Taxi Site

[simon4amiee]

hi been asked to do a small site for a taxi firm, any tips on a good sitem hes tight and wont pay for an all singing dancing one, i have basic web design skills and database management!

[Esk247]

template? from template monster?

easy enough to do..look flashy..easy to fix up! saves time deciding on imaging, colour schemes etc.

[RebeccaC]

Just start with a basic CSS template and evolve a sleek looking site from there.

[mke]

He doesn't need an all singing all dancing one. Offer him a reasonable - don't undersell yourself, reasonable is low enough - price for whatever you consider sufficient for his needs.

He'll say no, You and I both know that. So point him at a free CMS or shopping cart application, say Drupal or Joomla for CMS, Zen Cart or Magento for cart style CMS. Let him wrestle with it.

When he comes back, explain just how much work it is to configure the "free" site for his needs. It's true. These apps are really for people who know what they are doing or have the time (and intelligence) to learn. Offer him that at three times your bespoke offer, or 10% on your original bespoke offer for all the messing around. Remember, this is a simple site. For a complex one, the CMS can actually cut development costs down. You are not after riping him off, just a reasonable reward for your efforts. But your reasonable efforts include your time andif he's tking a shedload of that he has to pay the bill by the end of it.

Believe it or not, your chances of getting the work are high. You have shown you know what you are doing. And that there is a value on your time and skills.

Before you start, ensure you are aware of the functionality he wants and that it, or the lack of it if the budget argument still applies, is explicitly written into the contract. You and I both know he'll argue about this before paying the final installment.

[website]

moonfruit does an excelent taxi template and it is fully CMS, drag and drop, includes unlimited pages, contact form, forum and much more. also very good 4 seo.

good luck?~@"£@:<FPO:@SAEJFG {YWE*)PGU

[simon4amiee]

Thanks it is for a friend, hense I know he is tight, was going to do a simple site, and a simple frontend database to record details, nothing fancy dan. Just need to look into different ways if doing it seeing whats out there already, seeing what i can incorparate. Thing is he has 30 cars for the town and surrounding areas and they still log it all in a book by hand, so anything simple will look futuristic to this guy.

[cmarks]

Ask him to see if he likes any competitors sites, and which bits - say that you incorporate similar aspects into his site. Then ask if he likes any other sites, I tend to get these points from our clients.. "I like this part from this website, oh and these links form this one, and then I like the colour of that part of the site" - I then pass it onto a designer, who knocks it up and 9/10 they love it :)

[courtesan]

i'd give him a few links to other sites and see what he likes first.