Learning Web Design - WordPress?

[DoubleSix]

To my detriment I know nothing about web design.

I often fantasize about leaving the corporate life behind me and having a little lifestyle business in a remote part of the UK.

The common theme of any such venture is the need for a website. To that end I would like to develop some basic skills in this area that will serve me well at such point that I say "enough" and walk out of this office never to return...

So, I am told Wordpress is the benchmark if there is such a thing and it seems there are a few council funded courses near me. I'm also tempted to pop out and get a fee books today.

My question is; is this the right platform to learn about?

I dont wish to invest what little time I have learning about the wrong thing...

Also, can I realistically get to an acceptable standard through self-study and local courses or will such a website always look amateur?

[akirk]

it depends what you want to do - for some purposes wordpress is great, but it has a lot of compromises, the wordpress enthusiasts will gloss over much of it, but if you try and run more serious websites with it then you can have issues. It works on the premise of a core piece of software (wordpress) into which you plug lots of free or commercial plugins to extend its capability - in theory they all sit together happily - in practice they can upset each other and cause issues...

if you just want a system you can throw up simply and non-technically which can produce a smart looking website then wordpress can very much do the job - if you want to get into website design and construction it would be totally the wrong place to start - learn the raw code

[DoubleSix]

Thanks for the response.

So it sounds like a small lifestyle business (Small Cheese Co Ltd, Rural Photography Ltd etc etc) would be adequately served by WordPress and a bit of knowledge here could save £££ paying someone else to put a site together?

[Frimley111R]

WP is pretty awesome tbh and 20% of the world's websites are now built on it but web design is one of those areas where there's lots of demand as long as its not going to cost much. Clients will want the world for peanuts and don't forget you'll still need someone to source images (time consuming) and write all the copy.

[Hoofy]

What they said.

Also, unless you learn a bit of php, you may find many of the templates restrictive if a client settles for one design then says that they want something put somewhere that the template hasn't got an option for. I doubt a beginner's course via the council will teach php.

[cornet]

DoubleSix said:

Thanks for the response.

So it sounds like a small lifestyle business (Small Cheese Co Ltd, Rural Photography Ltd etc etc) would be adequately served by WordPress and a bit of knowledge here could save £££ paying someone else to put a site together?

If your business is photography then concentrate on that and use something like www.smugmug.com to sell them through.

If your business is making cheese then concentrate on making cheese and use something like www.etsy.co.uk to sell it through


However if your business is making websites then go learn web design

[DoubleSix]

cornet said:

DoubleSix said:

Thanks for the response.

So it sounds like a small lifestyle business (Small Cheese Co Ltd, Rural Photography Ltd etc etc) would be adequately served by WordPress and a bit of knowledge here could save £££ paying someone else to put a site together?

If your business is photography then concentrate on that and use something like www.smugmug.com to sell them through.

If your business is making cheese then concentrate on making cheese and use something like www.etsy.co.uk to sell it through


However if your business is making websites then go learn web design

Ok, I understand what you're saying.

But what if your business is a service?(Campsite, Cattery, Coffee Shop etc)

You need description, photos, tariffs, contact details and stuff, surely something like WordPress is good for this?

[ecs]

WordPress is ste. It's a a basic demonstration of how not to build an application in PHP.

[Bikerjon]

WP is good for general purpose sites but as others have said, for more specific areas look more towards a specialist provider. The huge range of plugins has made WP into a "can-do" product, but that doesn't always make it the right choice. I speak as someone who knew very little about websites a few years ago until someone here advised WP and off I went to learn it! I now have 3 of my own WP websites and manage a couple of others for customers.

[DoubleSix]

cluckcluck said:

it's not worth the learning curve. for a web dev it's straight forward to mildly challenging, to a non techie it's almost certainly going to have issues. pay to have it all set for you and then all you'll have to do is add/edit content, or use a monthly pay service something like shopify for a basic online shop with all the tech soted for you.

That would be my initial thought too. But a lot of the stuff I'm reading suggests the opposite. You don't want to be beholden to others or have to pay to make small changes etc

[Frimley111R]

Also just to add, lets assume you know how to use WP. Do you know how to design a good website? Its like knowing how a paintbrush works and then someone saying 'Paint me a nice masterpiece'.

[deckster]

Frimley111R said:

Also just to add, lets assume you know how to use WP. Do you know how to design a good website? Its like knowing how a paintbrush works and then someone saying 'Paint me a nice masterpiece'.

This, in spades.

The world is full of people who will deploy a Wordpress templates, a bit of copy, and a few photos. Most of these people are based in Bulgaria, China or similar and will undercut any UK-based template deployer by an order of magnitude or more. There's simply no point competing in that market.

As above, web design is an entirely different skillset to that. Concentrate on the second word, as the first is just a delivery mechanism. The web is basically free these days; design is what people will pay for.

[cornet]

DoubleSix said:

Ok, I understand what you're saying.

But what if your business is a service?(Campsite, Cattery, Coffee Shop etc)

You need description, photos, tariffs, contact details and stuff, surely something like WordPress is good for this?

You could use WordPress for that but unless you pay someone quite a bit of money it probably isn't going to look all that great.

Although it pains me to say it - just set up a facebook page. Plenty of businesses these days just using twitter, facebook and instagram to market their business.

Another alternative is https://www.squarespace.com if you want a nice looking website without too much work.

[Bikerjon]

Frimley111R said:

Also just to add, lets assume you know how to use WP. Do you know how to design a good website? Its like knowing how a paintbrush works and then someone saying 'Paint me a nice masterpiece'.

Ahh but if you also buy a decent template then at least someone has already made a start on that masterpiece! I do agree though, it's far too easy for WP websites to turn into boxy rectangles of content that look old before they're even finished!

[akirk]

DoubleSix said:

That would be my initial thought too. But a lot of the stuff I'm reading suggests the opposite. You don't want to be beholden to others or have to pay to make small changes etc

you might not be reading the right stuff

if you are going to run a business, factor in the cost of a website & updates / CMS etc. - if your business can't support it, evaluate whether you need it for the business, or whether you have your business model right...

A website need not be hugely expensive, but it might also be the best money you spend if it helps build your business - getting it wrong could kill your business

[Derek Smith]

I've run a dozen or so websites in my time. I've used Xara and experimented with one or two others but for the last half dozen websites I've used Serif WebPlus. It is not the cheapest but it ain't dear. When I started using it I used their templates but soon moved on to their wizards, and then started with a blank sheet.

It is by far the easiest and most stable that I've used.

I've designed websites for a couple of friends and a couple of relatives and they've been very happy with them. All four were beginners but now update and modify themselves.

It is more sophisticated than I need but it might be just what I need in a few months.

Don't believe WYSIWYG, at least not on all browsers, but WebPlus does it pretty well.

I am certain that there are other website software packages out there just as good, but if they are they are probably just as expensive, which isn't very. There's a freebie you can download to try the interface.

The saying is that content is king, and to a great extent that is true. But a professionally designed website will cross all the 'T's, dot all the 'I's and check all the links, but from what I understand from your business plan, it is a bit of a risk initially. You might want to consider pro designed sites when there's a bit of cashflow.

It has one or two little quirks, all easy to avoid, and if you read html, it can get confusing. But overall I'm well satisfied. Helpful forums where, if you tell them you don't want jargon, you don't get much of it. If you ask for comments on your site, they tell the truth as it appears to them.

Don't go by the published price for WebPlus, for any software come to that. Subscribe to their email marketing list, download the freebie and await a cheaper option, their base in about 6 weeks.

The advice to go for FB is good but multiple ways to promote your business is not a bad idea either. Some people (believe it or not) avoid social media.

I've just gone on ebay to find that WebPlus X6 is retailing for around £50. This is more than I paid for my upgrade to the current X8.

No connection with Serif.

Edited by Derek Smith on Tuesday 13th October 20:07

[GnuBee]

DoubleSix said:

To my detriment I know nothing about web design.

I often fantasize about leaving the corporate life behind me and having a little lifestyle business in a remote part of the UK.

The common theme of any such venture is the need for a website. To that end I would like to develop some basic skills in this area that will serve me well at such point that I say "enough" and walk out of this office never to return...

So, I am told Wordpress is the benchmark if there is such a thing and it seems there are a few council funded courses near me. I'm also tempted to pop out and get a fee books today.

My question is; is this the right platform to learn about?

I dont wish to invest what little time I have learning about the wrong thing...

Also, can I realistically get to an acceptable standard through self-study and local courses or will such a website always look amateur?

I'm going through this process right now - I chose a different platform (Blogger) but in essence I have the same kick-off criteria as you.

I located an appropriate template, made some customisations, used fiverr.com to source a designer for a banner and a square aspect ratio logo, had some cards printed etc - costs so far are sub £200 (I already had the domain).

If my experience is anything to go by:

1) The technical bit is easy
2) Content, content and more content is the tricky part

You need real content, not fluff, you need photos of your "stuff" not stock images (except perhaps in some areas) and you need to be pushing content regularly; How many sites have you gone to where they've paid a mate who did it for them and the last update was a year ago and you have no idea if they're still trading ? Regular content means people have a reason to come back and you have a reason to share updates

Social Media is the next part (and the one I'm currently engaged in sorting out); Facebook page, Google+, pInterest etc. Twitter is ok BUT it's even more important to think about content and how regularly you're going to be providing anything. No point subscribing to your feed if all you say is "Yay, twitter working" and that's it for 12 months

The place to spend your time is on your product/service first and then on content. Worrying about the tehnicalities of the delivery medium is not crucial especially as this stage

Edited by GnuBee on Wednesday 14th October 10:59

[andy-xr]

I'm not quite following this, I've not had much sleep though

Is the question: Can I retire from my desk flying and instead I'll code wordpress sites for people

or is it: Can I use Wordpress to power my sites of 'stuff' and maintain the website myself

If option 1, forget it, every man and his dog is doing that, and it's 10% of their working day. WP is easy enough to get to grips with for the average spacker, anything more indepth often goes through a security team and a heap of devs.

If option 2, sure - good luck!

[GnuBee]

I read it as Option 2.

[DoubleSix]

Option 2 - I'm not a deluded div who thinks he can repackage basic websites and make a killing

Just thought some basic WP skills would serve me well.