Thread: Website for a small business

Looking to do a simple website for my small business- I want something professional looking but it doesn't have to be elaborate. What's the best way
to get this done myself?

Believe it or not "GoDaddy" has a pretty decent product. Not the cheapest out there, but they have pre-built templates you can use and end up with a professional-looking website that is very easy to maintain. I used it for a while for my business before deciding that my business simply did not need a website (100% of our marketing is word of mouth).

I used a word press template and now do all my adds and edits as new projects are completed. I've been pretty happy with the look and Quality.

Don't waste your time.
Focus your time on making money doing what you're good at.

If your goal is marketing doing anything yourself is pointless.

2nd dbs, pay someone who does web design to do it for you, it will be worth it.

tmaindesigns.com is a buddy of mine, does great work

I hired Dirty Hoar and he has done a great job on my site. I regret the 6 plus years that I didn't pay for a pro site.

Originally Posted by doughboyshredder

I hired Dirty Hoar and he has done a great job on my site. I regret the 6 plus years that I didn't pay for a pro site.

There are so many really good templates out there that you don't need to pay the prices web site designers sometimes seek. Pick a template and pay a college kid to do the initial customization and then you can edit or pay for editing services as needed.

Originally Posted by OSECS

There are so many really good templates out there that you don't need to pay the prices web site designers sometimes seek. Pick a template and pay a college kid to do the initial customization and then you can edit or pay for editing services as needed.

That is only true if your site is for informational purposes.

If your intent is to use your website as a sales driver, you're missing the boat.
Also, it's about time and what yours is worth. If you enjoy dicking around and messing with web design when you could be billing out hours, more power to you. I would rather bill out my time, and pay someone to do what they do professionally, and then spend my free time doing other shit (like arguing with spook).

Dirty Hoar has gotten my site the top ranking for natural searches on google for most areas and keywords that are relevant.

You are right about prices though. I got 4 bids. Dirty Hoar's was the only bid that I didn't scoff at. Nothing wrong with charging what someone will pay, but I was actually quoted 7k for a basic site from one tool bag.

Originally Posted by doughboyshredder

That is only true if your site is for informational purposes.

If your intent is to use your website as a sales driver, you're missing the boat.
Also, it's about time and what yours is worth. If you enjoy dicking around and messing with web design when you could be billing out hours, more power to you. I would rather bill out my time, and pay someone to do what they do professionally, and then spend my free time doing other shit (like arguing with spook).

Dirty Hoar has gotten my site the top ranking for natural searches on google for most areas and keywords that are relevant.

You are right about prices though. I got 4 bids. Dirty Hoar's was the only bid that I didn't scoff at. Nothing wrong with charging what someone will pay, but I was actually quoted 7k for a basic site
from one tool bag.

No I don't want to design it but I definitely want to be able to edit as new project come to completion. That's easy to do once the template has been completed.

Yer definitely right, you want to pay people to work to their strengths. I've got a person doing search engine optimization now.

I just don't have time to mess around with editing a website.

Dirty Hoar set me up with a "news" page that I could access and edit as I desired, and I never even logged in to it. 60 hours is a short week for me.

Originally Posted by doughboyshredder

I just don't have time to mess around with editing a website.

Dirty Hoar set me up with a "news" page that I could access and edit as I desired, and I never even logged in to it. 60 hours is a short week for me.

Yep I get that, I look at the editing process as part of my creative process so its important for me to create and edit the site content. Takes a couple gours every couple months,

the nice thing about a template site is that yer not tied to a web designer. Anyone can update them cause the procedure is built into the site.

Well I can't pay a guy to do a site for me. So it looks like godaddy or wordpress.

Dude ... there's a lot of competition in porn. Best bet is to find a niche ... like ... say ... girls who get off on shoving star wars figurines up their ass. Lots of possibilities there.

Look into using a Facebook website. If you have a domain and want to go really cheap, forward the domain to the Facebook page, then use Payvment (free version) as a pay system through Paypal. I just did that for FKNA Apparel here:http://www.facebook.com/pages/FKNA-A...22409887901966

If you go for wordpress, and you are trying to create a commercial site, then I would pay for a theme. You can find plenty of nice stuff for $50-$100. They are generally industry specific and have more polished functionality and aesthetics.

The free themes can be ok, but generally have all the superfluous, bloggy crap that a commercial site shouldn't have.

It's a great platform and easy to tweak once you get through the learning curve. But if you go DIY there's gonna be a learning curve anywhere.

I will say that a pro could save you a lot of headaches, but you gotta pay to play.

Thirded (or is it fourthed) for Wordpress with a paid theme.

I've done http://aussieskier.com and http://powderbible.com myself in that way.

There have been other threads on here about this- including the you get what you pay for with a good web site design and someone that knows how to get you to the top of the various search engines. If you absolutely need to keep costs down- then the template and a good Wordpress or other Content Management System that you know how to use can be the way to go. IF you are spending more hours on the web site than you are working at getting business, then you need to think about the "I can't afford to pay much" as you can also end up with a web site that is just so bad that it could drive new customers away....

One thing would be to see about any schools teaching web site design and creation that are looking for class projects. At least you may have a chance at a better job than these web sites:
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/wors...-overview.html

Originally Posted by doughboyshredder

I got 4 bids. Dirty Hoar's was the only bid that I didn't scoff at. Nothing wrong with charging what someone will pay, but I was actually quoted 7k for a basic site from one tool bag.

Sometimes I bid outrageous prices for something I don't want to do. If they tell me to fuck off, I don't care. If they pay me to do it, I grind through it but know that I'm being well compensated.

Originally Posted by Gone Skiing

tmaindesigns.com is a buddy of mine, does great work

Trevor did mine. He was great to work with and is a maggot. He even worked around some password protected pages and video streaming options for me.