Need to set up (cheap) web site

Somerset

O/H needs to set up a web site for a new small business. Needs to have the usual plus product prices. But he needs to do it cheaply ie no web designer prices. Can he do it himself ? How should he go about setting all this up (if it's possible ). He's computer literate and used to programme about 20 years ago but obviously is well out of date on current stuff.

Thanks

Realist

Find a host that provides FREE ready made template and shopping carts. All the OH has to do is input his text to the webpage, configure the cart and away we go.

Here is an example of what I mean: http://www.12wonderwebservices.com/site_builder_details.php?PHPSESSID=34dccfcbefd635519f14c3971943902f

Laters

mitcho_uk

It all depends on what you want the website to do. If you want a very basic site that doesnt require people to login and out and to buy products from it then I would opt for a basic HTML site with links to display or download the product lists. If however you want something a litle more complex you could try the open source (free) content management sites such as joomla mambo or xoops. However these can be quite difficult to get your head round at first.

If you dont want to do it yourself let me know and ill try to help out.

Somerset

Thanks mitcho-uk

Think he was hoping for a site where you could get product/price lists ( no product info cos it's household names ). Order forms with shopping cart - payment by ?? he's pricing the d/d or c/c routes. Tbh I didn't think we could afford the pay on web-site route but maybe we can - depends how much. Company address, phone no, delivery info ie what area's/which day of week. e-mail link obviously for customer questions.

Don't know if we can get all that or not - if it's or not, we just have the web site, products/prices and tel no to place order.

I'll talk to him tonight and post back. Cheers.

Mr_Vincent

If you are prepared to do a bit of practice on it, you could create your own website using Microsoft Word 2000 and using page preview to make sure you are on the right track.
It's simple enough and I have created 3 professional looking websites using it.
My website is based on it and is hosted for £34.00 on a year on 50MB of space - thats plenty to hold a lot of pictures on.

My write-up here describes how.

For your info, my website is available here.

Home page wording needs re-doing slightly.

tigermatt

You can get a cheap domain and cheap, quality hosting at 1and1: http://www.1and1.co.uk. With most of their packages, they have a Website Builder that will build your site for you - you just enter the information. However, there is a limit to the number of pages you can build depending on the package you choose. (To find out how many pages you can build with Website Builder: Go to your hosting package (For this example I will use 1and1 Home)1and1 Home, scroll down until you see the heading Website Building Tools then look for 1&1 WebsiteBuilder. This will tell you how many pages you get with the package you selected.

Alternatively, if you are looking at eCommerce, try http://www.oscommerce.com/ - It's a piece of software that is fully featured to do everything from showing your products to taking the buyer through to PayPal to pay. Plus, it's FREE! The only downside is that you have to have a more expensive package at 1and1 to support it - you need a database (MySQL) and PHP (server-side scripting) support. The minimum package you could run it on is 1and1 Business (Notice you have 2 MySQL databases, with the Home package you don't have any databases) osCommerce is very easy to setup and you don't need to have very much coding skill to manage it as it has a website interface you manage it from!

I hope this helps

chunter

Microsoft Publisher was the first package I used to create a website.
You get an option of saving the page as html.

Signing up with more or less any dial up ISP will give you your own free webspace.

If you need a particular .co.uk domain, I'd buy it with UK2.net.
Their customer service is well beyond useless, but all you need them to do is redirect to your free webspace. for £30 every 2 years you get all email and web redirected with no advertising.

To access your free webspace, you'll need a File Transfer Program (FTP).
Google "Free FTP".
Ipswitch and Cute have been around a long time.

When you get your free webspace they'll give you
1) an address (eg ftp.freespace.tiscali.co.uk)
2) a username (eg chunter)
3) a password (goldenwonder)
You'll need these 3 things for your ftp program.

Remember that your home/entry page should be called index.htm(l)

Darksun

Mr_Vincent wrote:

If you are prepared to do a bit of practice on it, you could create your own website using Microsoft Word 2000 and using page preview to make sure you are on the right track.

For accessability purposes, I strongly suggest you avoid using MS Word. The HTML it produces is horribly obstufucated and incompliant

nickmack

There was a similar question to this yesterday. Some of my reply to that is repeated below:

You are trying to create a website for little outlay, the problem is that cheap websites tend to look...well cheap. Your other half may be able to get to grips with the coding side of the website, using his previous knowledge but design is a different ball game. Programmers tend not to be designers!

Off the shelf online carts are available, but it would still require the site design to a certain extent. Remember, if you are trying to sell to people, you want to them to find the site attractive. If you have no idea of good design practice, HCI etc, you are risking turning people away.

Depending on your projected sales, you need to consider how you're going to accept payments. WorldPay is very common and has good protection, but the fees can be high if your volume is low and/or you have a high percentage of Credit Card transactions. If this is the case, maybe PayPal is a better idea.

I agree with Darksun about Microsoft Word, it is not a HTML editor, despite what Microsoft might claim. What it outputs is incredibly bloated and search engine unfriendly.

tigermatt

chunter wrote:

Microsoft Publisher was the first package I used to create a website.
You get an option of saving the page as html.

Signing up with more or less any dial up ISP will give you your own free webspace.

If you need a particular .co.uk domain, I'd buy it with UK2.net.
Their customer service is well beyond useless, but all you need them to do is redirect to your free webspace. for £30 every 2 years you get all email and web redirected with no advertising.

To access your free webspace, you'll need a File Transfer Program (FTP).
Google "Free FTP".
Ipswitch and Cute have been around a long time.

When you get your free webspace they'll give you
1) an address (eg ftp.freespace.tiscali.co.uk)
2) a username (eg chunter)
3) a password (goldenwonder)
You'll need these 3 things for your ftp program.

Remember that your home/entry page should be called index.htm(l)

I wouldn't recommend UK2.NET if they charge you £30 every two years. :rolleyes: You can get a .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk domain from 1and1.com for just £2.34 a year. (1and1 Instant Domain)

Also, don't forget that if you get free hosting with an ISP other than your own, you may have to dialup to their service or use their service for a certain amount of hours within a set timeframe otherwise your account (which includes your hosting) will disappear. For business sites, definately get a hosting package that is paid for so it doesn't expire.

F1F1

nickmack wrote:

I agree with Darksun about Microsoft Word, it is not a HTML editor, despite what Microsoft might claim. What it outputs is incredibly bloated and search engine unfriendly.

I <also!> agree with the comments that Word isn't an html editor and neither is Publisher, which was intended for print output. <and agree with the other stuff re payments too >