Rob Boudrie Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 You also need to determine what additional items besides displaying static web pages wil be part of your site: - on-line secure sales? - Database driven content? - User-modifyable database? - Customer relations management? If you're doing any of these, the web hosting platform an server-side tools become relevant issues. If not, you can run on just about anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timamal Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 best idea pay a pro to do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulW Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 But what fun is that???? I do have some technical experince. Our website is pretty simple. Just displays our products, no online purchase or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Since it's for your company, just buy Dreamweaver - heck, with all of "us" using it, ya run into trouble, a quick post and you'll have more answers than you need GAH - no wonder I can't make a living as a web designer, i keep giving away my secrets to potential customers!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 What Kathy said...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 GAH - no wonder I can't make a living as a web designer, i keep giving away my secrets to potential customers Never teach your clients to do what you actually do for them. Always maintain a USP (unique selling position). Only teach them how to do the tedium stuff that you hate doing nowadays like image sizing, slicing and thumbnail prep, etc. Let them know they can handle that part of the task themselves and save a couple bucks and they will be all over it once they think they can save a dime. You may even get gladly paid to do it all again after they find out it's not really that easy to make the good lookin' stuff ;-) The more you teach them, the more you learn. It is a double-edged sword though, as an educated client is easier and harder to deal with at the same time Save yourself for the important (read fun here) stuff that you just learned how to do for the last job, but are still mastering. After all, don't we always want to be working on what's hot, new, fresh and still on the bleeding edge of technique instead of just staying up all night slicing images into tables? BTW Paul, a full version of DW 8 runs $275ish : http://www.edirectsoftware.com/product.php?product_id=16194 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heiter Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 A thirty day free trial of Dreamweaver is, well FREE! Plan your site and then try out the software....and if you've got kids in school, they really really need an educational version. Do it for the children! Fyi, I don't mind generating image slices or thumbnails for clients at all. Image Ready droplets, php utilities, etc. There are plenty of ways to automate that process that still let you bill by the hour for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 There are plenty of ways to automate that process that still let you bill by the hour for it. I use ImageReady for that too, ever since it reared it's ugly little head back in PS 5.5, but that ain't no hand codin', nope it ain't ;-) My fave thumbnailer lately is GD Library in PHP. Thumbnails, what thumbnails? ;P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timamal Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 (edited) Hi Paul Its tim in winter Park I have a full working version of dreamweaver 8 let me know if you want it Edited January 19, 2006 by timamal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Thumbnailer? OMFG - I'm still copying/cutting/pasting and shrinking! Tell me more!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 OK, here you go. GD Library in PHP is basically server side image manipulation where thumbnails and other images are created on the fly instead of in advance. http://www.boutell.com/gd/gd.html http://us2.php.net/image http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/105/0.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulW Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 TIM, heck ya, when and where dude!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Macromedia is no more folks. Bought by Adobe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Macromedia is no more folks. Bought by Adobe Not so true. I do media presentation work for both and even though Adobe has 4000 new employees as their CEO put it at the recent employee meeting, thry are still individual and unique companies. They are going to collaborate and meld technologies (PDF/Flash ?), but the existing product lines are staying just like they are and development is going ahead at Macromedia on new versions of all their existing products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I reccomend dreamweaver it can do soo much more than most people can do with far less education! Let us know how it's going if you have it already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uscbigdawg Posted May 14, 2006 Share Posted May 14, 2006 Okay...Barney level this for those of us that are REALLY stupid. I buy the address that I want first, then start building the page? What hardware do I need (like some kind of a server or is my trusty home computer going to get 'er did)? Any and all is appreciated. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted May 14, 2006 Share Posted May 14, 2006 You can start building the site on your home computer, and then but the site but.... domains are cheap (I use www.godaddy.com to buy the name) and once you think of the one you want you should register it before someone else does. You don't need your own server unless you are doing extensive development of database or server side generated pages, in which case a local waeb server can be a great help. If you're just getting started, I wouldn't worry about that for now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted May 14, 2006 Share Posted May 14, 2006 Okay...Barney level this for those of us that are REALLY stupid OK, you hire Kathy, Rob, or me and BAM! it's done ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
standles Posted May 14, 2006 Share Posted May 14, 2006 And what do the web God's usually charge fopr a say.... 20 page gun club website? Just ballpark not commitment to do anything and the site is nothing fancy. Steven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 I NEVER charge a flat rate for anything. My work is always Time & Materials (hourly, or day rate plus expenses). This prevents me from getting beaten to death by clients that will never be satisfied no matter what you do for them ;-) That said, It can run as little as a days work to build a simple HTML only website with a half dozen pages, or install and configure a simple script driven CMS portal, DEPENDING on the graphic design elements needed to meet the visual requirements for the site. It may also take months, cost thousands and thousands of dollars and may even require a distributed/team effort if the project is large and deep enough and/or has lots of dynamically served content and cutting edge web features. Something like installing just the galleries you were asking about in another thread would be considered at least a half day, if not a full day. Re-skinning them and hacking them to your needs could be another day. Figure $300-$500 a day depending on the type of work being performed (script modification and graphics design work is more expensive than just stamping out iterative HTML templates). Some folks don't know what they want graphically until they see it and will love your first idea, some folks need 30 iterations before they like what they see. Others just want their existing logo slapped at the top of the page and they are happy. In other words, the project price can vary greatly according to how much graphic design and custom content creation is involved. This is why all my work is done under T&M billing because IMHO there is no such thing as one size/price fits all when it comes to website design/implementation. Other folks have differn't way's and means, Myself, I don't do per project, or per page rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
standles Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Fair enough. Sounds like good reasoning for the T&M billing. I have been up against some of the "never satisfied" clan in my line of work. Let me see if the clb is willing to shell out some money. I will also see if Ican better define (map out) the site. If they are willing to dop some coin it will be faster and cheaper than me learning it as I go. Thanks for the replies to both topics. Steven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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