Help with buildng a website

LiLTam replied:

Hello I have sent you a PM

Tam

SexxxyThingz replied:

You might want to speak with Handson who is amongst our forums,she is a professional!

I went the hard way and built my ownThis caused alot of heartache and took a long time to get its appearance even slightly OK.

I wish I had just paid a person at the very beginning instead of thinking it would be simple.Some hosting packages have the site builder included which makes it a little easier.If you want to do it yourself I highly recommend the site builder.

Good Luck!

Ariele replied:

There are plenty of DIY site builder things. The problem with these is they can be less "personal" however for a basic site if that doesn't bother you, they can be good. You can make your own basic site using Microsoft Word, Publisher or Front page-but these programs really don't make very good looking sites. Fine for a basic informational page :) Dreamweaver is the best WYSIWYG site builder. It's pricey but you can download a trial version at http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/
Bit of a learning curve though..

I'm studying web design currently, so feel free to add me to msn if you have any questions blackfuschia@msn.com 

partyplans replied:

As with most things, you get what you pay for!

If you do it yourself (and you are not a web designer) there is a good chance that your site will look 'crap'. You can get a templated / brochure site with a professional custom layout/design from about $500 from many suppliers. This would probably do for starters: www.netregistry.com.au

  ... but I would be skeptical of anyone that says they can build you a fully featured and customised site (with ecommerce etc) for less than $5000.

Expect to pay over $50K to develop anything with a real customised backend. (ie you are the only site with these features as you contracted software engineers and designers to make it just for you)

...then there is hosting!! 

Do you want a shared server (that could have 300 other sites running on it and sharing resources at the same time.. possibly making your site very slow and annoying) or do you want your own dedicated server (a whole server and huge bandwidth just for you) ? 

eg:  The dedicated server this site runs on costs us $350 per month. A shared server can cost as little as $100 per year.

Personally, I would suggest spending as little as possible until you know that your site will actually work for you! No point building a site if you dont get any visitors. If it works for you, then think about outlaying some $$ for a better site.

The most important thing is your domain name. This has a huge impact on your search engine rankings and marketability of your site. eg:

• MyWHAMPartyPlan.com  vs
• PartyPlan.com

.. only get .com (..or .com.au if your site is Australian specific) and not a .net etc.

.com is the best, unfortunately almost every .com possible (with less than 10 letters, or 2 words from the english language) is already taken. Although there is no real website at these addresses, domain 'squatters' have registered it and you have to buy it off them for $$$. Expect to pay between US$10,000 and US$500,000 for the awesome name you really want! ... but if you have a good idea.. it may be worth it??....people are going bust and losing heaps more money every day trying to start a savvy coffee shops, restaurants and juice bars!

I use www.domainsearch.com  when I search for available domains. If you want to search for domains listed for sale , visit www.sedo.com or www.afternic.com.

Start off small with minimal risk ... then expand!

Good luck!

Snazza replied:

Hi there

If its a really basic web page you are wanting to compliment your business and just use as another form of advertising for it, i thoroughly recommend www.freewebs.com I have made 3 sites using that, one of which is still standing www.freewebs.com/zodiac-catch I also run my own Australian Recruitment forum at the web address below in my sig and that is also a free program. More of a forum though than an advertising site.

With my previous PP I had a page done with the freewebs one and then had that address in my sig and my newspaper ads. It definately works on getting the message out there on what your business is all about with very minimal fuss.

Good Luck and if you need any help please dont hesistate to ask.

Kind regards

Snazza

bbanne replied:

For anyone who wants a shop set up then try http://www.my-shop.com.au/  IT is a new site that lets you select a template and add your items.  It costs from $4,95 per month and there is no contract period that I can see.  IT is a great way to test the water before commiting to a full on website.

Kala replied:

If you're after a shopping cart (ecommerce) thats fairly easy to use, and free, try zencart, I have it operating on my site.  It has multiple templates to use (so lots of different looks), lots of add ons, and you can set it up to take payments in a variety of ways.  As it's open source, there's a lot of discussion and help on their forums.  Of course you need hosting, but there are many free hosts out there, which are great to test the waters.

I run both my shop site and an online game on a paid server, the server itself is in the US, which adds maybe 1/2 a second onto the page load time and the US servers are a lot cheaper than the Aussie equivalents (unfortunately).

HandsOn replied:

ive sent you a PM :)