Setting up your own website.

jimjams99

Hi All,

First of all I'm not talking about setting up a small personal website, I'm talking about setting up a business website.

I already know exactly how I want the website to look, and all the functionality I would want, but I have no clue how to build it and as this would be a new small business that i'm setting up I can't afford £2000 (and the rest) for a professional website designer. Once the website has been built I would then want to know (learn) how to keep it at the top of search engine listings (like google). I fully appreciate that I'm going to have to pay something for all of this but can anyone recommend avenues I can take that won't result in me going bust before i've begun?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Jamie Sandford.

PS If there are any freelance website buliders out there who think they can help please get in touch.

wolfman

How big a site are you thinking?

Also what kind of functionality. Secure payment system? Database driven? Or just basic html?

Ivanhoe30

Try dreamweaver 8 it's a good html editor you get a free 30 day trial from there website.

jimjams99

The site is for the promotion of holiday lets, b&bs and property for sale. So really the ability to link to other websites, and other related pages of the website, and contact us. Also I would want the site to be able to host ads.

I appreciate that this kind of website is fairly straight forward but my requirement is that it looks fantastic according to my design (he said modestly). I'm not yet convinced that one of the website builders offering pre designed templates is going to give me the result I want, however i'm prepared to be told different!

Thank you for your quick response.

Jamie.

mike_paterson

The reason that it costs to get a good website is that it takes time - a lot of time. Most web designers will earn a minimum £20 an hour and the companies will need to earn a profit on that plus cover sales costs and taxes etc.

You can build your own - but to do it well you will need to learn your tool(s) of choice. Why do I say tools - well you will need some logo software to make a logo - you will need web authoring software such as Front Page or DreamWeaver and you may need to create some Flash so will need that software too. If you want to show images or edit them then you will need to get handy with a photoshop type product. You might need some shopping cart software and if the site is going to be good you will most likely need a database to store the information that will appear on the website.

Think about the data very carefully - how will it be stored - how often will it change - how will you change it. When you buy a website you are paying for their experience - something you do not get by reading a book I'm afraid.

Start simple - you have already decided the look (and feel ??) of the site - look and see if you can find other similar sites and make sure that you are truly happy with how they operate before you build yours. Understand how they work, how they have been written, and how they store their data. I learnt a lot about websites by importing them into FrontPage and playing around with them.

So there is possibly a lot to learn and it will take time. If you have the time then great - good luck !

jimjams99

Thank you for such a detailed reply.

Lots to go on!

Jamie

save-a-lot

Hi

Right Search Engine Optimisation (keeping your site high up in the SERPS)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1537538#post1537538

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=137943&highlight=search+engine+list%2A

I have posted VERY detailed instructions on those pages.

Getting your site online and working well can be done cheaply with TOP class designers and developers... try https://www.scriptlance.com - here you will find people who will bid on your projects. This is a Global service so the best bids generally come in from India, Russia etc whereby the going rate is extremely cheap... and the quality is second to none. I can show you designs done for me if you PM me (I don't want to post my own websites here in case it looks spammy)

mike_paterson

save-a-lot wrote:

Hi
Getting your site online and working well can be done cheaply with TOP class designers and developers... try www.scriptlance.com - here you will find people who will bid on your projects. This is a Global service so the best bids generally come in from India, Russia etc whereby the going rate is extremely cheap... and the quality is second to none. I can show you designs done for me if you PM me (I don't want to post my own websites here in case it looks spammy)

I forgot to mention that you can farm the work out to Eastern Europe, India and even China. This will drastically reduce costs. You still need to understand that data aspects though so that you can tell them what you want.
Best of luck
Mike

jimjams99

Dear Mike,

Firstly thank you very much for your excellent replies to my post about building a website.

I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but you did emphasize the importance of considering the various aspects of data and I was hoping you could expand slightly on that?

I thought that once a page was designed the owner would then be able to edit that page very simply within the parameters of how it was set up. So for example I want a website to advertise, amongst other things, holiday rentals. So I imagined a page with a small photo for each rental followed by the details of the property and then a link to that properties website and/or a direct email link to myself. So as far as data was concerned I thought it would be simply a case of uploading different images and texts and removing others that could either be deleted or stored on the hard drive of my computer.

So I guess my question is am I guilty of completely over simplifying the process of setting up such a web page, as regards data, or have I misunderstood what you mean by data in the first place?

Thanks again for your help so far,

Regards,

Jamie Sandford.

wolfman

jimjams99 wrote:

I thought that once a page was designed the owner would then be able to edit that page very simply within the parameters of how it was set up. So for example I want a website to advertise, amongst other things, holiday rentals. So I imagined a page with a small photo for each rental followed by the details of the property and then a link to that properties website and/or a direct email link to myself. So as far as data was concerned I thought it would be simply a case of uploading different images and texts and removing others that could either be deleted or stored on the hard drive of my computer.

Not always. Depends how it's developed. A good developer will allow for such a thing a make it as easy as possible for you to update, or self maintain. You could of course make it a requirement then they'd have to whoever the developer.

With regards to data, it depends upon the size and complexity of the site. For a lot of data, a database would be best, although there are other methods (xml as an example).

But yes, if developed well you could quite literally have a system where you upload a graphic, and the details and the system will update. Written similar stuff myself at work and home. It's not too big a job from the sound of things. Best come up with some form of functional specification though, that way it can be better judged.