Creating a New Business

[robenergy]

Hi Peeps,

I have a few questions I was hoping people with more experience/knowledge could help me with!?

I am looking at creating a specialist holiday business, I have everything in place, except for the website and internet marketing strategies. Both big parts of the puzzle I was hoping to be more straightforward!!

My initial thought was to use a company like hostgator or 1&1 to build a basic website and use their SEO software and expertise to market the website. But after having a look around and reading various reviews, it seems whichever company I go for will have its draw backs.

What I would like help with is, is there a web hosting company out there that offers the tools to build a web site and the SEO tools to market it that basically offer a genuine honest service that somebody could recommend?

Or, is any of the freeware software for SEO services any good? Is there a pay for version that is better/easier to use?

It's probably obvious but just incase it isn't, I am a complete novice at this internet malarky and already feel as though I have bitten off more than I can chew,, but saying that, I also understand nothing comes easy and I am willing to teach myself and learn!!... But in the mean time, if somebody could help my head form doing somersaults it would be appreciated!!

Thanks in advance.

Robenergy

 

[vmhosts]

Cant help to much on the website design, we have used a few providers but ultimately you get what you pay for. I would recommend using something like WordPress so you can make your own changes. It also has an excellent SEO plugin called Yoast. This will give you some very easy guidelines and even a green light when the SEO is good for that article.

Yoast is very quick and easy to use

Having spent a lot of money with SEO companies in the past, my recommendation here is to use Yoast for product pages and new posts to your site. Put your SEO budget in to article writers. or if you have the time, write your own.

New content is the way forward , your site may not be 100% SEO optimised but without new content it wont matter

 

[djwellis]

I can certainly understand why you feel you've bitten off more than you can chew. It can be an intimidating path to go down.

I always ask my customers what they want from their website.
Usually, it's one of two things; a web presence to support existing marketing, or a web presence to bring in new customers all by itself.

I'm not sure what your companies niche is, but depending on how intense the competition is, you may need a decent amount of time or money in some/all of the following:

• Adwords
• Adwords management
• SEO
• Content writing

Some things you can do yourself. Regular content writing is certainly a good start. If you get someone else to make the website for you, make sure you have the ability to modify it yourself so you can do content updates as and when you wish.

Recommendations I always have are:

• Make sure you have control over the domain name. Loads of websites are out there that do that, I like 123-reg personally as the prices have been good - but at under £10/domain/year, a few pounds saving isn't going to make much difference.
• Find a decent web hosting provider. There are loads out there and oftentimes the web development companies will be able to recommend their preferred one (or they'll want you to use theirs).
• If you buy an "off the shelf" website from a 3rd-party company, find out if it needs back-end maintenance. The "Wordpress" product, for example has updates that come out fairly regularly. Make sure you run them as you could open your site up to attacks that could bring the site down.
• Stick to what you do best. If you're good at writing and with some pointers can write SEO-friendly blogs, then terrific! Do that yourself. If you're not so confident, find a company to do it for you and work closely with them.

I'll leave it at that for now, I hope some of that is helpful,

Dan

 

[Matthew : TekHive Hosting]

Hello Robenergy,

Most web hosting providers do offer some sort of web design presence, whether that is using a web design tool which is pretty much click and drag or a CMS such as wordpress/joomla.

We use RVSiteBuilder on all of our servers, its pretty easy to use and our clients love it. It just makes building that website a little bit easier and keeping the costs down by not paying someone £500+

Using a CMS is probably the most practical option, as there are tons of addons which you can use which makes keeping your web site updated and functional much easier. There are SEO modules which sort of takes out the hard work, there not perfect but they do make a difference.

 

[Alan]

This is an interesting thread, as I was just reading one about accountancy that is strangely relevant.
The thread was do you use an accountant or do you wing it yourself.

It sounds like you have decided to 'wing it' with your web presence. Are you also going to 'wing it' with accountancy.

(By winging it, I'm talking about DIY )

What continually amazes me is that people will spend their evenings struggling with things out of their depth trying to avoid paying a web designer £500, yet the same people will happily part with say £350 to service their car without a second thought. (and most, if they put their mind to it, can change the oil and filters on their car, check the brakes, change the brake pads etc )

 

[Kay]

Beware of buying your domain and hosting with the same company. They make it seem easier, and it probably is at first, but you may come to regret doing this soon after. Many experienced people keep the two separate. If something goes wrong, it's easier for you to resolve it, if the company involved doesn't have control of both your domain and hosting.

Also, the "build your own" tools might lock you in to proprietary software, which makes it harder to move in the future, should you choose to do so.

And BTW 123-reg and 1&1 are often the newbies' choice but are rarely recommended by more experienced webmasters. No doubt some people here will disagree but, as with any forum, sometimes people give advice on subjects beyond their areas of expertise. And sometimes people advise a certain course of action because they want to sell their own services.

 

[robenergy]

woaa, wasn't expecting that many replies,, email said I only had one reply!!

Thank you for what has been said so far people!

I've had a brief read through and there is definitely some food for thought!

I'm gonna get some sleep after my night shift and try get my head round all this in a bit!

Will reply properly later!!

 

[fisicx]

Specialist holiday business indicates some sort of selection process to find the holiday, a booking system and payment methods.

All these need website functions way beyond anything the online website builders can offer. Which means you will need something customised for your fledgling business. You can spend the next six months learining how to do it yourself or you can invest some money in someone who knows how to do it and will help you develop the site.

You are expecting people to pay for your specilist holidays, why not pay people for their specilist website skills.

 

[DragonKing]

I am a website design (with morals) and have to say yes you do get what you pay for, but this being said if you feel a word-press site will meet your needs then do that and keep some money in your pocket, there are far too many designers out there that will just take your money, that being said if you would like some advise or a general chat please do get in touch, even if we don't work together there is nothing wrong with giving advise and pointing people in the right direction..... <phone number removed>

Chris

Dragon King Website Design

 

[robenergy]

This is an interesting thread, as I was just reading one about accountancy that is strangely relevant.
The thread was do you use an accountant or do you wing it yourself.

It sounds like you have decided to 'wing it' with your web presence. Are you also going to 'wing it' with accountancy.

(By winging it, I'm talking about DIY )

What continually amazes me is that people will spend their evenings struggling with things out of their depth trying to avoid paying a web designer £500, yet the same people will happily part with say £350 to service their car without a second thought. (and most, if they put their mind to it, can change the oil and filters on their car, check the brakes, change the brake pads etc )

i'll cross that bridge when i come to it! but chances are for the first years taxes will try do it myself, but as the business grows i'll have to adapt and become more professional!

and yes, i'll give fixing the car a go myself,, just for the challenge/experience!! as long as i have time!

 

[robenergy]

Cant help to much on the website design, we have used a few providers but ultimately you get what you pay for. I would recommend using something like WordPress so you can make your own changes. It also has an excellent SEO plugin called Yoast. This will give you some very easy guidelines and even a green light when the SEO is good for that article.

Yoast is very quick and easy to use

Having spent a lot of money with SEO companies in the past, my recommendation here is to use Yoast for product pages and new posts to your site. Put your SEO budget in to article writers. or if you have the time, write your own.

New content is the way forward , your site may not be 100% SEO optimised but without new content it wont matter

if i used wordpress, would it have the "wordpress" name in the url??

i can't remember what company it was, it was something like namescheap or something that worked closely with wordpress. i think they offered the chance to design a website and host it and also tie in a wordpress blog(is that different to the wordpress site you're suggesting?) and the use of their seo software..

i'm going to put together a medical tourism holiday business.. its just i'm not really sure of the best route to take and whats needed with hosting, blog, website, booking and payment systems etc.... i really do have alot of reading and research to do!! do you have any idea if 1&1 are worth bothering with??

i hoped to have all this together with in a month or so.. but its going to take longer i know now.. but i'm going to remain positive and slowly get through it all!!

thanks for the info so far.. there's lots to go through with every bodies replies.. i'm sure i'll be coming back with more intelligent posts after a bit of research and putting ideas into action!!

 

[robenergy]

Specialist holiday business indicates some sort of selection process to find the holiday, a booking system and payment methods.

All these need website functions way beyond anything the online website builders can offer. Which means you will need something customised for your fledgling business. You can spend the next six months learining how to do it yourself or you can invest some money in someone who knows how to do it and will help you develop the site.

You are expecting people to pay for your specilist holidays, why not pay people for their specilist website skills.

definitely some good points there!

its a medical tourism holiday website i am going to set up! and where needed i'm more than happy to get professional help in to help create.. at the min i'm just trying to do the research and get ideas so i'm not going into things completely blind.. just partially!

as far as a booking system goes, i was thinking of doing things by fillling in forms on line, having them posted back with a completed visa/creditcard payment form/details or paypal, and doing it that way?? please excuse my ignorance/naivety.. all i know is there is a certificate you need to be able to process payments online through a website securely.. is this something that can be done with say a company like 1&1 or hostgator??

thanks

robenergy

 

[robenergy]

Beware of buying your domain and hosting with the same company. They make it seem easier, and it probably is at first, but you may come to regret doing this soon after. Many experienced people keep the two separate. If something goes wrong, it's easier for you to resolve it, if the company involved doesn't have control of both your domain and hosting.

Also, the "build your own" tools might lock you in to proprietary software, which makes it harder to move in the future, should you choose to do so.

And BTW 123-reg and 1&1 are often the newbies' choice but are rarely recommended by more experienced webmasters. No doubt some people here will disagree but, as with any forum, sometimes people give advice on subjects beyond their areas of expertise. And sometimes people advise a certain course of action because they want to sell their own services.

thanks for the reply!

ok 1&1 may not be all that. but would they do the job for now. i was thinking of perhaps using 1&1 for the first year, get established and once everything is up and running move to a more professional service with a re-brand and "re-launch" at the one year anniversary? is that a good way forwards??

thanks again,

robenergy

 

[robenergy]

I can certainly understand why you feel you've bitten off more than you can chew. It can be an intimidating path to go down.

I always ask my customers what they want from their website.
Usually, it's one of two things; a web presence to support existing marketing, or a web presence to bring in new customers all by itself.

I'm not sure what your companies niche is, but depending on how intense the competition is, you may need a decent amount of time or money in some/all of the following:

• Adwords
• Adwords management
• SEO
• Content writing

Some things you can do yourself. Regular content writing is certainly a good start. If you get someone else to make the website for you, make sure you have the ability to modify it yourself so you can do content updates as and when you wish.

Recommendations I always have are:

• Make sure you have control over the domain name. Loads of websites are out there that do that, I like 123-reg personally as the prices have been good - but at under £10/domain/year, a few pounds saving isn't going to make much difference.
• Find a decent web hosting provider. There are loads out there and oftentimes the web development companies will be able to recommend their preferred one (or they'll want you to use theirs).
• If you buy an "off the shelf" website from a 3rd-party company, find out if it needs back-end maintenance. The "Wordpress" product, for example has updates that come out fairly regularly. Make sure you run them as you could open your site up to attacks that could bring the site down.
• Stick to what you do best. If you're good at writing and with some pointers can write SEO-friendly blogs, then terrific! Do that yourself. If you're not so confident, find a company to do it for you and work closely with them.

I'll leave it at that for now, I hope some of that is helpful,

Dan

definitely helpful thanks dan.

its a medical tourism business i want to create. it will be finding cheap but professional surgery abroad. mainly focusing on gastric band fitting and plastic surgery

the competition i've seen so far has only made me feel more confident!

I'm hearing a lot of positives for this wordpress thing and think its definitely worth looking in to!

what i was thinking was to use a company like hostgator or 1&1 for the first year with an off the shelf website and then move to a more professional service and tailor made website later on with a rebrand and relaunch... is this a good business plan? could i use wordpress with gator or 1&1 in a benificial way?

thanks again,

robenergy

 

[robenergy]

Cant help to much on the website design, we have used a few providers but ultimately you get what you pay for. I would recommend using something like WordPress so you can make your own changes. It also has an excellent SEO plugin called Yoast. This will give you some very easy guidelines and even a green light when the SEO is good for that article.

Yoast is very quick and easy to use

Having spent a lot of money with SEO companies in the past, my recommendation here is to use Yoast for product pages and new posts to your site. Put your SEO budget in to article writers. or if you have the time, write your own.

New content is the way forward , your site may not be 100% SEO optimised but without new content it wont matter

hi vmhosts,

thanks for the reply.

i'm in the process of setting up a medical tourism business that will focus on plastic surgery and gastric band fitting.. i'm not sure how the new content thing could fit into that.. updates on..? competitions...? what sort of articles i don't know!?

but thanks for your words of advice as far as seo, article writer and yoast goes!!!

thank

robenergy

 

[fisicx]

if i used wordpress, would it have the "wordpress" name in the url??

No.

Reading your last few posts it's now clear what you are offering. Cheap hosting and and site builder isn't the solution.

You need a standalone site with a whole range on bolt on features if you are going to build trust, get traffic and more importantly convert. Don't use 1&1 or any other cheap shared hosting. Invest in the business, spend a little more on a decent website (wordpress will be fine) and calculate the marketing budget. If you see much change from £500/month I'd be surprised, it's probably a lot more. Just looked at the competition and they are putting big money behind this. The website will be the cheapest part of the business.

As to payments, how are you giing to accept CC payments? Have you got a business account and EPOS? Forget paypal, people paying thousands for the operation aren't going to trust anyone using paypal.

 

[robenergy]

No.

Reading your last few posts it's now clear what you are offering. Cheap hosting and and site builder isn't the solution.

You need a standalone site with a whole range on bolt on features if you are going to build trust, get traffic and more importantly convert. Don't use 1&1 or any other cheap shared hosting. Invest in the business, spend a little more on a decent website (wordpress will be fine) and calculate the marketing budget. If you see much change from £500/month I'd be surprised, it's probably a lot more. Just looked at the competition and they are putting big money behind this. The website will be the cheapest part of the business.

As to payments, how are you giing to accept CC payments? Have you got a business account and EPOS? Forget paypal, people paying thousands for the operation aren't going to trust anyone using paypal.

Hi Fisicx,

Thanks for the info, great help!

Yep, Wordpress is the defo the way forward! Do you know if Wordpress have an app to accept credit cards in the UK, as well as internationally?

Would it be worth having the paypal option for those potential customers that do trust it??

As for Wordpress and buying the domain, is it worth buying a selection of domains like .com, .co.uk, .org, .london etc...?

And yes, the advertising will be the toughest/expensive part, thanks for the idea on the sort of change I can expect! I'll just see how it goes, but at the end of the day you've got to speculate to accumulate! ..... And I've read Think and grow rich!!

Thanks again,

Robenergy

 

[robenergy]

No.

Reading your last few posts it's now clear what you are offering. Cheap hosting and and site builder isn't the solution.

You need a standalone site with a whole range on bolt on features if you are going to build trust, get traffic and more importantly convert.

In your opinion, what would be best to have as a URL? The full name- healthybodconnections.com or an acronym of it- hbc.com(I'm still working on the name )

and again, would it be worth buying a selection of domains?- .co.uk, .com etc..?

Thanks

Robenergy

 

[fisicx]

Something memorable and not too restrictive. The more specific the domain name the less able you will be to diversify the business in the future. Robenergy.co.uk is nicely generic

If you are targeting the UK then get the .co.uk and the .com

 

[robenergy]

Something memorable and not too restrictive. The more specific the domain name the less able you will be to diversify the business in the future. Robenergy.co.uk is nicely generic

If you are targeting the UK then get the .co.uk and the .com

How does "body health connections" sound..?

 

[robenergy]

Something memorable and not too restrictive. The more specific the domain name the less able you will be to diversify the business in the future. Robenergy.co.uk is nicely generic

If you are targeting the UK then get the .co.uk and the .com

OK, thank you. I ended up buying 4 of them,, just incase!

Any idea what the pro's and con's are between joomla and wordpress?
Is there any draw backs to Joomla??

Thanks

Robenergy

 

[DexSmart]

Hello Rob.

Your first impact with internet, website, SEO can be hard because you will have to learn a lot of things overnight. But...

1. Take all things step by step, don't rush and don't throw out with money.
2. Make a plan that you think is cool ( how you think marketing will be feasible if you do that or that..)
3. Go on Google SEO page and study what you never heard before.
4. Start your quest when you think you are ready.
5. Wordpress for start. Joomla later.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[fisicx]

How does "body health connections" sound..?

Yuk.

It's three meaningless words. Zanariba is a good word - sounds sort of exotic, it's transferable and it's not language specific.

 

[pickaweb]

I would recommend getting a hosting service that offers a website builder tool. This is a common feature. You can also easily build a website using Wordpress.

 

[simong93]

I would first of all suggest using a hosting supplier with Cpanel. Then downloading wordpress, Wordpress will allow you to seo your site on the go and by going to places like www.themeforest.com you can get a nice website at a reasonable at around $30-$50.

 

[robenergy]

Thanks for that... But I've signed up with Joomla already and just bought a template for my website.. Could definitely do with something easier.. Perhaps I'll use Wordpress for another site I have in mind!?

Is Joomla really that harsh to get to grips with??

 

[ryedale]

Getting the initial design styled and set up right can be be a bit of a learning curve

For managing actual content though, we've used it for 8 years over a wide range of design clients from IT loathing sole trader builders through to large secondary schools with a large number of people jointly maintaining it

After an initial training session it's actually very rare for anyone to call us needing help to manage their content though. Nearly everyone gets the hang of it straight away.

If you need any advice or help, feel free to get in touch, we know it inside out !

 

[fisicx]

Is Joomla really that harsh to get to grips with??

As suggested, joomla has far steeper learning curve than wordpress. You can't just install and launch in the same way you can with wordpress but once you have set up all the modules it's just as easy to manage.

Of the two I still prefer wordpress, I just find it easier to play with.

 

[ryedale]

Well you can .. 1 click installs work exactly the same way and the site is ready to albeit with a dull out of the box template

As you say, though it's down to personal preference although what we do tend to find is that people who have come to us having previously used Wordpress find Joomla more rewarding once we get them past the initial understanding of the concepts used.