made your own website?

[MorrisChesterfield]

good afternoon.

just a quick question,

has anybody used those " make your own website " tools and made it work, with success?

i know its not the best thing to do, but i just fancy messing around with something in my spare time on a new project i am looking at.

thanks,

ben

 

[Dagz]

Wordpress is the best way for a novice to make a website I believe.

 

[tony84]

http://kompozer.net/
http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/
Both are free, ive never tried them but they are whats called WYSIWYG editors (What You See Is What You Get) kinda like making a word document it does all the coding part for you.

Not the best way of doing things but its a good start.

There is also dreamweaver, which you have to pay for but im sure you can pick up an old version on ebay for £20-30. Dreamweaver is by far the best i have used.

 

[DesignerNick]

I would agree that Dreamweaver is the best way to learn

It really depends what sort of site you want to make to be honest. Is it an online store? Is it just a simple site to show your services?

If you post up what you want to do I can give you some advice to get started!

 

[MorrisChesterfield]

hi,

thanks for your replys,

i have had 3 sites made by a company, and i am happy with them, but i just fancy trying my luck and see how well i can make it on google,

i just want a basic 5 page site with an enquiry form.

and i only want to get the site in my area of chesterfield as its for waste collection and it doesnt pay to travel to collect a sofa for £15 quid!

or am i best just paying £300 - £400 quid and have one made professionally, its all the seo and hosting that costs!

thanks

Ben

 

[oldeagleeye]

Try A4 Desk. You can download about 25 different themes and easily colous etc. It is all fully functional and you can even upload but you have to regsiter for abiut £40 quid to remove the 'DEMO' tag.

http://www.a4desk.com/

The other one to consider is Wordpress. That is free but you have to have a hosting service and play around on-line.

rob

 

[Sobie]

I just used Serif's free download. You can only have 10 pages, and you have to upgrage to the £9.99 download to make forms. I just use 123reg to purchase the domain name etc.
It only took me a couple of hours to make our current site (it could be better) I was trialling it because we are thinking of upgrading to an ecomerce site and I'm thinking about purchasing their X4 software and because windows 7 would not recognise my old Webeasy software.
www.p-rgardensupplies.co.uk

 

[Esk247]

it depends if you have the time spare to do it. anyone can knock up a website in a day but whether it will be any good or not is another matter, its the making it better that costs the money.

people pay website designers because they dont have the time or skill to do it themselves, if you've got the time and fancy learning to do a basic website then its worth a go, won't cost you much for domain/hosting.

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

I think it depends on your ultimate aim.

If you want to learn about HTML, CSS etc Dreamweaver is the way forward.

If you want to get content up with minimal technical knowledge Wordpress is a good move

 

[studentfancydress]

Google has a great free site option, perfect for beginners. Type "Google sites" into Google.

 

[nickoedwards]

I'd agree with the Dreamweaver comments.

However, if you're really looking at getting a web site and you're just learning, pay a professional to do it. That's the bottom line, in my opinion. Having a very amateur web site will do your brand more harm that good.

I am in a position whereby I've moved from web design project management into a family business which doesn't require me to design web sites on a daily business. When I was first starting out, I designed my own web sites and several versions of sites for the family business, looking back they were awful. At the time, I thought they were amazing, but half the reward was actually having a web site that I designed - this smoked over how visually (un)appealing it was.

Working at a web design agency has opened my eyes to many things in the world of web design, many things you wouldn't think of. So much so that now I will speak to professionals on developing my sites rather than developing a site myself.

Saying that, learning HTML provide you with a good basis when writing web content with or without a CMS. Dreamweaver is great for this.

 

[maxh]

I used Weebly for about 8 websites.

Its never let me down!

 

[DesignerNick]

I wouldn't ever use a free site like Google or a Wordpress that is hosted by them or Blogger for a business site.

It looks doesn't look good.

 

[ParagPrasad]

I would advice against it in general. The average business owner doesn't have the skills to do a good job of it.

It makes more sense to pay someone with the expertise to get it done in much less time and for a reasonable price (website designers are not hard to come by. Good ones on the other hand...). Spend the time you save doing the things that you are good at - i.e. getting out there selling your product and managing your team.

If you're fairly computer literate and intent on doing it yourself I would suggest putting aside a good few weekends to learn how to use a reputable CMS (Content Management System) like Wordpress (its not just for blogs, plenty of small businesses use it to maintain a very professional looking web presence) or Joomla, as well as some basic graphic design software. Don't bother with tacky build-a-web-site-in-10-clicks type things.

Best of luck

 

[MorrisChesterfield]

hi all, thanks for all your comments, ive had a think and i think the best thing is to build on our current website and seo work and let my web man do it. i do fancy having ago at my own, but like somebody said think it was edwards, when you do it your self you thinks its great, but really its not!

many thanks, ukbf helps again ( obv its members )

ben

 

[Damage]

Hey,

I wouldn't bother getting dreamweaver if you don't know xhtml/css unless you want to learn it obviously. Quite a steep learning curve though.

If you want to learn the code go get dreamweaver and go to W3 Schools w3schools.com and do some tutorials.

If you just want a website, try wix.com, I haven't tryed it being a web designer but it looks easy...

 

[ecenica]

I would say give it a go. Try coding up a basic HTML site, or if feeling adventurous install WordPress on to your web space and try out a few themes and plugins.

If at the end you're not 100% happy, then you can use your experience to approach a professional web designer. Key is to present your ideas to them and then hear what he or she has in mind.

Have fun!

^R

EDIT: Oh, agree with Damage. w3schools.com and a basic HTML editor is far better option than DreamWeaver which can produce some pretty bloated code itself. If on Mac take a look at BBEdit, Textmate or Coda.

 

[benstege]

I would strongly recommend wordpress, buy a nice template and customise it! Enough of a challenge I would say and you'll end up with a easily manageble website without having to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop every 2 seconds. Also, it is very good for SEO!
Hope that helps!

 

[Newcott]

Both my sites are built with Joomla

www.Fireflylondon.co.uk
&
www.BlackTieVisuals.com

very easy to use, has SEO built in, can change it as and when i want. Spent a total of £50 on the templates and a couple of hours getting them to how I'd like.

 

[MrWhite]

I would strongly recommend WordPress too because:-

• WordPress is pretty easy to master, so you don't need to be a programmer

• WordPress has SEO built in, so you don't have to master it

• You'll save yourself hundreds of pounds for a few hours work

WordPress can look amazing -especially if you buy a "premium theme" for around £30. These paid for themes tend to be better looking and better supported (by customer service) than the free themes. However, some free themes can be pretty good, but you'll nedd to spend time finding the one that suits you. Then all you'll need is a hosting account for £10 a year.

Either Search google for "Premium WordPress themes" or save yourself the effort and try Woothemes, who I think might be the biggest and best.

 

[ukconstructionguru]

I would strongly recommend Joomla. Really easy to make professional looking sites and such an amazing range of choices.

Give it a go via Fantastico in your cpanel - you'll never look back!

Chris

 

[Probafix]

Just owning the web site and joining the website bandwagon is one thing. owning a catchy and germane website and being a distinguished player is altogether a different ball game.

 

[Jamoo]

I used weebly to build these two sites - sunroombuilders.co.uk & kitchensscotland.com

Fairly basic sites but found weebly very simple to use and cost effective

 

[London Photographer]

its worth doing if you have the time- and I did this once - but once you put it out you soon notice that full time web designers do a much better job and after all its the shop front of your company

 

[Funny Business Cartoons]

Here's another one....
http://www.moonfruit.com/?cc=509413:rolleyes:

 

[BizGurl]

I'd stay away from Wix....total rubbish. Against everyones 'wise' words, I tried it myself when I couldn't afford a 'proper' site, and learnt just how cr*p it was! Most Wix sites take years to load, and I've never actually come across one during a search engine search.

For someone who would like a pretty decent site, without being too knowledgable, I would reccommend Serif WebPlus X4 or X5 which is fairly priced and has more of a desktop publishing/graphic design feel. There are also options for basic SEO etc, etc. Brilliant software and much cheaper than Dreamweaver, which I still hated even after doing a training course!

 

[V3hicl3Keeper]

You can try some CMS to build your website.