Building a website
 

I need to get a website up and running to start my business, does anyone know of any easy to use sites to do this, i need a website that i can maintain and accept payments, i have thought of advertising for a student in this field but do not know where to start.

Re: Building a website
 

There have been a few who have done it with little or no experience. Mrs Jackaroo for one. http://www.ukshoppingworldwide.com/ Either pm her or await further instruction from someone else.

Good luck with the business.

Re: Building a website
 

Try www.mdwebhosting.com.au They are pretty decently priced and hava a webpage builder included with their packages (you just need to email them to set it up once you have registered and got your login details)

Their servers are pretty good too, I've never had my sites offline due to them having a problem (unlike another company I used to use that was down more than it was up :mad:)

Re: Building a website
 

You can get OScommerce for free but there will be a little learning curve.

If you get a host like say webcity then they have an administrators front end called cpanel which lets you easily add things like oscommerce or forums or whatever, then its a case of setting up the site but the oscommerce forums have loads of info.

There are others also but that seems to be the most common.

There is also paid for software like actinic which is great for commerce websites and quite easy to work out but still has lots of bugs in the software. Many developers will use things like Actinic to set up your website and charge you for the privilege.

I suggest you get the free trial and check out if its easy enough for you to do but you'll need to select your host carefully to make sure they allow the scripts in software such as this.

If you start trying to learn how to code a website in something like dreamweaver then imho it is too long a learning curve especially when you have all the other aspects in your business to think about.

Re: Building a website
 

I've heard of people using http://www.mrsite.co.uk but mostly in the UK. It lets you develop your own site and can have a shopping cart etc

You can buy it online so it is delivered via e-mail instead of post.

AL

Re: Building a website
 

I'd recommend a company called Inhale Technologies (www.inhale.com.au). They specialise in this sort of stuff and do not charge too much.

A professional looking website is important if you are selling stuff (rather than just having a presence) and I wouldn't be doing it myself.

Re: Building a website
 

you could always go on www.getacoder.com

We outsource some of our coding to a few guys on there.

Personally, im a dreamweaver man.

Albeit we use about 3 or 4 diff packages.

1st off buy a domain, aussie domains, try www.domaincentral.com.au
2nd find a host. If your looking at purely the aussie market, then get a company with aussie servers, this is harder than it sounds. As a lot of them, use american datacentres.
A good bet is www.tpinternet.com or look under google for TwoPlums
3rd if you wanna sell over encrypted connection you will need a https secure connection.
4th most sites use Fantastico ( server side ) and you should be able to use, some of the built in free php and mysql stuff in Cpanel.

5th when all set up and running, get yourselfd listed on http://www.dmoz.org/ the open directory project, the power behind google :) well sorta ;)

As a beginner you will need:

well my personal recommendations.

Editplus
Smartfty ( or cuteftp )
Adobe Photoshop

anything you create ( html and htm etc pages ) can be viewed in internet explorer locally before you upload to the internet, php works slightly differently.

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0....blish&tag=srch

Re: Building a website
 

I've been using Mr Site for about 3 years, very simple to use and you can get a .com address instead of a .co.uk iif you prefer that :)

Re: Building a website
 

I have just had a website built, we too accept payments online via paypal. Jason, the guy we dealt with also fully understands the way google rates websites and in less than 2 months we are number one in google for accommodation on the mornington peninsula (accommodation is one of the hardest catagories to crack).

Have a look at my website and you will find the link to Jaydean Business Services at the bottom of my home page

Good Luck, Andy

Re: Building a website
 

I've tried a few, but I really like this one.....

http://www.lmsoft.com/english/mainmenu.html

.... web creator 4 pro, it's pretty simple with minimal or no html knowledge. Here is our website that we built with it, have fun!:)

http://www.breezephotos.com.au

Re: Building a website
 

Was this very expensive? We are looking for a non payment taking website to launch a Pony Stud over here. Drove through Tyabb today, very nice tack shop!

Re: Building a website
 

You should be able to get a simple 'brochure' site of four or five pages for about $300 including domain name registration and server space.

Re: Building a website
 

Our website is rather complex because of what it is able to do, having said that we believe it was money well spent. Feel free to give us a ring or call in if you are near to Tyabb or just ring Jason

Andy

Re: Building a website
 

Really? I've no idea how long it takes to do a website, but say it takes 1 hour per page. Who's going to do anything decent for $300 for 4 or 5 pages?

Re: Building a website
 

Brochure sites are incredibly easy to put together. The missus and I have been in the web business since 1992 and have made more than a few - back in the days of Scoot in the UK, we were producing about 6 sites a day on our own. They weren't things of beauty or great design - but they don't need to be, they're the online equivalent of a flyer in the newsagents window.

Generally speaking you simply repurpose existing artwork - a brochure, an advert or whatever. They usually require nothing but CSS and HTML code. The fact that some companies charge businesses thousands of dollars for such sites is indicative of the fact that the web design business still have a lot of growing up to do. Of course if the business wants bells and whistles - a database driven site, some sort of custom scripting, SEO work or whatever, then the fee rises, but for simple business card sites, $300 is entirely reasonable. I could make a good one in an hour flat and $300 an hour is not a bad pay rate. :)

Re: Building a website
 

Good answer :-)

Re: Building a website
 

i'm a web/graphic design type chappy, happy to put together brochure sites for not very much at all! Plus database driven etc. PM me if you'd like to discuss! All goes towards the emigration fund!

Re: Building a website
 

I've used MS FrontPage for a few years, very easy to pick up

Tartankoala site

Re: Building a website
 

Nice simple, well though out site. Good work. :thumbup:

Re: Building a website
 

Frontpage is simple to use but generates horrible code. Dreamweaver is great for non-coders and I have recently downloaded Nvu (http://nvudev.com) but not had a chance to use it.

For personal sites these WYSIWYG editors are acceptable but for business, I'd recommend getting a pro to do it. There's nothing worse for business than a cheap and nasty, unprofessional website.

Contrary to popular belief, there's a lot more to good web design than adding your own content to a free template, uploading it and submitting it to DMOZ.

As previously mentioned, an alternative to getting a local business to do your site, get on to one of the many freelancer sites such as Elance, where web designers bid for you work. Alternatively send me a PM.

Re: Building a website
 

Website developer here :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Do it as a hobby (yes I am a geek i know, i am taking medication and they tell me I will still live a full life) to give some spare cash around.

Anyone needs any web work doing drop me or 'Tiggs+Graz' a PM.

Re: Building a website
 

Some weeks ago, I also promoted NVu ( Nview ) Ive had it lurking ona h/d for about 18 months

Its quite good, best bit being preview mode on php pages. Which is superior to DW and MSFP.

Still cant beat direct ftp / edit plus to do it on the fly.

Ste

Re: Building a website
 

Thanks Pen

Yep when I put that site together I had no experience at all - built it using an online website builder.

Now that I'm a full time student though thankfully I've got a bit more of a clue lol - I'll PM OP :)

Re: Building a website
 

You may be interested in this thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...46#post5727346

Be quick though because I'll be up and running as a 'charging' business soon! :)