A friend is looking to establish a website through which to conduct her business? Does anybody know of anybody that does inexpensive website design? And what are the best providers for the money?
The OP is not really suited to General Questions. Moving to IMHO.
samclem Moderator, General Questions
Off the top of my head, myself and ZipperJJ are web designers/developers and I’m sure either/both of us would love the chance to place a proposal on the project. And just so that my post isn’t 100% spammy/self-promoting… a few words of wisdom for your friend.
- Don’t try to do it yourself. It’ll look amateur (or it’ll look like a template if you go that route) and you’ll spend a ton of time on it learning the ins and outs.
- Don’t go to an agency unless you have a huge budget. You’ll need a freelancer (like me) or a very small firm (like Zipper’s) to come in at a reasonable budget for a new venture.
- Don’t use the overseas guys even though they’re much cheaper. I’ve had to work along side guys in India and the Philippines and the language barrier is too much to handle sometimes. The price is tempting, but it’s more frustrating than it’s worth.
- Make sure you get some sort of CMS (Content Management System) built in so that your friend can make updates to the site without re-paying the person who created it.
- Make sure you go with a freelancer who can not only help build your site, but also provide some guidance for SEO, SEM, social marketing, and general marketing. A website is great, but actually getting visitors to it is a whole other skill… you’ll want to find someone who can at least give you some pointers and, of course, build in SEO from the base of the site.
Go with wasson. We are out of the “I want a cheap web site” business 
Seriously tho, he knows his stuff and he is absolutely right you don’t want to hire an agency. Get a PERSON to do it, not a slick marketing site and a logo.
I disagree there are TONS of free programs and cheap programs to get your business running simply.
The issue is unless your online business is an extension of your brick and motar store, you don’t need nothing fancy.
The key is simplicity. People always want to jump in and they design all this junk. This is why Google and Wikipeida are popular. They are SIMPLE designs.
You can use 1and1 or GoDaddy (I used 1and1 for my host, I do my own XHTML).
If you’re willing to get O’Reilly’s Head First with XHTML and CSS and learn the basics (about three days) you can get a simple design then incorporate things like Paypal or even purchase a checkout scriipt from your host.
DynamicDrive.Com can give you simple CSS that rock. You can get a sharp looking site.
e107.org has a free content management system. Mediawiki (Wikipedia) is free. I use both on sites I have and host on 1and1.
You can get free bulletinboards, though I will admit I like this board, which is vBulletin and not free (about $100 - $180.00 year) depending on your liscense.
1and1 is great, I only had one issue in the five years I’ve been with them. They were moving my server and my sites were down for 12 hours. But what can you do.
Unless you have a B&M store to build your business, it’s gonna take a LONG time to get anyone over to your site, so there’s no point building a fancy site, no one will look out.
Start with minimal design, keep it simple as possible get the book I suggested. Even if you use HTML programs like Dreamweaver, it helps to know what the program is doing.
She just wants something basic to post her picture, her bio, and a place to post her testimonies. She just wants it quick and she wants it inexpensive. This business isn’t a formal affair anyway. There is no brick and mortar store.
Marxxx is right, you CAN do it yourself but I really would try to dissuade her from that. If she was at all interested in learning how to create websites, she would already be doing it. There is a lot to learn, and for most people their time is better served running their business and hiring out the website rather than spend hundreds of hours to build a sub-par and amateur site.
I also respectfully disagree that it takes a long time to generate traffic. There are many legitimate ways to launch a successful site with good traffic almost immediately. You just have to know what they are.
FriarTed, how expensive is inexpensive?
just want to bump this as I am also looking to set up a simple website for my machine shop. Just some info on the shop and how to contact and submit stuff for quotes. Should I try on my own or get someone like wasson involved. money is pretty tight from a new equipment purchase so I am also looking for cheap. what are average prices??
A friend of mine works for GoodBarry.com which aims to provide an integrated solution for small businesses who sell stuff online. This would be the next step up from what you’re looking for but it’s worth considering.
As a web designer/developer I never recommend people try to build their own sites. Anyone with a moderate amount of computer knowledge can build a site, but as I mentioned before there is a LOT to learn and you’ll end up with an amateur project.
It’s like if my car breaks down. I could go out and get a book telling me how to diagnose car problems, borrow tools from friends and plan a trip to the junk yard to get the replacement parts, then spend a couple weeks digging my way though the engine to fix the problem. Sure, it’s cheaper than going to the mechanic but I’ve also just spent 300 hours fixing a problem that the mechanic would have charged $300 for. The job I did is amateur and a hack-job, but hey, at least my car is running right? It’s one thing if you enjoy working on cars… it’s another if you’re just doing it to save some dough.
So, using that same philosophy, if you have an interest in building a website and think it’d be fun to tinker around and build something, by all means, go for it! If you think you’d hate building a website and are just doing it to save some money, then you’re better served by dishing out some cash.
Just like car repair, prices vary depending on what you need. ZipperJJ and I just had this conversation via PM but I’ll state it here again… sites I create typical vary between around $1,500 - $5,000 with some variation on either side of those numbers. However, if you’re looking for cheap, I can do cheap.
The main thing you’d lose by going cheap is design revisions, as this is the most time consuming part of my job (and in web development, you’re paying almost exclusively for time). You’d also have a lot less flexibility in features/options available on your site.
Think about other sites you visit and come up with a “dream” site on paper… what would you like to see? A way for clients to fill out a form and get an automated quote? Mailing list? Photo gallery? Blog? Shopping cart? Forum? Live Chat for support? Audio/video? Once you have an idea of what you’d like integrated, come up with a budget you’d like to dedicate to it. Then find a guy like me who will help find a compromise between features and budget.
Well, as it is, we’ve settled on webs.com. It’s free. It serves her purposes. Now we need to get publicity. Can I ask for advice here on that or do I need to open another discussion?