Need a website, the way forward...??

Encantador

I need a website designed and built. I have talked this over with a few so called web designer/developers and thay all say that they can do it, but they all want money up front. Non have anything in their portfolio that is anywhere near the same.

I am loathe to hand over a wad of cash in the `hope` that they are as good as they say they are.

If it helps, the site is to buy and sell cars, so the best example I can give is autotrader. It will obviously need to be database driven with a comprehensive email system incorporated so that emails are sent automatically at both regular intervals and an a ad-hoc basis. Links incorporated in the emails need to activate actions on the site, ie customer gets reminder email with link "click here if you have sold your vehicles and want it removing from the site"

We also need a banner advertising service built into various parts of the site. We would hope that once set up we can do a lot of things ourselves, like adding new banners that are automatically added to the rotation.

There is obviously a lot more to this than a normal smal business site and it may be that we should be looking for someone `on board` who can handle all of this.

We do not need ecommerce and are not competing with autotrader.
We would be starting small but the site would need to be able to expand very quickly.

Any help/advice on a way foward would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

intel

Try these guys nowt wrong with them http://www.elimelight.co.uk/

wolfman

Paying upfront doesn't sound right. Maybe a small deposit or starting fee, but pay the full amount upon completion.

Also draw up a contract or service level agreement so you know what should be included. Otherwise they may try and bill you extra for request changes when you actually wanted them included in the original spec. It basically covers you.

Also, from the sound of things you want to be looking more at server-side developers than web site designers as the system will probably require a lot of server-side processing. That'll mean using a .Net, PHP, or JSP developer (or similar).

If you did get a .Net developer (what I do) I'd be happy to check over some of their sample work (request it) if you were worried about the standard of their work, and give you feedback.

gunneradt

web design is normally paid in instalments with an amount up front and the balance on completion.

Most web designers now use css rather than tables for design (in the business world anyway) so look for a css developer for best value.

-=Mr-J=-

Wolfmans advice is pretty much sound.
I would expect to be entering into a contract with definitive payment terms against an agreed specification.

I would add to the advice by saying that by your description you are looking for a Content Mangement System, rather than a complete bespoke website.

Once setup, this will allow you to maintain the routine features, such as banner changes, car additions / deletions, etc., rather than having to go to the developer each time you have a minor amendment.

The choice of CMS, will usually determine what type server software you need to be running on, so you need not worry about the finer details.
Also, there are several free license CMSs available, so any developer should not be charging for provision of this software, only for development and setup.
(There are of course commercial CMSs, but most are only on par with the free ones).

TBH, this kind of work is bread and butter to a 'real' web applications designer and when you do find a decent outfit, they should be advising you of the things you need in place, not the other way around - unless of course you have any specific requirements.

Take note though, it is not just the site itself you need, but also the hosting solution.
And you need to find a decent domain name (if not already done so) - probably the hardest bit.