Web designers

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 5:19 pm

I know you can design your own websites - but I don't think I want to, I'd rather pay someone.

It's about time we had one and with all the stuff we sell there'll be a zillion key words to be used no doubt.

This company, based in Devon, has designed sites for a few Grumblers! and they are well happy.

http://traversedesigns.com/

This one is coming to see us tomorrow

http://www.profitablewebsites.co.uk/

Mrs R is dealing - I screwed up last time - well the company did and Pat predicted they would!!

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 6:53 pm

OK I went to the one website and looked at This page

Then I pasted the URL of the other designer into the 'validator' link and got This.

More than 5 faults is supposed to be 'AVOID' and this has six - not quite sure what all the jargon means!!

The Crofter · Post by **The Crofter** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 10:02 pm

I will be interested to see what you end up paying for your site (if you can share the info). The last time I quoted for a site build it was £750+ maintenance + content management. There were a few caveats to ensure the process did not drag on which can easily swamp the original price (in terms of the hours I worked) if not controlled. There has to be a point at which the customer agrees that the site style/layout is complete and this needs to happen fairly quickly. The site never went ahead as the customer did not provide any content for over two months and I had to move onto other things.

I am not touting for work !.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 10:55 pm

Oh don't worry - I'm all for sharing - I think we are looking at £750 set up and first year hosting - it all depends on effect and continuity, plus cost of that continuity - we dropped yelluh pages (display - in our local book and the one each side, under several headings) a good couple of years ago and whatever we pay it will never match the cost of that.

We pay £6000+ pa for radio advertising - what sort of website could you get for THAT? (!!!!)

It won't match the cost of that either.

If they can give and if what they give can produce - we'll pay.

I like to be left free to do what I am good at - making holes in boards and turning long bits of wood in to square ones.

More than prepared to let people who are as good at what they do as I am at what I (we) do tell the world about us.

I'd never dream of setting up my own radio station, why try and do my own website - it's not what I'm good at.

Anyway - once it's set up you can all crit the frell out of it!

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 5:49 am

John,
1500 quid is about 3000+ Aussie dollars. Sheeesh, that's a lot of money! the web designers are pretty hungry up there by the sounds of that!

It would be interesting to know what the hosting component is in that price.
This is the company I use for hosting. Check it out: http://www.lunarpages.com/basic-hosting/

Bill Henry · Post by **Bill Henry** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 6:00 pm

As a suggestion, John, why not hire a local high school (teenager) to help design your web site?

Bear with me.

First, £750 seems like a lot to me. Kids work cheap.

Second, professionals generally have a lot of clients to have to work with and may not be able to give you as much time as you would wish. With a local kid, you could probably meet with him/her every day (as soon as they get out of detention).

Third, if the pros are not local, you will have to describe in excruciatingly, minute detail every piddling small change you may want to make. With a kid, you can sit over his/her shoulder and say, “move that image over there” (pointing to the screen), or “the background ought to be just a little more beige” (and wait ‘til he/she gets its just right) or, “I don’t like that font – let’s try something else”. Those are some of the things that are very difficult to do with a web designer with whom you are not setting next to.

Fourth, with a pro, they may nickel and dime (penny and farthing) you to death for every change to your site that you want to make. I have a friend who has a professional maintain her web site and it costs her a minimum of $100 for every 15 minutes that she spends on the phone with them. That is if he returns her calls in the first place. You can probably satisfy a kid with a bottle of Coke and a bag of potato crisps and get any changes you wish to make within a day or two.

I’m serious. Check with some local folks to see if there are any young geeks who would be willing to do this. You might be able to save a whole lot of money and a whole lot of aggravation.

Post by **prospero** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 7:44 pm

Good thinking Bill.

A thing to consider when using a pro is that once the site is up and running, it doesn't end there. A good site is one that is kept up to date. How much is said pro gonna charge for 'maintaining' the site? Plus, will he release all the source files if you should ever want to dispense with his services?

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 8:07 pm

Well Mrs R is impressed with the guy - he came to the house - no puter in shop so I saw/heard nothing.

It's her baby!

It'll be more like £850 and we get a software package that enables us to do most stuff ourselves after. It will all be confirmed in writing soon.

Here's one of his sites anyway

http://www.wbfloormachines.co.uk/

Paul Hardy · Post by **Paul Hardy** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 9:46 am

My site was designed and set up by a computing undergraduate. Whover designs it, I would suggest hosting your site on a server that you pay for, not under the control of the web designer. Make sure you have password access to the program files on your server. If your web designer loses interest, or goes bust or disappears, you can get someone else to take over the site maintenance. Without the password, especially if the hosting account is in someone else's name, you will have to start again from scratch.

Paul Hardy
www.sudbury-picture-frames.co.uk

Bill Henry · Post by **Bill Henry** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 5:41 pm

Paul make a very good point!

This woman, Nancy, whom I referred to in a previous post had a web designer (a Linda Somebody-or-other) who she was very happy with initially. But, Linda had some personal problems and began to neglect Nancy’s web site i.e. not returning phone calls and not making requested changes.

Linda decided she would close up shop and move out of state. Meanwhile Nancy’s web site languished. It took her over two months to regain control of it.

You can almost always view the .html code on most browsers (not a bad idea to view and save copies of it), but if you have trouble with a web designer and they try keep you from accessing your own site, you may have to abandon your domain name and republish your web pages under another name. That is like starting all over with a new identity – your rankings in search engines go kaput. It may take months under your new name to reestablish yourself.

Paul Hardy · Post by **Paul Hardy** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 7:01 pm

If you have a simple website, you can save a copy of it 'from outside' (I believe). If it is database driven, then a lot of the program development work you have paid for can't be accessed unless you can get into your password protected space on the hosting server.

Paul Hardy
www.sudbury-picture-frames.co.uk

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 7:50 pm

Roboframer wrote: It'll be more like £850 and we get a software package that enables us to do most stuff ourselves after. It will all be confirmed in writing soon.

Here's one of his sites anyway

http://www.wbfloormachines.co.uk/

Methinks I will change professions.
I could make real money at those prices for sites like that!

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 8:33 pm

Roboframer wrote:It'll be more like £850 and we get a software package that enables us to do most stuff ourselves after. It will all be confirmed in writing soon.

Here's one of his sites anyway

http://www.wbfloormachines.co.uk/

John, scroll down to the end of the page on this website. On my PC, the light-coloured text at the bottom of the screen flows beyond the box with the dark background. If it's not my browser (IE7) causing the site to display in this fashion, then it's one major design howler. If so, I'd be concerned about his attention to detail.

Mr Bojangles · Post by **Mr Bojangles** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 8:42 pm

you are only right moglet, it overflows on my pc too

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 8:49 pm

Oh yeah - never spotted that - maybe the company edited it themselves and cocked it up - would hope it wasn't left like that by the designer.

Been fliiting through his other sites and don't see similar problems. We'll see what comes in writing; have a couple of others we like the look of, but anyway, Pat's baby!

Great to have you back Áine

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 8:56 pm

I'm 'The Mog Who Came in From the Cold!'

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 9:19 pm

I notice they charge you a one off fee of £50 for search engine submissions.

You can do that yourself for free.

Phill · Post by **Phill** » Sun 09 Mar, 2008 11:44 am

As we are talking about web design, who designed your site Áine, I think it is one of the best sites I've seen.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Sun 09 Mar, 2008 2:44 pm

Mostly me...

Thankyou for such glowing feedback - appreciated!

I used a template package called Mr. Site (Pro version), as recommended by the Kaptain. His site is lovely: really cool slideshows!

Mr. Site has various templates included that you can customise to your own liking. Then, it's a case of bunging in content and images. Took me just over a week, and much of that was content and image editing.

(Funky new avatar, btw!

)