Thinking of building my company a website

[Yzzim]

So about a year ago I bought a domain and got a host setup. Been paying for it the whole time. Only thing I got accomplished was stealing an "Under Construction" pic from google images and posting it on the site Hasn't changed a bit in over a year.

I really have no idea where to start. I've used Dreamweaver a bit but don't know the in's and out's enough to build somethign that looks decent. I'm a complete n00b at Photoshop which only makes it harder to get anything looking nice.

Anyone know where to start? Would buying the "How-to" books help me make an alright looking site? What about those website builders that some webhosts have? Any other programs that are easy to use and relatively inexpensive? I'd really like to do it myself as I can't afford paying somone hundreds or thousands of $$$$$ to get it done.

 

[IronWing]

First things first: Has Google or any other search engine picked up your new site yet? If so, get your company telephone number and other contact info on the default page fast. Everything else can wait while you learn about websites. A brief description of what you company does would also be good but not as important as getting your contact info on screen.

Next, decide what you want the page to do for your company. Is it to be a direct sales site w/ shopping cart? A yellow pages ad? An interactive customer service site? Discuss this with your management (unless you are the management) and figure this out before worrying about any details like design.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: Yzzim
I'd really like to do it myself as I can't afford paying somone hundreds or thousands of $$$$$ to get it done.

If you work out how much time it would take to teach yourself the basics of web design, HTML, CSS, whatever program you want to use, etc, it might be more economical for your business to hire someone. Plus if you wanted any kind of backend you'd have to learn object oriented programming too, and that's another thing altogether...

On the other hand if you just want to do it as a personal project, there's no reason not too. As I said you'd need to learn the basics of HTML and CSS at least, then maybe pick up a program to help you. w3schools.com is a good place to start.

 

[Yzzim]

The site would be for a cleaning service company. The main reason of the site would be to tell customers what services we offer. We are a well established company in the area. The site would only help people find out more about us and what we have to offer.

Having the site show up on Google or any other search provider isn't a necesity.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Do you need to bother with doing it on your own? I help many people in these situations and all it really takes is $100 or $150 plus a week or two of time to wait - that kind of price is *nothing* for a business looking for a website.

 

[yobarman]

Don't want to spend money? HUMPH! Well then...


But seriously... if you want to do it yourself... learn some basic HTML and CSS. That's pretty much all you need for a basic site.

 

[Corbett]

templatemonster.com

/thread

 

[Yzzim]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Do you need to bother with doing it on your own? I help many people in these situations and all it really takes is $100 or $150 plus a week or two of time to wait - that kind of price is *nothing* for a business looking for a website.

That does seem reasonable.

YHPM in a minute

 

[InverseOfNeo]

YHPM

 

[RossMAN]

I would also consider the EasySite template for $5.

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: Yzzim
The site would be for a cleaning service company. The main reason of the site would be to tell customers what services we offer. We are a well established company in the area. The site would only help people find out more about us and what we have to offer.

Having the site show up on Google or any other search provider isn't a necesity.

WRONG

 

[coolred]

Studios 3

A friend of mine does websites, not sure about their prices though