more complex and business oriented, Sidengo is a good option.

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