How hard can it be to get a website made

carrot-cake_2

mojod wrote: »

Not going to promote myself here at all, no links or anything and I won't help out by PM either as the forum isn't meant for advertising.

I ran a very successful webdesign business with my ex and son, before I had to pack it in through health problems.

In the process of getting things back together to start up again and have come to the conclusion that nothing has really changed in that you either get quoted a stupid amount for something that might or might not be half decent, or pay peanuts for rubbish.

I used to full featured e-commerce sites for £299 which gave all the main features, but all fully customised to the needs of the client (including logo design, original themes/looks etc). If they wanted to add extra later, then no problem - just a reasonable extra fee. Unlimited 1 to 1 support was included and an ongoing relationship was built up with the clients, who although hadn't spent a fortune, did eventually spend more when their needs changed and pockets allowed.

Looking at doing similar again - just a bit of rework to suit changes in the marketplace and probably a small increase in the basic package price to reflect inflation etc.

In other words, have a look at service more than anything. Ask lots of questions, monitor how quickly you get replies and make sure you are aware of any "hidden" extras - hosting, domain names etc.

eBay is a good place to look in the £250-£500 range, but just make sure you build up a working relationship with whoever BEFORE agreeing to go ahead.

Lots will say that's too cheap - I disagree. Perfectly sustainable long term and both the design business and clients business grow together over time.

Just to reiterate - not a plug for me. Not started yet!

That is exactly what I expected from them to be honest (ongoing relationship and support) one of the web designers promised to send me an email with a link to the websites they had designed with approximate prices and they didn't even do that I am still waiting! Some give an approximate and scary price of the whole finished product! But that isn't what I am wanting I just want a basic ecommerce website that has the functions it should have to enable me to get sales and payments etc but can be added to by either myself or by paying extra along the way.

I never thought it would be so difficult to get one made. It seems some of them just pick a random price off the top of their heads and try it on. Obviously losing customers in the long run.

mojod

carrot-cake wrote: »

That is exactly what I expected from them to be honest (ongoing relationship and support) one of the web designers promised to send me an email with a link to the websites they had designed with approximate prices and they didn't even do that I am still waiting! Some give an approximate and scary price of the whole finished product!

Yeah, exactly. Thing is, if they can't be bothered looking after you well and meeting promises pre-sale, what hope have you got afterwards??

I'd advise you try and get a fixed price if you can. In an ideal scenario, you'd initially see a package offered at £x with detailed info about what is included, info about what's not included and a good discussion about your own needs - eg: "I need to be able to allow customers to use a discount code, but only on Wednesdays" - the designer can then either say "that's fine, I''l include that" or "can do that, but it would cost £x extra - a cheaper way might be to ..." etc.

Should add though that it is very important to be as clear and honest with the designer about what it is you want and if you don't understand something to ask - no nasty surprises for either of you then!

terra_ferma

carrot-cake wrote: »

I am getting so frustrated with shopify. I am trying to edit my theme and all it has is a list of things like background, text etc with a colour chart to choose from. And that seems to be it! How do I move things around my website? How do I write text in? In the dashboard it won't even let me click on edit my theme now I'm clicking but its not taking me to a different page rrrr.

At least with webeden it was easy to use and figure out but webeden seems to take you so far like letting you add 10 products then you have to pay for everything.

I think you need to use their help pages/guides, and if something doesn't work as it should raise a ticket with them. If they have a forum you could post there and see if someone can help you.
Not all shopping carts are intuitive to use, but make sure you choose one which has good instructions and support.

paddyrg

Emily735 wrote: »

I wonder if a "pay what you want" model would be good for a web designer..

I severely doubt it to be honest. At best you're competing with free templates, at worst competing with people just stealing other designs. If your client isn't looking to a lasting relationship then after the first few £1 jobs it'll wear thin At that rate you'd be better off writing a few excellent templates and licencing them online.

mojod

I don't know to be honest Emily. It is one option that I've looked at, but it needs refining. I do believe that in the main people are good though and if they are serious and get the service they expect, they will pay. It happens in lots of other areas of the web.

sugarwalsh

Carrot Cake - I have a shop on shopify and I did find it difficult at first, because everything was so alien. They have LOADS of help and you really just need to take your time.
To change your Theme - Go to themes and on the top right there are is a button. Click this if you want a different layout. I just customised the free layout - also easy enough to do.
To write about your products go to products on the lefthand side and 'add product'.
I set mine up and have been tinkering ever since to get it right. It does take time, but it's time invested in your own business so it is worth it.
All that said, no matter how good your site is, you will have to work hard at driving traffic to it if you are not allowed to advertise on Facebook and the likes due to your suppliers stipulations.
Good luck - and remember to use the 'Need Help' on Shopify, they are very helpful.
Megan

mojod

sugarwalsh wrote: »

All that said, no matter how good your site is, you will have to work hard at driving traffic to it

Very true. So many people think that once their site is online that it will suddenly appear at the top of Google straight away, and that just isn't going to happen anytime soon, if it all - and certainly not without a LOT of work and effort.

That's another area to be careful of. Companies that offer some kind of search engine submission service, guaranteed top rankings etc all for a few quid. Complete nonsense and completely impossible.

Absolutely loads of ways to market a site online. Social media can help, but it's more of a quick fix for instant results. To keep up with that and keep the momentum going would be a full time job on it's own. It's good to spend a large chunk of time working on things that will go online and stay online without you touching them again. Careful and clever use of keyphrases, press releases, links on other sites, voucher codes, prize draws to name a tiny few all give your site a more permanent presence that will be noticed and appreciated by the search engines.

Two ways to go about this ...

DIY. Read a lot, talk a lot, learn a lot but be willing to spend hours a day, every day working on it - forever. It gets a bit easier over time, but things change so you really need to keep on top of it. Most importantly, just remember the time commitment you would be making.

Pay. Really cheap, guaranteed whatevers etc are a waste of money and will do very little, if any, good. Maybe you could avoidnot all in one go (I used to offer monthly marketing packages that people could more or less PAYG on) where we did all the work and provided monthly reports detailing what had been done, what the results were so far, and what we'd like to achieve next - I'm sure others must over a similar service.

Generally though whether you pay monthly or for a longer period of time, if you're not going down the DIY route, the cost of actually getting your site built in the first place is chicken feed compared to paying someone.

Seems like a bit of a no-win situation, but if you can work with someone you trust (ie: yourself, or pay someone reliable) and it works, then LONG TERM it will pay off.

Jaymo

I thought I would add my 2 cents in here after reading all of the comments as it seems to have gone a bit off topic from the original question.

To the OP - you need e-commerce and you need it fast but with something you can mess around with yourself....try here: http://www.ekmpowershop.com/

I actually do webdesign in my spare time and yes I like other webdesigners will quote from a hundred into the thousands depending on the project but from what you've actually stated so far I think something like ekm will fit the bill.

I have a family member running 2 businesses via their own sites from ekm and they seem to be doing very well for themselves as ekm takecare of the SEO for you etc and you can try it for free. I think ekm or 1&1 will be good for you as a quick setup so you can get your stuff out there and start selling.

I hope that info has been helpful!

terra_ferma

Jaymo wrote: »

I thought I would add my 2 cents in here after reading all of the comments as it seems to have gone a bit off topic from the original question.

To the OP - you need e-commerce and you need it fast but with something you can mess around with yourself....try here: http://www.ekmpowershop.com/

I actually do webdesign in my spare time and yes I like other webdesigners will quote from a hundred into the thousands depending on the project but from what you've actually stated so far I think something like ekm will fit the bill.

I have a family member running 2 businesses via their own sites from ekm and they seem to be doing very well for themselves as ekm takecare of the SEO for you etc and you can try it for free. I think ekm or 1&1 will be good for you as a quick setup so you can get your stuff out there and start selling.

I hope that info has been helpful!

I agree, no need to make things more complicated than they are, get a decent looking website up and start learning. You will find out what you can do yourself and what you need help with.

carrot-cake_2

Jaymo wrote: »

I thought I would add my 2 cents in here after reading all of the comments as it seems to have gone a bit off topic from the original question.

To the OP - you need e-commerce and you need it fast but with something you can mess around with yourself....try here: http://www.ekmpowershop.com/

I actually do webdesign in my spare time and yes I like other webdesigners will quote from a hundred into the thousands depending on the project but from what you've actually stated so far I think something like ekm will fit the bill.

I have a family member running 2 businesses via their own sites from ekm and they seem to be doing very well for themselves as ekm takecare of the SEO for you etc and you can try it for free. I think ekm or 1&1 will be good for you as a quick setup so you can get your stuff out there and start selling.

I hope that info has been helpful!

EKMPowershop seems to have bad reviews and star rating of 3 out of 5. This is what worries me about giving money to 'free' build your own web page builders because although they are quite good in that you can create a nice website I'm worried that once you start paying for extra bits and bobs and more functionality you would have been aswell paying a proper web designer.