Build a website........

GreyPilgrim

It's a bit hard to answer your question really. It's almost like saying "How to do I open a shop to make money?" !!

In fact it's exactly the same. You need to have the whole business plan in place before you start thinking about the website. What are you selling? Who is going to buy it? How are you going to market it? How are you going to fund it etc etc etc. The website should be one of the final things you need to think about really...

Having said that, there's nothign stopping you from buying a 'learn yourself html' or 'html for dummies' books and just messing around making simple websites, learning how work and getting experience with some of the more involved aspects of web design.

I really wouldn't bother shelling out money on web hosting companies yet, you can design and view everything you need on your home pc (just you of course, not the rest of the world), then when you're ready to try it out you can get a bit of free web space to publish your work on (some companies will let you post your material for free as long it's not for profit / commerical use and as long as you don't mind them using pop up ads).

Then when you're really ready, google around for a cheap host. I'm currently using a company called Big Wet Fish which gives you loads of web space and a domain name for about £16 a year.

But I'm a nerd, and I enjoyed the learning curve with html and knocking up my own sites. You might just want to buy a ready made template and customise it yourself.

save-a-lot

Hi

White label websites are pre-built websites that you sell thier products and earn commission from. Google it. Often ringtone sites sites are white labels, there are a few providers for selling mobile phones plus there may be other white labels out there.

Remember according to MSE rules replies to this thread should not contain live links to white labels you are involved in.

Please google the phrase "white label website" and have an explore of what is available.

save-a-lot

save-a-lot wrote: »

Hi

White label websites are pre-built websites that you sell thier products and earn commission from. Google it. Often ringtone sites sites are white labels, there are a few providers for selling mobile phones plus there may be other white labels out there.

Remember according to MSE rules replies to this thread should not contain live links to white labels you are involved in.

Please google the phrase "white label website" and have an explore of what is available.

Why has this been moved into this thread. It is not relevant here as a white label is provided for you

Zebedee69

Hi Guys,

I thought id write a new post because I saw someone was asking for information on building a website to make money.

Iv been playing with a website for two years and iv decided to start all over again. This time not making any of the mistakes I made and hopefully my experience last time around will help me:rolleyes:

Anyway, I was thinking of making my new experience a diary and maybe it will help other people on here to build their own websites and make an ickle bit of money too.

What do you think? I just hope people dont try and spam it:rolleyes: you know what its like when there is money involved!

Joyful

I have a query re Web Design. I decided to start a business part time and got a Domain name. A friend at the other end of the country set me up a basic web site using Dream Weaver. I want to learn how to do this for myself but only have Front page. Can I use this to alter and add to my Website? I've also decided to try and do a college course on Web Design but it appears to be Dreamweaver based.Is there anywhere you can get a copy cheaply( such as Student Editions)?

jessicamb

Joyful wrote: »

I have a query re Web Design. I decided to start a business part time and got a Domain name. A friend at the other end of the country set me up a basic web site using Dream Weaver. I want to learn how to do this for myself but only have Front page. Can I use this to alter and add to my Website? I've also decided to try and do a college course on Web Design but it appears to be Dreamweaver based.Is there anywhere you can get a copy cheaply( such as Student Editions)?

Hi Joyful

I think you might be better to ask the experts on the techie forum these questions. They will know straight away I'm sure

save-a-lot

Joyful wrote: »

I have a query re Web Design. I decided to start a business part time and got a Domain name. A friend at the other end of the country set me up a basic web site using Dream Weaver. I want to learn how to do this for myself but only have Front page. Can I use this to alter and add to my Website? I've also decided to try and do a college course on Web Design but it appears to be Dreamweaver based.Is there anywhere you can get a copy cheaply( such as Student Editions)?

Don't use Frontpage, it puts in lots of unnecessary HTML. You are best learning some html or better still CSS and looking for an open source HTML editor.

thecornflake

I've done quite a bit of this.

Firstly, how to produce the sites. I only use HTML and CSS, no Flash etc because firstly it's too complicated and takes a lot more time, and secondly it's much more difficult to adhere to various standards.

If you want to use Dreamweaver look for an older version on Ebay perhaps? Don't use Frontapge, as has been said it creates horrible code.

I use Dreamweaver and a free text editor, usually Textpad, which have format settings for HTML that colour code tags etc.

I use free downloadable templates for most sites, this is provided as a cheaper option and people seem to go for this quite a lot. I change the basic colours, add in a logo for them and the content and it's done. I can offer a site from about £100 with this method, the client gets a nice simple but professional site and it's done very quickly.

Check out oswd.org and webdesignhelper.co.uk for free templates, I rarely use any other than these two sites.

I let them sort out hosting and domain registration, but advise on which companies to use and how to choose a good domain name.

As for standards, check out the W3C site which also has validators. You want to make sure (especially for businesses) that the accessibility standards are met otherwise they could get sued (this happened to the official Olympics site a few years ago - they were sued by a blind person. If you're asking how blind people use the web, they make up quite a big proportion of users. They use text to speech convertors.

I also offer basic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) if they want it, it's a big thing at the moment.

You would also want to know about CMS (content management systems) as this enables people to edit the content without knowing HTML etc. Free open source programs are available.

A tip - be assertive with the design, a lot of people don't really know what they want and you can spend weeks finalising the design.

I send people 3/4 different designs after getting a rough idea of what they want, other sites they like etc and then they choose one which can be tweaked to make it what they want.

save-a-lot

Hi

The idea of the thread was to make money online via creating a website. Well, I designed and maintain the website of a holiday cottage that we use every year in the Lakes. The owner of the cottage and B&B gives us a substantial discount on the weekly price rather than paying me which makes the few hours of maintaining the site over the year worth it. Besides, playing around with websites is a bit of a hobby anyway.

So, if anyone has a similar situation whereby you could create a website for something you pay for then that could be a route to getting cheaper/free services or accomodation, i.e. local tyre fitter/garage services etc, or B&Bs, guesthouses etc etc that may want a website.

tlck9

Via (i think) quidco you can get a website from Microsoft free and get paid by quidco!