Hi y'all. My dad told me last night he's semi-retiring, and forming his own business to freelance for a bit. As such, he needs a website, and wanted some advice from me on the matter. So obviously he'll need a domain name and hosting. I think this is fairly simple, I'll probably just do both through Zen since they're reliable as hell. But designing a website is something that's probably beyond me, so how much should this sort of thing cost I'm wondering? Don't want my dad to get screwed on this, since he really just needs a clean simple website with about 3-4 separate pages of text and maybe one or two jpegs (For now at least). So, how should he go about making this? Buy some software? Hire some kid on t'internets, or hire some professional company? And how much should it cost? Cheers for any info guys, I'm pretty lost in this world so advice is highly appreciated.
http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/ is a great start, I've both used a couple directly, and customised a couple, to make some websites. All you really need to do is download the bundle, add the text (using something as simple as Notepad++ which will code-highlight the HTML source) and you're away.
goto to w3schools and read the 30 minute HTML walkthrough then come back and see if you need some help something as simple as that should take you about a day to create even as a beginner also that link above looks good also
Not sure my dad's going to be capable of doing stuff like the above tbh. He's not useless on computers but most of you know what the older generation are like. Also, the site has to look professional since this is a financial consulting business. I'll look into the stuff above and have a think about it myself though. Any thoughts on google sites? Cheers all, much help so far.
This is both free, and quite corporate: http://www.wix.com/flash-templates/ecounselors Or this perhaps: http://www.wix.com/flash-templates/consulting-com Its really not difficult to format some HTML text and put it in the right place - perhaps you could offer to do it for him for a few quid. He saves money you get some beer ££. Win win?
^Most hosting packages come with at least one mysql database, so that shouldn't be a problem. Wordpress also takes the technical side out of it.. which, from what you've said, should help
Personally I wouldn't go with Zen. Have a look at Heart Internet for hosting. Pretty cheap and give more bandwidth which is more important than space. Oh, they provide more space than Zen do.
If you want to employ someone to make the website my advise would be to go to a local college that does something like a web Design or media course. more often than not there will be at least one talented kid there interested in the money.
I've done this recently for a friend who is a florist using Wordpress, just a basic site with a few pages, but it does the trick nicely. It's not gone live just yet, but if you're interested, check out my humble efforts at www.louiselawrencefloristry.co.uk around Jan / Feb when it goes live. Personally, I don't have any skills in HTML or PHP, so rather than learn how to code a site from scratch, I went down the easy route. For what it's worth, this is what I did: Step 1: Check availability of the domain you want, I use 123-reg to search as the site has a nice search interface. Step 2: Go with TSO Host, UK based with top notch service. Get the Linux Standard package (£2.99 p/m) and register the domain you want at the same time. Step 3: Install Wordpress. The TSO Host Linux Standard package comes with CPanel backend management, so this is as easy as logging in, clicking the 'Wordpress' button from the list of available applications and following the wizard - takes less than a minute. Step 4: Purchase a professional theme from ThemeForest (I chose one called Themeology). This will likely take the most time - finding a suitable one you like the look of! Step 5: Install the theme, customise the pages and voila - done. Step 6: Walk to fridge. Step 7: Grab a victory beer. Step 8: Consume your victory beer. Step 9: Repeat
Im just knocking up a website myself. My host : http://www.ovh.co.uk/ My framework : http://wordpress.org/ Original wordpress looks fugly, so you spice it up with a theme from : http://themeforest.net/
You can get a website (more like a blog, but with the right add ons you can make it work like a website) for free by getting an account from WordPress which has it's own control panel with editor, its very easy to use as well. You can buy a domain from GoDaddy (cheap) and then direct that URL to the wordpress blog if you want to make it all yourself then: Set yourself up with a domain and hosting from Go Daddy. You'll need a program that can edit HTML or PHP files so get DreamWeaver(paid) or Kompozer (free) And you'll need a template so goto: http://templates.arcsin.se or http://templatemo.com
My what a long domain name. I know I would have trouble remembering it. Themeforest is damn good. Also nettuts and smashing magazine are good reads. I heard alot about squerespace although it looks good I never tried it.
Cheers for this. I'm playing with going down this route, not decided yet, but I got myself the suggested linux package from TSOhost just to have a play around. One problem I've so far encountered is that in cPanel I don't have wordpress included anywhere that I can see. Although I've created a mySQL database and am looking into installing wordpress the hard(er) way, itd be neat to be able to do it with a single click.
That sounds like the cpanel addon "Fantastico", but installing Wordpress manually isn't much harder than that these days. http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Detailed_Instructions
With regards to the Wordpress installation, once logged in to cPanel, if you scroll down to the bottom and select Fantastico De Luxe (screenshot). You should then see a list of all the available applications/sites you can install, of which Wordpress will be one of, listed under the Blogs section. Click Wordpress then New Installation (screenshot). Accept the defaults for the installation location if this will be the only site you will be installing on the domain, otherwise type a name to have it as a subdomain eg. if you type wordpress there, I think the URL would be http://wordpress.yourdomain.com. Choose a username and strong password and click Install Wordpress (screenshot). It will then do it's wizardry and show a URL to click to access your new Wordpress site. From there any customisation you want to do should be done from Wordpress itself, although if you want to set any email addresses up that's done from cPanel.
Hello guys! I agree with the all over information and moreover for the getting the feed back you may check with the plug-ins which will support for the browser and use online tool for more information you need.
if ease of use is what you need try squarespace...it isnt that much more expensive than hosting and installing everything yourself...and they have a 2 week trail
