How do you create a website on a budget?

[S-Jack]

If you want a web host you can look for shared web hosting if its small and then upgrade to VPS's and Dedicated servers later on when you need more space etc.

With a web host you can set up content management systems like Wordpress and blogs, shared hosting is one of the cheapest packages outside on the web without going free and then being able to upgrade for a few pounds extra a month.

& Some will come with website builders

 

[jamjam11]

I had a problem with a paid in advance website company after spending 7 months sourcing products in China. Basically they ripped me off although socialism did have a play in it. That being said, I ended up learning linux and joining a few linux forums and after turning an old PC at home into a full out server i started learning CSS/HTML and touched on PHP. You can rent a linux server for around 150 pounds a year and start building it up, Linode.com offer servers in London and a load of information to get one secured and running. After that install Wordpress into your www/mysite.uk/public_hmtl folder and start adding plugins to add content.

Running and maintaining a linode linux server is not that easy at first and certainly many people are put off straight away by such commands as $sudo apt-get update or $sudo ls www/mysite.co/public_html Many just don't take a little time out to learn basic commands. You might think this is a lot of work for a little website that you might want, But trust me it's highly additive and if you set up your linode in the right manner you can add any number of sites with as little as 4 commands. Thanks to socialist circles my sourcing company got held back in China which in turn effected millions of UK citizens looking for someone to source or meet up with the suppliers before handing money over. That's socialists for you, Today i got the site built using the method i told you about and along the journey i learned a great deal about running e-commerce sites so i decided to shut tobots.co.uk down and use it as a test bed for updates before installing on my online shops which is still in the making. You can do a lot of building for 150 pounds a year, Only your brain can hold you back. Good luck ; }

 

[Alan]

You can do a lot of building for 150 pounds a year, Only your brain can hold you back. Good luck ; }

£150 per year rather understates the cost of learning and implementing, unless you work for free.

 

[MatthewRJones]

I would buy a WordPress theme from Themeforest and pay someone on People Per Hour to install and set it up for you.

 

[OakMarkLondon]

you could learn CMS (content management systems) such as wordpress or joomla and do it yourself. Some less sophisticaed tools would be weebly or snappages

 

[slclark17]

I'm very happy with yola.com (though I don't use my website for selling, just for info)

 

[TheKid]

A company's branding (start-up or established enterprise) needn't be expensive, you are correct! To gain a sleek, concise virtually conceptualised environment to portray to you audience can be a flexible task with an outside party.
Take your time to do the research in to companies and agencies that will allow the business owner/founder to progress with other tasks on the priority list. If you time it right and have a fully qualified, cohesive team behind your branding, you can roll out all at once and provide shock and awe for your audience.

 

[James199522]

There are a lot of replies to this thread so I'm unsure if my suggestion has been posted before.

As an IT student I know for a fact that you could approach any number of IT teachers with the intention of giving their students an opportunity to get hands on with developing web pages. Students would jump at the chance of payment (even if it is less than standard costs for the job) for something many students can do incredibly well

 

[Nuno]

A company's branding (start-up or established enterprise) needn't be expensive, you are correct! To gain a sleek, concise virtually conceptualised environment to portray to you audience can be a flexible task with an outside party.
Take your time to do the research in to companies and agencies that will allow the business owner/founder to progress with other tasks on the priority list. If you time it right and have a fully qualified, cohesive team behind your branding, you can roll out all at once and provide shock and awe for your audience.

Absobleedinglutely. Well put.

 

[ThePrufeshanul]

some advice guys.

I have designed how i want my website to look - from reading the above, it would seem the easiest thing to do would be to use a simple Wordpress/Joomla wireframe to hang everything on.

The only problem is that i want to have some (basic) animation on the site which must be compatible with iOS devices. Is this easy to do with a wordpress plug in or will it entail a major headache?

Secondly, I have bought my domain names but am unsure how i can actually use these to host my site.

many thanks for your kind advice!

 

[waskas]

You can find cheap frelancer at elance.com

 

[logoglo]

Wordpress and a free template is the way to do it, or Squarespace, the hard part is then getting your webpage hits from the massive space that is the internet.

 

[freesoftware]

Fiverr.com has numerous wordpress gigs and believe me the majority know how to instal a wordpress site. Then IK can design you a suitable whiteboard animation to insert into your site as well as placing it on sites such as youtube which will generate traffic to your site

 

[Nuno]

Fiverr.com has numerous wordpress gigs and believe me the majority know how to instal a wordpress site. Then IK can design you a suitable whiteboard animation to insert into your site as well as placing it on sites such as youtube which will generate traffic to your site

Traffic is a waste of bandwidth unless it converts.

 

[freesoftware]

That's obvious just as any other form of advertising

 

[Nuno]

That's obvious just as any other form of advertising

Yes it is obvious which is why I mentioned it. Your post seemed to say that getting traffic from YouTube, (itself a dubious marketing proposition), was the end point of the exercise. It was the end point of your post.
I merely pointed out that untargeted traffic is useless but conversion is crucial because this is an important point in a thread about noob web building.

 

[lawyerfair]

free WP site is the easy bit, getting traffic and making it stick is the challenge. think about finding someone who can make the site sing ... particularly with the UX/UI ... it's tough getting traffic, you don't want to burn it with a 2nd rate UX

 

[busybob]

From personal experience, some clients who think they desperately need a website, really have no use for a website for their business needs (but will not be told otherwise). Unless your website _requires_ a webpresence to operate, it will probably receive so very little traffic that you wouldn't notice if it wasn't there - meaning it would be a complete waste of your time and resources. I'm sure most people who advertise website services will disagree here, but they have to, it's their business to sell the dream, not the truth.

I don't think it should be a start-up concern. Look for alternative established ways of advertising initially.

 

[Alex Brooks]

Send me a message if you need a reliable affordable freelancer. More than happy to help

 

[studioraygun]

I would buy a WordPress theme from Themeforest and pay someone on People Per Hour to install and set it up for you.

This is a very savvy approach. You need to make sure (and I mean, really make sure), you hire somebody that knows what they're doing though. Themes are great when you buy them but I've seen them get destroyed so many times but people that bastardise them to make them "work" for their business (PPH is rife with poor developers).

I would always recommend going the tailored route, unless your website is of really minimal importance to your business. Many B2B companies don't need a complex website, for example (because those clients are won offline).

 

[Nuno]

PPH is rife with poor developers

Jeez. Wonder why?

 

[Alex Brooks]

This is a very savvy approach. You need to make sure (and I mean, really make sure), you hire somebody that knows what they're doing though. Themes are great when you buy them but I've seen them get destroyed so many times but people that bastardise them to make them "work" for their business (PPH is rife with poor developers).

I would always recommend going the tailored route, unless your website is of really minimal importance to your business. Many B2B companies don't need a complex website, for example (because those clients are won offline).

I've taken on a number of clients through people per hour, and have always provided a brilliant service and have made sure every customer is a happy one. But I have to agree it'd very important that you hire someone with experience because sadly there are loads of people on PPH who don't have a clue

 

[studioraygun]

I've taken on a number of clients through people per hour, and have always provided a brilliant service and have made sure every customer is a happy one. But I have to agree it'd very important that you hire someone with experience because sadly there are loads of people on PPH who don't have a clue

I sometimes dip in and out of that community. It's useful every now and then, and I've met a handful of valuable clients through it. But the strike rate is very low, and many of the suppliers seem to be very, very poor at practicing their profession.

 

[Evie47]

Use micro-jobbing websites. Obviously make sure that the person you work with has plenty of 100% reviews so you are working with someone experienced but using sites like fivesquids.co.uk is so easy when you have website design problems etc. For the non-tech savvy, having support and someone to answer your questions while they build your website (wordpress installations are the most popular jobs) is really worth £10-£20.

 

[Alex Brooks]

I sometimes dip in and out of that community. It's useful every now and then, and I've met a handful of valuable clients through it. But the strike rate is very low, and many of the suppliers seem to be very, very poor at practicing their profession.

Me too, people per hour has been the start of many online relations for me, you have no idea how happy I am that I signed up to PPH

 

[CoderDog]

if you need a website, first you need to decide:

1. is it going to be a serious business, you want to live from the business?
2. is it just a hobby website, personal website etc. and you not really want make any money from it

if your answer is the 1st option go for a reliable company, where you can find a team who is behind you, and they have designers, developers, customer service etc.

if your answer is the 2nd option go for freelancers, cheap website generators.

with cheap website generators, freelancers you can't establish a serious business. not to mention if you want to improve your website, add features etc.

just imagine going into a Ferrari shop where the leaflet is black&white and printed on a plain paper. what would you think?

 

[Paul Murray]

with cheap website generators, freelancers you can't establish a serious business.

I don't entirely agree with that rationale about freelancers. I assume you're talking about amateurs rather than professional freelancers?

As a freelancer, I've been brought in-house to design studios on a freelance contract solely to design sites that the studio then billed their clients thousands for. Similarly I work for a couple of clients who run successful online businesses, yet was the only person working on the website design and functionality.

Most of their success comes down to their knowledge of business and their target market. They could have gone to a huge agency to complete their site, but without knowing what they were doing as a business, that site wouldn't do squat for them.

 

[CoderDog]

hey Paul,

sorry, I didn't want to offend you at all!

Even if you are a professional freelancer you can't handle bigger workload, designing, coding, dealing with different customers, meeting customers, working on the marketing, follow up your bills etc. For me a team is always much reliable regardless are we talking about digital design or not.

In a team you have people for each and every field where they are using their mastered skills.

 

[quikshop]

Horses for courses... www.web-updater.co.uk are cheap and competent for a glossy basic brochure style website. There are services allowing you to build your own website but these should really be seen as a temporary holding option until your business is mature enough to afford a more professional effort.

 

[JohnRam]

I really do not like the idea of setting up a .wordpress site. That looks so tacky, especially if you are trying to be something special or professional, it just does not look good if you are a free website user. There are so many different options that cost less than 100 dollars that I think you should just spend the money.

 

[Nuno]

I really do not like the idea of setting up a .wordpress site. That looks so tacky, especially if you are trying to be something special or professional, it just does not look good if you are a free website user. There are so many different options that cost less than 100 dollars that I think you should just spend the money.

You must be a real expert on WordPress sites. Perhaps some Wordpress users could use your advice. Companies like Time Magazine, New York Times, The Spectator, The TED Blog, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, UPS, Martha Stewart, Boingboing and maybe some others too.
They all have WordPress sites of one sort or another.
Silly Billies.

 

[Paul Murray]

You must be a real expert on WordPress sites. Perhaps some Wordpress users could use your advice. Companies like Time Magazine, New York Times, The Spectator, The TED Blog, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, UPS, Martha Stewart, Boingboing and maybe some others too.
They all have WordPress sites of one sort or another.
Silly Billies.

I think that post was referring to setting up a site on Wordpress.com, which is free but limits control over the style and design of the theme.

 

[tylnewcastle]

DIY - Do it yourself, is the best way to build a website. Yes, it will require lot of research, but you will be find your way out and trust me they are as simple as cheese cake.

 

[beasty]

DIY - Do it yourself, is the best way to build a website. Yes, it will require lot of research, but you will be find your way out and trust me they are as simple as cheese cake.

Time
Simple

See thing is I am certain i COULD learn this stuff.. but i also know that TIME aint free and simple looks poor OFTEN

Why bother learning how do do this if you have no aspiration of being a web designer?

Seriously anyone who says i am not a web designer but i did it myself, you can tell they did and they in producing their crumby looking site they wasted a lot of time when they might just have paid someone to do it properly

 

[tylnewcastle]

Time
Simple

See thing is I am certain i COULD learn this stuff.. but i also know that TIME aint free and simple looks poor OFTEN

Why bother learning how do do this if you have no aspiration of being a web designer?

Seriously anyone who says i am not a web designer but i did it myself, you can tell they did and they in producing their crumby looking site they wasted a lot of time when they might just have paid someone to do it properly

You can try out some freelancing website's like oDesk and Elance. You can get a website ready in max $100

 

[KevinThompson]

I agree with the statement. According to me budget depends on your business nature and requirement. If you want to start e-commerce kind of website then the budget would much more than just a simple 10 pages website.

What do you think pal?

Kevin

 

[PublicDemandMedia]

As many others have said, Wordpress is a good way to for producing a website on a low budget. You can download free themes or premium themes for under £50 and just apply your own content. Most themes come with documentation which outlines the theme features and how best to use it. Alternatively, YouTube is filled with a number of free tutorials on how to set up and operate Wordpress.

It can be time consuming as a beginner though.

Good Luck!

 

[MAWuk]

I thought about this a lot before commissioning someone to do mine, in the end it came down to time and how that should be best spent. To do it properly so that it looks professional, you will inevitably need to spend a lot of time in learning how to do it, every aspect of it. My thoughts in the end were; that time would be better spent on the business side of things itself. My opinion is that if you can afford it, pay a professional to do it and get the best website you can afford. Don't scrimp, its your first and only impression of your business to the world, why compromise on it, its too important.

 

[HazelC]

I used Geek Designs in Peterborough, they were £350 for a basic, 1-4 page website and that was fine for me when I started out - I have just grown my website with them since,.

 

[UK Marketing Consultant]

£350 sounds just about right in current currency for a brochure website under 5 pages.