Website/Wepage Advice
Discussion
Hello all, Im starting a business, very slowly and only in my spare time at the mo, Ive got some cards made up which I will hand out when I feel the need to, I could do with a webpage/wesite, has anyone got any advice on how to go about it, I could do with it either being free or cheap, but able to go better if things work out at a later date,
Any advice would be much appreciated
cheers ian
Ian,
Free/cheap looks free/cheap.
Would you buy from a free/cheap looking site?
Save some pennies, get a designer in, and do it properly.
Or alternatively do it free/cheap, and look like a one man band selling in their spare time from their garage.
It's the front of your company, so needs to look the best it possibly can. You don't see good high street shops with tatty displays, so there's no reason a website should be any different.
Free/cheap looks free/cheap.
Would you buy from a free/cheap looking site?
Save some pennies, get a designer in, and do it properly.
Or alternatively do it free/cheap, and look like a one man band selling in their spare time from their garage.
It's the front of your company, so needs to look the best it possibly can. You don't see good high street shops with tatty displays, so there's no reason a website should be any different.
iantype-r said:
Hello all, Im starting a business, very slowly and only in my spare time at the mo, Ive got some cards made up which I will hand out when I feel the need to, I could do with a webpage/wesite, has anyone got any advice on how to go about it, I could do with it either being free or cheap, but able to go better if things work out at a later date,
Any advice would be much appreciated
cheers ian
Ian,Any advice would be much appreciated
cheers ian
Im also currently setting up my own business at the moment and working away on far too many website drafts myself - as said above if you want it to look professional get it done professionally..
However if you just want a few basic, presentatble pages putting together and have a clear idea what you require I can make you a very rough template, for free. (You will need to pay for the hosting though see fasthosts for typical costs).
It gives me more practice and saves me looking at mine...
No guarantes on quality mind and it'll only be done in and amongst my current project, but the offers there if you like!
All the best with the business,
Sam
Ill just repeat the general consensus of previous posters. Ivw built plenty of small websites over the last few years and if im looking up a companies website and it looks amateurish and terrible it puts me off more than if they didnt have a website at all. Get someone who knows what they are doing to do it for you. Nice to look at and more importantly straight to the point if someone browsing your site is confused by it or cant find what they are looking for very quickly they get bored and close it.
You can get cheap and have it look good, depending on what you class as cheap of course.
You can have a professional site up for £500-£1K; less if you're willing to wait longer.
First get a design done -
Google "99designs"
Give as good a brief to your business/market as you can, you'll get some cracking designs.
Then google "JoomLancers"
Give them the design & your copy.
Job done.
Don't forget hosting, I don't use them, but a PHer runs Register1 advertised on here and has quite some following.
You can have a professional site up for £500-£1K; less if you're willing to wait longer.
First get a design done -
Google "99designs"
Give as good a brief to your business/market as you can, you'll get some cracking designs.
Then google "JoomLancers"
Give them the design & your copy.
Job done.
Don't forget hosting, I don't use them, but a PHer runs Register1 advertised on here and has quite some following.
www.websitegrants.com - maybe worth a look for you.
ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
Edited by Jayyy on Saturday 2nd May 16:41
We use Web Squared - www.websq.co.uk for all of our work, although they only do the designs for us, we actually build the sites.
Jayyy said:
www.websitegrants.com - maybe worth a look for you.
ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
£35 x 36 months = £1260ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
Edited by Jayyy on Saturday 2nd May 16:41
I would NOT call that building the site for free...
Jack Blag said:
Jayyy said:
www.websitegrants.com - maybe worth a look for you.
ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
£35 x 36 months = £1260ETA - these build the site for free and you pay £35/month hosting tied in for 3 years i believe - would be a way to keep your start up costs down
Edited by Jayyy on Saturday 2nd May 16:41
I would NOT call that building the site for free...
The OP is going to have to pay somebody to host it even if it is only £10/month, and from his original post I get the impression he doesn't want to lay a couple of thousand out upfront.
The website has got to be paid for somewhere along the line, my suggestion negates the need for cash upfront...
True, but for a basic site of a few pages £10/month is a bit overkill still. £50 year maybe, but for someone starting out they are unlikely need the support/level of expertise that £10/month should bring with it. If they are indeed saying the site is free, but the hosting is £35/month then that's a little misleading - but I guess they do that to avoid issues around providing credit without a credit license.
LivinLaVidaLotus said:
True, but for a basic site of a few pages £10/month is a bit overkill still. £50 year maybe, but for someone starting out they are unlikely need the support/level of expertise that £10/month should bring with it. If they are indeed saying the site is free, but the hosting is £35/month then that's a little misleading - but I guess they do that to avoid issues around providing credit without a credit license.
As i said above, it's just a suggestion to get the OP a reasonable website without requiring capital upfront. Agreed it won't suit everybody, however i imagine to get a website similar to the ones they offer, or one with any degree of quality at all it will cost getting on for £1260, if not more, no matter how it's paid for.
I admit i know nothing about websites though.
Jayyy said:
Agreed it won't suit everybody, however i imagine to get a website similar to the ones they offer, or one with any degree of quality at all it will cost getting on for £1260, if not more, no matter how it's paid for.
For a small site you could come in at less then that, with a bespoke design - it would appear that for your £1260 you get a choice of template based site design. Some of them look nice, but generally speaking you can spot a mile off that they are a template and that never looks good to potential customers.Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff