How hard is it to make own website
Discussion
hi
been looking for a web designer for a while now but not had much luck yet for a number of
reasons. Need a professional, modern looking site. about 5 page static.
allot of people are saying i should try and do it myself, wouldn't no where to start.
Anyone got any advice. Use photoshop allot, but that's about it.
thanks for any advice.
tom
been looking for a web designer for a while now but not had much luck yet for a number of
reasons. Need a professional, modern looking site. about 5 page static.
allot of people are saying i should try and do it myself, wouldn't no where to start.
Anyone got any advice. Use photoshop allot, but that's about it.
thanks for any advice.
tom
I built my own with MS Frontpage, because the program was there as part of Office. It's not too difficult although I do keep thinking I ought to update it and make a better job of it! Rich... www.greenbear.org.uk
Hmm... there will be a few tutorials knocking about, but once you have got a good layout in Photoshop should be easy enough from there 
I am looking for a new project
Self-advertisment over.
If you can get something good in Photoshop and get stuck you can email me/post and one of us will give thee a hand.
I am looking for a new project
Self-advertisment over.
If you can get something good in Photoshop and get stuck you can email me/post and one of us will give thee a hand.
richb said:Trouble with FrontPage is that the websites it creates are instantly recognisable as FrontPage ones. Having said that, yours looks far less so than many I've seen.
I built my own with MS Frontpage
I threw my Corrado site together with FrontPage several years ago and it really looks like it too. In contrast I did my company site with Dreamweaver MX and a bought-in template. The difference is quite marked.
richb said:
I built my own with MS Frontpage
The real trouble with Frontpage, and this is in no way a pop at rich's site specifically, is that when you validate the HTML it spits out, you get this:
html validator said:
line 1 column 1 - Warning: missing <!DOCTYPE> declaration
line 41 column 27 - Error: <o: p> is not recognized!
line 41 column 27 - Warning: discarding unexpected <o: p>
line 42 column 3 - Warning: discarding unexpected </o: p>
line 43 column 61 - Error: <o: p> is not recognized!
line 43 column 61 - Warning: discarding unexpected <o: p>
line 44 column 3 - Warning: discarding unexpected </o: p>
line 47 column 157 - Error: <o: p> is not recognized!
line 47 column 157 - Warning: discarding unexpected <o: p>
line 48 column 3 - Warning: discarding unexpected </o: p>
line 52 column 210 - Warning: discarding unexpected </o: p>
line 110 column 10 - Warning: missing </noscript>
line 77 column 151 - Warning: <script> inserting "type" attribute
line 87 column 16 - Warning: <script> inserting "type" attribute
line 89 column 16 - Warning: <a> proprietary attribute "language"
line 89 column 360 - Warning: <script> inserting "type" attribute
line 91 column 16 - Warning: <a> proprietary attribute "language"
line 91 column 333 - Warning: <script> inserting "type" attribute
line 93 column 16 - Warning: <a> proprietary attribute "language"
line 93 column 351 - Warning: <script> inserting "type" attribute
line 95 column 16 - Warning: <a> proprietary attribute "language"
line 97 column 1 - Warning: <img> proprietary attribute "v:shapes"
line 40 column 73 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 43 column 10 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 47 column 106 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 52 column 159 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 52 column 144 - Warning: trimming empty <font>
line 110 column 10 - Warning: trimming empty <noscript>
3 errors / 25 warnings
The markup is piss poor to say the least, and uses a lot of non-HTML, IE-only stuff.
Handcoded with notepad for me!
Edited to clean up some random smileys!
>> Edited by miniman on Wednesday 15th February 07:17
How long is a piece of string?
How hard is it to make a web-site?
Not very - if you use a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editor. If you're good with Photoshop this will present no problems. The issue is, as Jon says, that it will look very like everyone else's website made with that editor. Frontpage is utter, total crap - but all of them suffer from this to some degree.
If you want something that looks unique and professional you will need to design all the graphics yourself (Photoshop skills an advantage), design the layout yourself (from scratch - art/lettering skills useful here) and the "code up" the HTML yourself to match it (IT skills useful here).
If you want the site to interact with the user you'll need JavaScript code to achieve it (script programming skills required) - but you said a "static" site would do so since you won't be generating pages from a database on the back-end you shouldn't need SQL Database skills or server programming skills.
To do something simple, given time, any talented amateur should be able to make a "web-site". So its not "hard". Web-sites that incorporate advanced functionality - and it can get advanced very quickly - are monumentally hard to create and are done only by teams of professionals with years of experience, loads of skill and talent over a wide range of disciplines and man-years of effort at their disposal.
Answer the question?
How hard is it to make a web-site?
Not very - if you use a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editor. If you're good with Photoshop this will present no problems. The issue is, as Jon says, that it will look very like everyone else's website made with that editor. Frontpage is utter, total crap - but all of them suffer from this to some degree.
If you want something that looks unique and professional you will need to design all the graphics yourself (Photoshop skills an advantage), design the layout yourself (from scratch - art/lettering skills useful here) and the "code up" the HTML yourself to match it (IT skills useful here).
If you want the site to interact with the user you'll need JavaScript code to achieve it (script programming skills required) - but you said a "static" site would do so since you won't be generating pages from a database on the back-end you shouldn't need SQL Database skills or server programming skills.
To do something simple, given time, any talented amateur should be able to make a "web-site". So its not "hard". Web-sites that incorporate advanced functionality - and it can get advanced very quickly - are monumentally hard to create and are done only by teams of professionals with years of experience, loads of skill and talent over a wide range of disciplines and man-years of effort at their disposal.
Answer the question?
making a website is "a piece of piss".
Making a modern, stylish, and most importantly professional looking website that validates correctly, looks the same in every browser, and is efficient, easy to navigate, easy to use, and advertises your business in the best possible way?
A bit harder. depends if your digital art business is your wage earner or if it's your on the side thing.
We for instance could do you a site, but it wouldn't be "cheap" (subjectively rather than objectively) which probably eats up any profit you are likely to make for a while unless you are turning over thousands a month.
I've mailed you through your profile some examples of our work, if you are interested in a quote let me know the specs of the job (eg what you want, how many pages, etc) and we'll look into it...
Making a modern, stylish, and most importantly professional looking website that validates correctly, looks the same in every browser, and is efficient, easy to navigate, easy to use, and advertises your business in the best possible way?
A bit harder. depends if your digital art business is your wage earner or if it's your on the side thing.
We for instance could do you a site, but it wouldn't be "cheap" (subjectively rather than objectively) which probably eats up any profit you are likely to make for a while unless you are turning over thousands a month.
I've mailed you through your profile some examples of our work, if you are interested in a quote let me know the specs of the job (eg what you want, how many pages, etc) and we'll look into it...
I agree that it's easy to do a 'home' web page quite quickly in one of the WYSIWYG web apps (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, iWeb, etc) - e.g. my M5 page done in iWeb in less than 2 hours
It's not so easy when you've got to worry about client impressions and money from it.
I've worked for companies who've got over a million separate pages on their intranet - and almost every page looks different - even though they are all [supposedly] designed to the company's technical & design specs.
They get another company to do their client-facing sites though.
It's not so easy when you've got to worry about client impressions and money from it.
I've worked for companies who've got over a million separate pages on their intranet - and almost every page looks different - even though they are all [supposedly] designed to the company's technical & design specs.
They get another company to do their client-facing sites though.
Can I ask what is considered to be a sensible charge for having a website done. I got a quote this week for doing a 4 page static website (no databases, no animation etc) - really simple, with all images and content supplied by me. I was quoted £800.
This seems steep to me at £200 per page effectively. So what is the going rate for this?
This seems steep to me at £200 per page effectively. So what is the going rate for this?
TUS 373 said:
Can I ask what is considered to be a sensible charge for having a website done. I got a quote this week for doing a 4 page static website (no databases, no animation etc) - really simple, with all images and content supplied by me. I was quoted £800.
This seems steep to me at £200 per page effectively. So what is the going rate for this?
To my mind for a small business wanting a 4 page site £800 is a bit too much. If all images and content was supplied by you we'd do a four pager for closer to £300 depending on the specifics
However that said, a company who does this on a large scale potentially has much higher overheads than we do, so that would account for (some of) the difference.
Realistically, based on quality you shouldn't be looking to pay any more than this lot charge: www.vengavenga.com/ (not endorsing them, just giving an example of competetive pricing for a websites for a small business)
Our pricing is broadly in line with this. If you want details email me, I wont advertise here as that's not fair on Ted unless I start paying him money!
Anyway I've hijacked this thread enough now, I'm off...
JonRB said:That's probabaly because I blundered around not knowing what I was doing!
I built my own with MS Frontpage
miniman said:Trouble is I wouldn't have a clue how to hand code it yet I feel that I am missing something with Frontpage because everyone says it's crap!
I built my own with MS Frontpage
The real trouble with Frontpage, and this is in no way a pop at rich's site specifically, is that when you validate the HTML it spits out, you get this:html validator said:The markup is piss poor to say the least, and uses a lot of non-HTML, IE-only stuff.
line 1 column 1 - Warning: missing <!DOCTYPE> declaration
line 41 column 27 - Error: etc. etc...
3 errors / 25 warnings
Handcoded with notepad for me!
richb said:
I built my own with MS Frontpage
The real trouble with Frontpage, and this is in no way a pop at rich's site specifically, is that when you validate the HTML it spits out, you get this:html validator said:The markup is piss poor to say the least, and uses a lot of non-HTML, IE-only stuff.
line 1 column 1 - Warning: missing <!DOCTYPE> declaration
line 41 column 27 - Error: etc. etc...
3 errors / 25 warnings
Handcoded with notepad for me!
That could be related to it's Microsoft roots
Once you have seen a Frontpage template you can spot it instantly on a website, and know they have used Fpage.
You can smarten things up in frontpage after having used a wizard.. I sped 30mins trying to improve www.avenuehousesurgery.co.uk and just my modifying the buttons it wasn't really recognisable as Frontpage.
Another thing I have noticed with Fpage, is that the formatting of text etc always seems to be wrong? Especially on the page above, but that is down to the current 'designer'
Dave.
>> Edited by UncleDave on Wednesday 15th February 16:19
richb said:
Trouble is I wouldn't have a clue how to hand code it yet I feel that I am missing something with Frontpage because everyone says it's crap!
I didn't have a clue either until I gave it a try. As Plotloss said, you just need a decent CSS reference site and a decent XHTML reference site. Try www.alistapart.com for great CSS ideas, www.w3schools.com for CSS and XHTML reference. Then just find a site that uses valid code (mine, for example, at www.binaryimage.net) and steal the code!
UncleDave said:Sorry, but I think you need to spend more than 30mins. It's glaring obvious it's FrontPage - the buttons and the counter are a dead giveaway, as are the navbars.
I sped 30mins trying to improve www.avenuehousesurgery.co.uk and just my modifying the buttons it wasn't really recognisable as Frontpage.
I know I can't talk, what with www.corrado-vr6.info being worse, but at least I'm not claiming it is anything other than a FrontPage throw-together.
JonRB said:
I sped 30mins trying to improve www.avenuehousesurgery.co.uk and just my modifying the buttons it wasn't really recognisable as Frontpage.
I know I can't talk, what with www.corrado-vr6.info being worse, but at least I'm not claiming it is anything other than a FrontPage throw-together.
Not claiming that myself at all, to be fair it is slight, a wee bit less obviously frontpage-made... the counter was removed when I changed it so someone must have put it back
and the navbars are a giveaway but didn't bother removing them.. was a very quick 'facelift' from the original frontpage template that would instantly be recognisable by almost anyone. The biggest giveaway would be looking at the source code in the head
Dave.
Classic example:
>> Edited by miniman on Wednesday 15th February 21:06
frontpage said:
[a href="repeat_prescriptions.htm" language="JavaScript" onmouseover="if(MSFPhover) document['MSFPnav2'].src=MSFPnav2h.src" onmouseout="if(MSFPhover) document['MSFPnav2'].src=MSFPnav2n.src"][img src="_derived/repeat_prescriptions.htm_cmp_copy-of-blank110_hbtn.gif" width="140" height="40" border="0" alt="Repeat Prescriptions" align="middle" name="MSFPnav2"][/a]
css said:
a:hover {background: url("../img/btnover.gif" ) no-repeat; }
>> Edited by miniman on Wednesday 15th February 21:06
Ive made my own website using Piczo. Its really a picture sharing site. But I think its does my website quite well.
Would be nice to know peoples views on my website. - What you like, what you dont etc. Just done it myself to promote my racing career.
Many thanks
Amanda Black
www.amandablack.co.nr
Would be nice to know peoples views on my website. - What you like, what you dont etc. Just done it myself to promote my racing career.
Many thanks
Amanda Black
www.amandablack.co.nr
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