building my first website, any tips?

[sparechange?]

Well my first website is going to be about a product I know very well, headlight restoration. I plan on making a big kit that could do about 30 sets of headlights, and a single service kit too.

-The bulk kit will be for:
- Other entrepreneurs that want to start their own headlight restoration business or just make a little money on the side.
-Or car dealerships, used car lot owners, etc.

-The single service kit would be for personal use.

As of right now, I have about 70% of the material for making the bulk kit, and that is what I want to try to sell first. I'll probably add the single service kit later.

I plan on making the website in Dreamweaver. I already have Dreamweaver CS4.

Any ideas or suggestions?

oh yea, I'll update this as I go.

 

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[sparechange?]

oh yea, any ideas on the business name?

I was thinking maybe "finalfix" or something like that. I really want a catchy name.

The thing is, the product that I have is guaranteed for two years after applied to the headlight. Other products are lucky to keep the headlight clear for six months. Even the 3m kit sucks.

 

[danajberry]

Wow! Good for you! Maybe put a posting on youtube of your process in time lapse video? I know that I would watch it.

Maybe hitch on to edmunds.com or maybe j.c. whitney. I don't know much about cars, but I do know that they are some of the most popular media.

Good luck,
Dana

 

[danajberry]

For a business name, what about Light Speed Restoration: Where we get you back on the road again at the speed of light.

Maybe too corny for ya, I just love puns.

 

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[sparechange?]

Wow! Good for you! Maybe put a posting on youtube of your process in time lapse video? I know that I would watch it.

Maybe hitch on to edmunds.com or maybe j.c. whitney. I don't know much about cars, but I do know that they are some of the most popular media.

Good luck,
Dana

I want to embed the video on the website, but I could also make youtube videos.

I want to make a .gif animated image of the process, too.

I'll check those sites out, thanks!

 

[JayKim]

oh yea, any ideas on the business name?

I was thinking maybe "finalfix" or something like that. I really want a catchy name.

The thing is, the product that I have is guaranteed for two years after applied to the headlight. Other products are lucky to keep the headlight clear for six months. Even the 3m kit sucks.

Fastlane Headlight Restoration Kit

DeOxidized Repair Oxidized Cloudy Headlight Kit

AngelEyes

ZHAMWOW!!!!!!!!

 

[sparechange?]

Fastlane Headlight Restoration Kit

DeOxidized Repair Oxidized Cloudy Headlight Kit

AngelEyes

ZHAMWOW!!!!!!!!

thanks for the names!

I am searching for the perfect name.

Thanks again.

 

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[WinWin]

I plan on making the website in Dreamweaver. I already have Dreamweaver CS4.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Why don't use wordpress instead of Dreamweaver? I have used both but would pick wordpress in a snap over Dreamweaver.

 

[sparechange?]

I guess I thought dreamweaver would give a more professional look to the website. And honestly I didn't even hear of wordpress until I started on this forum

 

[Phantom309]

I've never dealt with wordpress, but have used dreamweaver and was impressed with it. I had to purchase,y own domain and design my own website for a school project when I was working for my associates. We didn't use templates, instead what we did was designed the actual layout of the site in photoshop, sliced it and imported it into dreamweaver and from there we added our buttons, and links and even embedded music into it in one of our assignments.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with dreamweaver, but there is a guy on you tube that has some awesome tutorials, if you need his name let me know I'll gladly send it to you in a pm or something. Also if decide to use dreamweaver and need help with it let me know I'll gladly help you out.

 

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[maximus20895]

Dreamweaver lets you do more since you can start from the ground up. Do you know any coding?

 

[wildambitions]

Dreamweaver lets you do more since you can start from the ground up. Do you know any coding?

WordPress can do just about anything you can think of and you don't need to know code. And if you do know code it can do even more . You always have the option of adding things externally if you need something super custom that you would rather not have WP do. Custom layouts for each page are possible and the entire system is easy to learn.

Here are more reasons to use WP.

 

[Red]

Hey Sparechange-

Here’s the breakdown:


Dreamweaver is the professional industry standard for website design and development.
Wordpress is a CMS & blogging platform.
Both tools can be used to accomplish the same desired end result: a site that’s indexable by the major search engines (ie: not Flash) and can be tweaked/edited to help bolster your search rankings. It all comes down to your level of expertise & the time you wish to allocate to the desired goal at hand.
My first company was Corporate Design and Development in which we used Dreamweaver as the platform and incorporated other elements from there (again, ie: Flash, video, CSS, etc). You can actually use DW to manage & edit the code for Wordpress. My vote is Dreamweaver every time (for the flexibility & custom options) if you have the knowhow!
D

 

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[maximus20895]

WordPress can do just about anything you can think of and you don't need to know code. And if you do know code it can do even more . You always have the option of adding things externally if you need something super custom that you would rather not have WP do. Custom layouts for each page are possible and the entire system is easy to learn.

Here are more reasons to use WP.

Correct. I just meant that wordpress was based on a blog platform. Yes, you can make an original website out of it, but you can with dreamweaver as well. It's more of a clean slate type deal.

 

[Xenia]

I like the ability to log onto the website office backround and change or add pages without the involvement of the web designer. All ours are very transient and need to be updated regularly.

Pop ups and links to databases are also helpfull, so are affiliate tracking devices.

X

 

[CMCarlin]

I just watched a video where Matt Cutts (big dude at Google) highly recommends wordpress because of how easily 'crawlable' it makes your site, which is a very good thing for google. I'll see if I can find the video and post it....


edit: here it is

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.co...t/25175-nice-video-matt-cutts.html#post122328

 

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[sharper]

as a web designer i would say get wordpress but if your selling a product get some one to build a custom theme for you from scratch.

 

[LondonLife]

Dreamweaver is hard to get right on it's own as a beginner, especially if you use the front end. It appears very easy to use at first, but you could end up hopelessly lost with with crap unefficient messy code that search engines will have fits over. Knowledge of coding is invaluable to prevent this.

I started using dreamweaver in 97/98 so am familiar with it but I know alot of guys who worked for me used both, especially when starting out. The easy to use CMS of wordpress and the WYSIWYG of dreamweaver.

 

[sharper]

Dreamweaver is hard to get right on it's own as a beginner, especially if you use the front end. It appears very easy to use at first, but you could end up hopelessly lost with with crap unefficient messy code that search engines will have fits over. Knowledge of coding is invaluable to prevent this.

I started using dreamweaver in 97/98 so am familiar with it but I know alot of guys who worked for me used both, especially when starting out. The easy to use CMS of wordpress and the WYSIWYG of dreamweaver.

this basicly what i do wordpress powered websites. If a client wants to change something they can and not mess up the code its great a cms, very powerful. Some sites you wont even know they are built on wordpress thats how flexabile and powerful it is.

i.e this site is built on wordpress Now Playing

 

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[sparechange?]

Wow! lots of replies. Thanks guys!

I have dreamweaver, but I am considering wordpress also.

I don't really know a whole lot of html/css.

DreamWeaver seems very straightfoward, and I also got a set of videos from lynda.com to increase my learning speed.

My new question is;

Can I use wordpress to put my site together quickly, and dreamweaver to refine it until I get it to where I like it?

I downloaded WP, and it's kinda not installing. I didn't want to admit it because I saw some comments on the forum about how easy it is to install


Once again all: :thankyousign:

 

[wildambitions]

Wow! lots of replies. Thanks guys!

I have dreamweaver, but I am considering wordpress also.

I don't really know a whole lot of html/css.

DreamWeaver seems very straightfoward, and I also got a set of videos from lynda.com to increase my learning speed.

My new question is;

Can I use wordpress to put my site together quickly, and dreamweaver to refine it until I get it to where I like it?

I downloaded WP, and it's kinda not installing. I didn't want to admit it because I saw some comments on the forum about how easy it is to install


Once again all: :thankyousign:

Short and quick answer. Nope, it is kinda like 2 different operating systems.
Don't worry about the 5 minute install. It is like that for all first time users that don't understand the entire process. Simple is not always easy. Once WP is up and running is is very easy to navigate or modify. I would be happy to answer your questions.

 

[sparechange?]

Short and quick answer. Nope, it is kinda like 2 different operating systems.
Don't worry about the 5 minute install. It is like that for all first time users that don't understand the entire process. Simple is not always easy. Once WP is up and running is is very easy to navigate or modify. I would be happy to answer your questions.

First of all, SPEED.

Geez, you are so helpful!!!!!

Secondly, is WP kind of like DreamWeaver, in that it can edit html with the click of a button rather than going in and manually changing it? I feel this is kind of a stupid question, but you learn some new everyday!

 

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[wildambitions]

is WP kind of like DreamWeaver, in that it can edit html with the click of a button rather than going in and manually changing it? I feel this is kind of a stupid question, but you learn some new everyday!

I will not even try to say I am anything but vaguely familiar with DreamWeaver. I have clients that had it and switch. And that is not to diminish the DreamWeaver platform in anyway, as I am sure there are just as many who switch from WP.

WP does have a text editor. It works with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), so it is a lot like Word or any word processor type software. Perhaps a little more than a single click but no more so than any other.

All open source PHP/MySQL configuration (for lack of a better term) all pretty much works similar to the next.

Reading through this post it would appear that if you have a knack with code and getting fancy already, you might should consider other than WP. But if you don't, and maybe want to work into it at you pace but get something up that is nice right away, it is my opinion that WP would be a good fit for you.

Where you are at is where I was less than a year ago. I LOL at some of my earlier posts about websites. Granted since then I have poured my life into it but the point is that WP, like ANYTHING else will have a learning curve. And the learning curve to do some really cool stuff with WP is fast.

I cannot say it enough times, YOU have to decide. I do not want to talk you into anything and I am not here to debate which one is better, I can only tell you what my experience thus far has been. And right now, my business is all about teaching folks just like you how to learn about WP - so you have a built in resource should you need or want it.

 

[sparechange?]

I cannot say it enough times, YOU have to decide. I do not want to talk you into anything and I am not here to debate which one is better, I can only tell you what my experience thus far has been. And right now, my business is all about teaching folks just like you how to learn about WP - so you have a built in resource should you need or want it.

WP sounds simple. I think I am going to take it for a spin. As long as it gets the job done and keeps my website looking semi-original, I don't care what I use!

Thanks again.

:yourock:

 

[Phantom309]

That's a good attitude to have spare, like someone else said in this post that using WP maybe a great start up way, and speaking from experience my computer almost got thrown out into the front yard on multiple occasions when trying to learn dreamweaver. Once your business gets up and running maybe can have a customed designed page made for you.

 

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[wildambitions]

Once your business gets up and running maybe can have a customed designed page made for you.

He can custom design each WP page/post now using a premium theme.

 

[Phantom309]

can you? I barely call myself competent with dreamweaver. I think that when I do build my next site I'm gonna give WP a try.

 

[wildambitions]

can you? I barely call myself competent with dreamweaver. I think that when I do build my next site I'm gonna give WP a try.

Me? Yes, I do it every day.

 

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[WinWin]

is WP kind of like DreamWeaver, in that it can edit html with the click of a button rather than going in and manually changing it? I feel this is kind of a stupid question, but you learn some new everyday!

I am a hardcore programmer (java, c#, c++, PHP you name it). I do coding day in and day out. I am quite experienced with Dreamweaver. I currently maintain a few websites which I developed using Dreamweaver. With all these, I would still pick Wordpress without a blink. All new sites I am developing are done in Wordpress.

Why do I recommend WP over DW?

WP is a powerful content management system with a database directly integrated to it, while DW is a web page development tool.

Most websites today require a content management system tightly integrated to a database rather than a simple front end, web page design tool.

WP has so many plug-ins freely available that you can do almost everything you want to do by leveraging what others have already perfected.

For visual appeal, there are so many themes available freely - or if you are so inclined, you can buy a premium theme customized for your specific field.

With WP, you can update and manage your website from anywhere in the world using any computer. With DW, you will need access to your own computer to make changes to your site.

Unless you are already an expert in DW, I would recommend WP. If you have your content ready to post, then by using WP you can get your website up and running in two days. Using DW, it can take weeks or even months.

And, don't just take my word for it. Setup wordpress on your site and then create your first website and see how easy/difficult it is.

Good luck.