Building a Website - any ideas where to start?
 

Hello, As some of you are aware I make Graphics and I would like to create my own website to offer what I can already do and much more. I currently do not advertise as I do very well by "word or mouth". Anyway I think its time to step it up a gear and start marketing and advertsing.

Any suggestion on who to use to host my web or what ever it is i need to get going wold be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

Does your ISP not provide you with webspace that you can use perchance?

As regards to actual web design etc...... this has changed dramatically over the past few years and no longer should a website just be seen as an information page, however professional the design may look. If you want to get the most out of a site you need to embrace a number of marketing models, which includes social networking etc. No point having a web presence, if you limit yourself by way of traffic / customers etc. :)

Going back to web servers..... if you want to get serious about your web presence you need to find a provider that has the correct infrastructure, like php & mysql etc compliancy. You can pay anywhere from £1 a month to £5 a month for starters.

Plusnet have their own server payment service here -> Pay As You Host

Thanks for all this, I think I get you. So basically no matter how appealing the website is, its the backing behind it that counts such as advertising the website elsewhere. I would have a van advertising such, plus im always online so no harm in joining many social networks. I basically want to be able to offer a full click and add to basket and checkout process. Also would like to keep adding to the website at any given time too if this is possible. As you can see i know nothing in this field :wonder:

Rob

Rob,
OK.... you're not really in the game of development then.

If you google "WEB 2.0 templates" that will give you some idea to how you should really be looking to go (layout wise), with regards to web design. From what you are saying you maybe better placed to get someone with the skills to develop a site for you.

To do it right you need to take advantage of google page ranking and solid SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Your page code has to be clean, else you will suffer optimisations with Google, as it will say "Well, if he can't be bothered to deliver decent code, I can't be bothered rank him effectively". A good developer will also look at making pages cross browser compatible..... it's amazing how many so called professionals develop sites that don't format correctly in older, but well used, versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox etc.

I suspect you maybe blown by all of this, but it really depends how effective you want your web presence to be and what you really want out of it.

If you literally just want a holding page to show some service information, that can be done quite easily. However, I would suggest the impact/exposure and use of that will be limited.

How technically minded are you and are you willing to learn and have a go.... or do you want to give the task to someone else?

I needed a quick holding page site and used google sites assigned our domain using cName redirect and its all done for now, cant you use something like Joomla? SEO, code and plugins are all done and mostly free?

Ive been playing with computers for as many years as i can remember. I now use a PC in everyday work, and this is web based (jde). I also use two pc's for making graphics. Both use Signlab Pro and i desgin a lot of graphics myself, so im relatively technically minded. Im prepared to give anything a shot and i generally grasp things very quickly. As for building a webpage/site i have no idea at all. Im sure i can research first to get some ideas, I will have a look at 'WEB 2.0 templates' as you stated below first off.

Thanks for your help much appreciated.

Rob

Rob,
If you want to have a play with something that is easy to set-up for a straight forward holding page, to a professional blogging site but is capable of being fully customised to produce a fully blown eCommerce site etc, then look at WordPress. It installs in minutes to a webserver space and is simply awesome imo. It requires PHP, Wordpress extensions and MySQL, but most server packages will include these.


This is free, but don't let it put you off. This application is open source and so much you can download for it to customise and it is constantly being developed (it was produced by the VBulletin who's software power this and so many other forums). I am currently building a new site and am using a combination of WordPress and other things to produce the final result. Most things are already done or available to "plugin", so it saves a lot of time coding. As a beginner it means you don't have to know how to use PHP code, so would be ideal for you. Obviously the more you want to customise, the more you get involved in actual coding...... but you would not have to delve this far unless you really wanted to.

Google is your friend and there are loads of resource sites on the net about how to use WordPress for beginners. :)

If you get stuck I can recommend some design software that works with WordPress. You would need to pay for this, but at around £85 it is well worth it if you are starting out. With this you just drag and drop and change options to your hearts content and then upload the template & code to your site.

Have fun!