sparkly3
member
Reged: 24/11/2007
Posts: 279
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I have an idea for starting a website, and wondering if anyone on the forum has any experience of this? What are the golden rules and how easy is it~? I am fairly computer literate, but have never done any web design.
Is it necessary to get a web designer, or is it fairly straightforward to do it yourself?
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stef
member
Reged: 02/05/2008
Posts: 4
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Hi, I work for myself as a website and graphic designer. So, who best to give you advice. For me, it's a hobby turned into a job and I love it. Regarding your question about website design - it is not too difficult to design your own website and I'm pretty sure that if your computer literate and confident in working with a comuter you will have no problems at all. Firstly, you need to understand the basics, you need a domain name (something like www.yourname.co.uk) which costs around £10 per year. Then you need hosting (a computer which you can put your website onto) which costs about £30-60 per year. Then you need to design and put your website live on the internet for people to see. It is important to remember that if you have broadband you may already have your own website domain and hosting. Before I go any further can you tell me a bit about what you know and what you have done on your pc before.
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sparkly3
member
Reged: 24/11/2007
Posts: 279
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Stef - Thanks so much. I have PMd you.
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hollyUK
member
Reged: 06/08/2007
Posts: 328
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Depends on the purpose of your website. Some can look very home made - which depending on it's purpose can be fine or can be a disadvantage. Also depends on how much time you have to spend on it - it can be cheaper to outsource and use your time to better advantage.
If you need something polished you may need a web designer.
My brother does web design at a very reasonable rate. That rate depends on the type of website you want, it's size and so on. I wouldn't want to sell anything on the forum, but if you want to talk to him his website including contact details are here:
http://www.yorkoak.co.uk/
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stef
member
Reged: 02/05/2008
Posts: 4
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Becky. There are a number of things needed for what you are saying and they all use different skills and different technologies. For example, to come up on Google you have to register and pay Google to appear on the search engine and this can be costly - up to £90 per year. It's also something which can end up being complicated as you have to be careful which words you use for registering your website. Stef.
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stef
member
Reged: 02/05/2008
Posts: 4
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Becky, you also talk about PM and for this you would really need a database for storing usernames and passwords and messages and so forth. This is all very complicated stuff and not the kind of thing you would even attempt from home - unless you have a degree in software engineering. Sorry to be blunt. Stef
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stef
member
Reged: 02/05/2008
Posts: 4
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If you just want to design a simple basic website then I would say YES - you can do this from home. The best place to start is with Microsoft Word. The latest versions of Word has the ability to save in HTML format and this is what the website needs to be in. Try creating a page with just the word HELLO and then go to file -> save as -> and call it test.html. Then try double clicking on it and it should open in internet explorer. See if you can do this.
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Berengaria
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 539
Loc: North West
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I run three websites, all designed and set up by little old me.
It is very easy - I use Microsoft Front Page, which is as easy to use as a word processing or DTP package, but I have learned how to troubleshoot the HTML (hypertext mark up language). It only gets complicated when / if you want to do things like ordering and secure payment, but if it's just information then anyone with an ounce or two of common sense can do it.
I have two 'fun' websites hosted free of charge using the 'free-space' I get with BTInternet and Yahoo Geocities and one for a Society that I pay to have hosted by BT Connect. The paid for one costs £5 a month plus VAT and the BT hosting service includes a range of tools to help you manage the website (and design it if you wish). The free Geocities hosting also includes basic design tools (although I've not tried them, as I use Front Page).
For the Society site and one of my 'fun' sites I have registered domain names - your domain is normally leased for two years and then you renew it. Costs vary, depending on whether you have .org.uk or .co.uk, or .net (the 'business' ones are dearer - .org are usually cheaper).
I am VERY satisfied indeed with BT Connect - they were incredibly helpful when I had to move the hosting from another company that continually let me down (I'll tell you which one of you PM me). BT Connect also throw in a limited amount of free consultancy if you require it.
I was completely self-taught - I just picked it up as I went along and it really was easy. Unless you want something very sophisticated with lots of bells and whistles, I'm sure you could do it yourself. (If you want to have a look at one my my sites, send me a PM and I'll provide a link.)
Have a go, you can do it!
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 Cats are nature's way of telling you your furniture's too nice.
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Berengaria
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 539
Loc: North West
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Quote:
Becky. There are a number of things needed for what you are saying and they all use different skills and different technologies. For example, to come up on Google you have to register and pay Google to appear on the search engine and this can be costly - up to £90 per year. It's also something which can end up being complicated as you have to be careful which words you use for registering your website. Stef.
This isn't entirely accurate - to enable your site to be 'found' by search engines you need to create a list of 'tags' in your headers. You can then 'submit' to the search engines. One of my websites regularly appears in the first page of results on Google if the person surfing uses a search term that matches the tags in my header. I have never had to pay for this. Deciding which tags to put in your headers is something that you do when designing your website - you need to think about what words or phrases someone surfing for information might use (for instance 'shoes', 'ladies shoes, 'high-heeled shoes', 'designer shoes'...) - it's a bit of an effort at the beginning, but it does work if you get it right.
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Cats are nature's way of telling you your furniture's too nice.
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sparkly3
member
Reged: 24/11/2007
Posts: 279
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Hi there
Thank you for your message. I have looked at one of the BT packages which is £5 a month which seems to give guidance on how to do it. What I am planning is something very like friends reunited and this site rolled into one. There would need to be a facility for people to contact each other through the site, and I would charge a small fee for membership. Do you think this is something I could feasibly do myself? If not, how much do you think a designer would charge to do it? I am wary of getting myself into deep water cost wise and then find I don't make any money through the site!
Any advice would be gratefully received!
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Berengaria
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 539
Loc: North West
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Hmmmmm, I think I'd suggest 'walk before you run'. From what I recall, BT Connect will provide some free consultancy as part of the package - if you need more help than that, they will do as much of the design and set-up as you want them to do, but they do charge for it. It might be worth paying them to set up the more advanced stuff (e.g. subscription collection, PMs) if you're not confident about those aspects. Basic 'info' pages are straightforward enough and with something like Front Page it's a doddle. (There are software packages like Dreamweaver, which can produce very slick stuff - it depends how far you want to go really...)
If you're thinking of going with BTConnect, why not ring them first (or request a call via their website) and talk about what you're planning to do? I found them extremely helpful (and not at all patronising). They explained everything very clearly and my problem (moving from the previous hosting service and transferring the domain name) was solved in less than 24 hours from my initial call. It's been trouble-free since I moved the website.
Another thing you could have a look at (I've just remembered this) is 'HTML Goodies to Go' http://www.htmlgoodies.com/introduction/intro/ - it's very American, but there are a lot of useful hints and tips about design and it de-mystifies some of the techie stuff. It assumes you are writing your own HTML - I don't, I use MS Front Page which is just like a word processing package, but it helps if you understand HTML scripting because you can then troubleshoot and tweak. It's not particularly difficult to learn - the tutorials on the Goodies site are excellent. (You don't need to be a programmer!)
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Cats are nature's way of telling you your furniture's too nice.
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