Building and getting a website up and running - help please

[cargosales]

Building and getting a website up and running - help please

Help please any web-tech-savvy people! I've been through all the stickys and FAQs and can't find the answer to my question. If I've missed something then apologies and I'd be grateful for a good steer!

I recently started my own business with a couple of clients in the bag and was planning to have a website built and put online etc by a local company which came up with a very reasonable proposal. Nothing flash at all - just a few pages of text/graphics explaining what I do, the benefits of my services and how to get in touch etc. I'm pretty good at using a PC but I know nothing about websites so was happy to pay someone to do it for me. At least that was the plan ..

.. until my main client defaulted on his invoices after just a couple of months, leaving me in serious doo doo :{

So, a website has become even more of a priority now, except that I'm now going to have to do it myself and for next to no cost. And I really just don't know where to start :confused: + £0 = :{ x2

I've looked around but frankly I'm completely bewildered by the huge number and variety of offerings out there and I have no idea which are good, bad or downright ugly. There seem to be 'all inclusive' packages with x amount of webspace/bandwidth, 'hosting only' (but how do I then get a site online?) etc etc etc

Could some kind soul please point me in the right direction? As I say, I don't need anything flash at all, nor a site which automatically appears on the front page of a google search. Just something which prospective clients can look at for more information about what I can offer them. The only proviso unfortunately is that in the short term it has to be ultra low cost.

Thanks in advance for any advice that anyone can offer :ok:

CS

[seacue]

Years ago I bought copy of SAMS Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours when I wanted to create a web page. I found it quite straightforward to do a simple page. By simple I include pictures, calling additional pages, other sites, etc, etc. I suppose there is now a newer edition.

Most browsers allow one to look at the source coding of any web page ... but pages created by applications from the big guys are so verbose and convoluted that you probably won't be able to figure out what's going on.

As others have said (below), paying for a professional job may be cheaper if your time is worth anything.

Be sure to test your web page with a number of different browsers. Some authoring software sometimes produces non-standard web pages that don't work with major browsers such as Firefox and Opera.

Last two paragraphs added 4 June.

[Keygrip]

Friends of mine downloaded a shell programme called "Mambo" (I forget the name of it's bigger sister).

The Mambo web site that they loaded was a self teach tool - and allows itself to be edited to show what you want instead of the training material that they published.

Took me a bit of study with a pair of eyes looking over my shoulder but it's fairly easy once your "into it".

It also speaks English - you type it in and it converts all to html for you as appropriate.

It even taught me how to *EDIT* html (I still wouldn't want to *write* it - though I maybe could by now from the teaching it gave me).

I'm not trying to plug the site, but the end result (a work in progress) is at www.check-flight.com (http://www.check-flight.com)

[Avtrician]

A fairly easy web editor that I have just discovered is embedded in the SeaMonkey web browser, (Accessed through the window/composer selections on the tool bar at the top of the page. It does a WYSIWYG page designer as well as having HTML editor and a preview pane.

A fairly simple website that I maintain is here (http://ulysses-wa.org/joondalup)

Is that the sort of thing that you are after.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Really, a template-based brochure-ware site built for you for a few hundred quid will be your best bet. You will spend vastly more than that in management time failing to do it yourself (or, at best, doing a worse job) - the training courses and textbooks and software will cost you more than that!

If you're short of business you should be spending your time looking for business, not faffing around trying and failing to build your own web site - that's just a displacement activity for someone who doesn't like the rejection that comes with cold calling.

[frostbite]

There are usually good selections of shell/template websites available on eBay and eBid for not very much outlay.

[BRL]

Hi There. I use Incomedia Website X5 Evolution for the website and use Purple Paw Internet Solutions to host my site. Website X5 (http://www.websitex5.com/en/index.html)

The website x5 is so easy, five steps and you have an almost instant website. They have built in Templates you can use. It is easy to use, simply drag and drop pics in and add text, anything you like really, it is so easy to use, you should have a web page up within minutes of running the programme.

For the hosting I use Purple Paw. I have their Business package and that is £49 for a year with a free .co.uk web address. Business Package (http://www.purple-paw.com/business.htm)

To get it all online when you have created all your pages you simply click on 'Upload' in website x5 then tell it where to upload to. All the info you need you will get from the Purple Paw people, they tell you what and where to upload (they send you an email when you sign up) it is simple!

So far I have about 30 pages of photographs and I am always adding more.

If you want to get online with your site quickly I reckon you can have a basic one up and running in about an hour for less than £100. You just simply build on it from here, it is so easy, even I can do it!!!! :)

I will PM you my website if you want to have a look.

[tired-flyboy]

If you want to 'learn' how to create a site there are numerous books / websites etc...so many in fact that you will spend most looking and not doing anything.

A good place to start is here at w3Schools (http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp).

you do not need any expensive programs to do this (although it does help.), you can get away with using wordpad / notepad / textmate (found in the 'ole start on your computer).

you can even use MS paint for your graphics (ok they won't be great but there you go)

next a web host....again so many to choose from offering a plethora of options. This will probably cause you the biggest headache.

or you could go into some high street book stores and buy Mr Site, Takeaway Website (in a box) seen here (http://www.mrsite.co.uk/).

Anyways, like BRL i can PM you some sites that i have created - nothing fancy, just simple and clear.

Good luck

[cargosales]

Thank you all for the replies.

BRL: Thank you. Your suggestions are exactly the sort of specific recommendations I was hoping for. I haven't got the time / inclination to learn advanced HTML so a package which 'does the thinking for me' seems just right :ok:

Unless anyone can suggest something better?

Thanks too to those who have posted/memo'd with advice, suggestions and kind offers of help - they are all very much appreciated and I'll spend a day or two mulling things over before committing to a course of action.

Regards to all

CS

[kenhughes]

I never thought I would find myself recommending this, but if you want a cheap and cheerful web page, design it in Microsoft Word and save it as an HTML file. Then upload the page(s) to your host. Save the Home Page as index.htm (or .html) and link to the rest from your home page.

It makes big, clumsy, files, but they work for simple text and graphic pages like you want.

[simountain1]

Speaking as a webdesigner I have seen may websites designed by business owners with alsorts of editors and tools and you can tell it has been done with these. The best way is to learn it yourself or employ someone to do it for you.
The basic tools you really need is a nice little HTML editor called HTML Kit, google it (it wont do everything for you, you still need to learn HTML) Photoshop or a good image ediotor (A good one free is THE GIMP, again google it) for image resizing and nice logo creation, a web host to host your site for you and a decent FTP client to upload your site to your webspace.
Hope this helps, any further questions id be happy to help with

[seacue]

Let me reiterate that you need to test your web pages with a number of different browsers.

[plinkton]

simountain1 Speaking as a webdesigner I have seen may websites designed by business owners with alsorts of editors and tools and you can tell it has been done with these.

Correct

seacue Let me reiterate that you need to test your web pages with a number of different browsers.

Also correct

To be honest, if you can't get it to work correctly and it looks a shambles it will reflect on your business.

Have a look at http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ for some excellent advice.

[rossym]

Friends of mine downloaded a shell programme called "Mambo" (I forget the name of it's bigger sister).I think you might be talking about Joomla - not sure if I can post the link here, so google it ;)

I can recommend it; nice, simple, easy to use interface. There are plenty of free themes on the internet that you can use, and you will be up and running in no time with a simple site. However, make sure you read the quick start guide, or the manuals, as you could become quite stuck - you need to know the structure of how everything works in Joomla in order to create a site easily. There is also a large amount of tutorials and guides on the internet if you get stuck at all.

Best of luck with your site! :)

[Temet_Nosce]

Have you seen this (http://pages.google.com)?

I have to admit I only played with it once, but I like it!!

Cheers!

[amanoffewwords]

You could also look at 1&1 - domain, hosting and website-building all in one place.

[frostbite]

In my experience, beware of 1&1!

Declined their renewal offer, went on their website and closed account, next thing debt collectors and solicitors letters. All for a fiver!

[Golden Ticket]

I agree frostbite. I closed my account with 1&1 last year records weren't updated so first I knew there was a problem was a letter from them passing on the debt to an agency. What a palava sorting it out. I wouldn't use 1&1 again.

[banana9999]

I would ask in a Bus Driver fiorum rather than a Pilots forum :)

[BRL]

Why? (Have I missed something?)

[frostbite]

Glad it's not just me can't work that out.

[Takeoff WAT]

Hi CS,
I'd also suggest leaving 1&1 alone, I created my first company website with them but as my business grew I found their "simple" hosting packages no longer met my needs. Then, when I tried to transfer my domain-name to a new web-host it took weeks of irate emails/phone calls to get them to release it.

If you don't want to invest in a web-authoring tool like Dreamweaver or MS Expression you can create simple html web pages using MS Word, although the html code is quite clumsy and not guaranteed to display in all web-browsers exactly as you've created it. Then, if you subscribe to a reputable web-hosting company you can simply use their online menu system to upload your newly designed web-pages, setup email addresses, etc. without any expensive software at your end.

Heart Internet offer inexpensive hosting packages (about £45 per year), have a very simple web based site management interface and plenty of online help/tutorials to get your site uploaded and online.

There are also plenty of great books available like the For Dummies series, or from publishers like Wiley and Que, that will tell you everything you need to know.

However, if you intend to continue creating your own web pages when you have the spare cash in the future I'd recommend investing in Dreamweaver and taking the time to learn it. I did and it led me away from Flight Operations and into my own software company!

T/O W

[cats_five]

As well as the other advice, use CSS for determining background colour and so on - it's much easier to change later if necessary. Also consider downloading and installing a web server onto your PC, so you can make sure it works properly that way. There are web sites around that attempt to load images from a local path - something like 'C:\images\myimage.jpg' which of course doesn't work for other people. Another common problem is that if the place you upload it to is running Linux, then file names are case-sensitive so MyPage isn't the same as mypage.

Finally, make sure your pages meet the HTML & CSS validation at:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

These are not perfect, but will pick up a lot of common problems.