[Closed] Building websites and hosting questions

Depends on the type of business, but for a lot of freelance work, a decent LinkedIn profile with links to portfolio stuff if required does 99% of what you need.

Edit: if they really want their own URL, then look at Posterous and Wordpress.com they provide ways if using their site building and linking ease with your own web address.

Bimbler.. while it's tempting to recommend you get yourself a copy of Dreamweaver it sounds like that would be massive overkill.. Many hosting solutions have basic site builder tools that will probably do all you need. Companies like "123 Reg" (who I use for domain registration) will offer all that for next to nowt.

A wordpress site might be a good solution. You can make pro looking site very quickly and you can set it up so they can edit the content without bothering you. I have a couple of websites for my small business. One is a wordpress and one I have written from scratch. They both have their benefits for me. The wordpress one is a lot slicker and easier to edit but the one I wrote I feel I have more control over and it seems to get better SEO results. Both are hosted at one.com. They are cheap and seem to work OK. Still not totally convinced by the email system but the online help is good.

VIRB from MediaTemple looks promising.
http://virb.com/
If I didn't know how to code I'd probably go down that road.

If you want to learn how to code, just build a website for yourself initially.

Have a look at some of the resources here:
http://www.codecademy.com/
and when you want to get more advanced, here:
http://net.tutsplus.com/

I tried 30 day free trial of dreamweaver and went back to fusion this is free in its basic form.
For hosting I use UK2.net

Thanks for all the pointers chaps, good idea about LinkedIn - I hadn't thought of that.

The Wordpress stuff looks interesting, as do the site builder options.

Any one used Joomla? Do-able for a semi techy n00b?

The most important thing is not building the site (lots of ways of doing that) but how you plan to manage it in the future. Even a simple page for a business will need updated, and you (or your customer/friend) need to be able to do this quickly and easily, without any technical bottlenecks.
If it's not easy, it won't happen, and the site will quickly get stale. They are many small sites out there where people have put lots of effort into the initial design and build, but have no plan for subsequent updates.
I would recommend using a content management system (lots to choose from, but WordPress is very popular) and if it is a small site, don't bother starting from scratch with the installation. Get a host that will provide the CMS framework already set up, so you concentrate on designing the page content.

Any one used Joomla? [b]Do-able for a semi techy n00b?[/b]

Not unless you are already au fait with lamp/wamp/mamp.

create a Joomla site. Most hosting packages will include this.

There are lots of free nice looking templates that can be installed easily..

Most templates have nice slideshow functionality and as long as you don't install the sample data when creating the site, it is a doddle to set up.

I created this Joomla site for a friend of mine as a favour - [url= http://www.edenfieldconstruction.co.uk/ ]clickety click[/url]

@bimbler I can show you how to create a site in Joomla over a Skype screen share some time if you want?

"I've never done it before" and "promoting a business" should not go together. With respect, your first ever website is unlikely to be a professional-looking frontage for a business.

That said; I'd second Wordpress if you want to dip your toe in. Drupal and Joomla are (arguably) more powerful, but more complex. WP's whole raison d'etre is that it's easy to get started.

get yourself a copy of Dreamweaver it sounds like that would be massive overkill

BTW, Adobe are giving away Photoshop CS 2 free of charge -

http://fstoppers.com/have-an-older-computer-download-adobe-cs2-premium-plus-free

good for adding drop shadow text effects etc to images.. lots of online help available..

"I've never done it before" and "promoting a business" should not go together. With respect, your first ever website is unlikely to be a professional-looking frontage for a business.

I agree with that, and in my opinion unless you really, really know what you're doing Wordpress sites rarely look professional either. If it's just for a web presence make a simple, static site. The email bit does complicate matters.

[quote=RooleyMoor ]BTW, Adobe are giving away Photoshop CS 2 free of charge -
> http://fstoppers.com/have-an-older-computer-download-adobe-cs2-premium-plus-free
good for adding drop shadow text effects etc to images.. lots of online help available..

Just learn css and do it right!

true, but if you are a newbie and have time constraints tweaking an image is quicker, although the text is obviously not indexable and won't help SEO

[quote=RooleyMoor ]true, but if you are a newbie and have time constraints tweaking an image is quicker, although the text is obviously not indexable and won't help SEO

Sure, but that is also why a newbie shouldn't be building a site for a business.

chvck - Member
RooleyMoor » true, but if you are a newbie and have time constraints tweaking an image is quicker, although the text is obviously not indexable and won't help SEO
Sure, but that is also why a newbie shouldn't be building a site for a business.

couldn't agree more!

Thanks again peeps, especially Rooley for your kind offer, I may well take you up on it.

"I've never done it before" and "promoting a business" should not go together. With respect, your first ever website is unlikely to be a professional-looking frontage for a business.

I'd agree with this if it was the main driver of the business, but it's not and probably won't be, besides those site builder things look fairly straightforward and of the quality required.

No probs, just let me know and i'll give you a quick demo.