[quote=wigwag;2845308]IO540,
Yes i want very much to be able to update the site myself and add and remove images. The maintenance sounds expensive
so ill have to think long and hard about my exact requirements and perhaps look at using my own pc to help reduce costs and problems
There are a good handfull of scripts that are so simple to update and run its untrue. For example, there are flash scripts where you simply upload them, and to add a picture you just upload a folder into the pictures folder "the folder name is then the gallery name" and then you just upload pictures into that folder, and they get added automatically... To delete, just delete the image or the folder on the server...
These are so easy to use, and so easy to just integrate into a normal, static HTML website. There is no need to get all flash =)...
There are a good few free HTML editors for Windows, look on downloads.com, its so easy to create HTML pages these days...
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As for unimuts posts, Indian designers are in two breeds, excellent and pi** poor, just just have to be lucky to get an excellent one...
I have worked with ones that dedicate there time to your project, and your project only for around half what it would cost over here...
I have worked with ones that promise that your there only client, but in reality they are just greedy and have half a dozon or more at the same time and dont dedicate or do a propper job, and they your just left $$ down and still in-need of someone to finish the job properly...
It can cost more for someone to finish a job, than in some cases do it from scratch as each coder and designer has there own styles of programming...
It sounds like that a good CMS would suite you though, there free and very very functional, you can get just about any plugin for them, and they are usually free too...
A CMS wont cost too much to get setup if you want someone else to upload and install, even though these days a good host will have an AutoMatic install feature for these, look out for CPanel With Fantastico... Thats the hosting with around 20 or so scripts ready to install for free...
The only technical part with a CMS is getting them to look how you want, they are pretty complex templates usually, and better left to someone who knows what there doing, they could have it done in 1-2 hours depending on design...
One last thing, the website its self should only take up half of your online budget, spend the other half on marketing and S.E.O "Search Engine Optimisation"... There is no point in having a killer website if no one will ever find it unless they are a customer already...
There are now a good few web designers in the yellow pages, most of them will be local and low key and offer good rates, do a little research, a template for a cms could cost £40+, dependant on how confident the designer is with css and html, without WYSIWYG editors...
Or failing that, there are a few web designers on here, me for example =) and i am sure there are a few others that would do it too... I could do with some extra cash for my training, as could we all...
Or if i doubt when you have found a company you like the look of, but your unsure, post the quote here and get some advice or feedback...