Web sites

I have looking around at different web developing servcies and have found them to be expensive , so my question is has anyone here taken the task on themselves ? I am looking to develop a site for my marine maching bussiness and reall do not have alot of cash to throw at a web site at this time , so figured i go it solo and try , i know you get what you pay for but i am pinching pennies to get moving on this . Thanks for any input


Dave M

Dave RI said:

I have looking around at different web developing servcies and have found them to be expensive , so my question is has anyone here taken the task on themselves ? I am looking to develop a site for my marine maching bussiness and reall do not have alot of cash to throw at a web site at this time , so figured i go it solo and try , i know you get what you pay for but i am pinching pennies to get moving on this . Thanks for any input


Dave M

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Hey Dave, websites are like most anything else - how much you need to spend depends on what all you want to do with it. If you're not planning to actually sell parts online, just getting information and pictures up there is really quite easy to do yourself.

I did my racing page in FrontPage 2003 (which you can buy for about $100) and it turned out pretty well and I'm far from a web developer. The biggest thing is to really make a plan for yourself about what information needs to be up there and how to organize it. The other thing is to stick with keeping it up-to-date so it doesn't get too stale (like my page! ).

Good luck, and feel free to PM or ask if you need any more guidance.

Mikah B.
Introduction

Hi Dave,

What Micah says rings true w/me too. You can even use google sites & setup a free one I believe. or nearly so. It gets more hairy when you try & do ecommerce. but just info & pics you can do if you dig in.

If you decide to hire somebody you may possibly find cheaper if you can find an individual free-lancer - try craigslist - just make sure they have experience & should have portfolio of sites you can check out before you commit. lots of people doing web development on the side.

Best,

Chris

Thanks for your input guys !!! i talked to a web designer the other night and he wanted about 1300.00 to build the site , and another 100 for the host and the yearly fee of 40 bucks for the domain name , then you add in e-comerce later on and it goes through the roof , i will eventually have products to sell but until then i just want something to get the name out , i will definatley check out the options you guys have told me about and see what i can come up with , i think like many of you probarly are very picky about everything i do or have done , it comes with the toolmaking bussiness i guess , again thanks for the help .


Dave M

I've been making websites since 1997, back in the days of "Geocities". A lot has changed since then as far as web technologies go, but many of the steps involved in a creating a website have not. Just take it one step at a time.

Start out with a single HTML page and think of it as an online business card. A photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop Elements will definitely make life easier, allowing you to create a title banner and edit a few photos for web use (color correct, crop, resize). Once you get the hang of writing basic HTML and working with photos, you can add new pages in minutes, and for the HTML, you don't need any editing software other than your basic notepad text editor.

For hosting, try Godaddy.com (yes, the one with Danica Patrick in their commercials). You can get a year's worth of domain registration and hosting for less than $60. Once you setup the service, uploading new files to your site is very simple using an FTP program. I use a free one called "Filezilla", which IMO is one of the best out there.

My latest project is my company's site, http://www.glacern.com, which I wrote completely from scratch using a web programming language called PHP. It's made up of hundreds of files that dynamically create a user experience through photos, videos, flash animations, and database driven e-commerce, but it all started out as a single page.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

-Sol
Glacern Machine Tools
www.glacern.com

Sol ,

Nice web site !!! nice looking products web use thwe Chick system kind of the same program right ? I will take your advice and apply it to building a web site . Thanks



Dave M

Hi Dave. If you realy want to do it yourself, and spend the time, you can do it. I had little knowledge of making websites, but i was determined to make one without paying anyone. This is what i ended up with (www dot pacstove dot com) And it cost me nothing. Zip.

I used a free download called webdwarf. Its as about as simple as they come. Its a drag and drop type program.
It limits you on how fancy you can make it look, but i found tricks around that.
I also used these things to help compose it.
Microsoft word.
flikr.com
windows movie maker.
fast stone screen capture.
Digital camera.
Photo editing software. (i used mgi photo suite)

All free programs, or come with windows.
I did my own photography, and some technical illustrations with solid modeling on Acad, other than that, it was pretty simple to do.
I havent figured out how to make links to other pages within webdwarf, so i used flikr for that. I linked to flikr to show pics. and slide shows. Theres probably an easier way, but it worked for me.

I used microsoft word, and the option for inserting pictures within it. From there, i would have a page set up and graphics the way i want them that webdwarf wouldnt let me do, so i then used "faststone screen capture" to take a cropped picture of what i composed. I then inserted that as a jpeg on webdwarf. Its all pretty easy, but you have to organize your files well before you begin. Have everything you are working with in the correct folder(s) and it wont be so hard to fish for them.

Building it is half the battle. Getting ranked is the other half. I learned from another guy on this forum on SEO tips and am currently using them.

I use cubecart for my site. It's free, and someone with zero web design exp like me can pull it off. I just make stuff, snap a photo, list it on my site and sit back and rake in the cash. lol