Suggestions on building a website?

4Sheets

I need to build a website to promote a service I plan to provide.My question is whats the best way to go I dont wanna learn html..maybe MS frontpage but I'd have to buy that or one of the many free website builders of the net?I want it to look semi-professional at least but I don't really wanna spend too much cash or time doing it!
Any suggestions?

Giblet

I'd recommend planning the scope and makeup of your site. If it's a small brochure type site, I'd then recommend you find someone to do it for you as a nixer. Or learn HTML. Frontpage might be able to create an ok site, but it will be full of bad markup and might not be cross browser compatible. Unfortunately, as with most things, you can have it cheap, or you can have it done well. Most of the time, the two are mutually exclusive.

Evil Phil

Moved from Dev.

I wouldn't recommend you do this yourself, its not that expensive to get a decent brochure site to describe you and the service you're providing plus contact details.

4Sheets

Evil Phil wrote: »

Moved from Dev.

I wouldn't recommend you do this yourself, its not that expensive to get a decent brochure site to describe you and the service you're providing plus contact details.

Dev thanks for can recommend somene or a link ..feel free to pm
cheers
heres a headline from google
Website Design from €1500

anything cheaper maybe upto e500?

dory

4Sheets wrote: »

Dev thanks for can recommend somene or a link ..feel free to pm
cheers
heres a headline from google
Website Design from €1500

anything cheaper maybe upto e500?

Look into Wordpress, might be ok for you. www.irelandindia.org is the result of a $20 template I bought. Came with an online forum in which I could ask loads of questions about modification. You'll just need to know the basics, like how to make yourself a nice banner and use FTP to upload. Wordpress is fine, but unless you're good at modification it will still look like a blog. Might be hard to make it look like a professional website.
And you'll definitely be able to get it for under 500 if it's a basic site. Someone round here was advertising €99 ones at one stage. It will be generic most likely but may just do the job.

Liam Byrne

4Sheets wrote: »

anything cheaper maybe upto e500?

Two quick points.

1) Impossible to tell without knowing what's involved

The bottom line is that for websites, I would view €1,000 as being around the minimum for any decent web presence - if you want a decent site, professionally done, with a decent level of functionality and a decent chance at search engine placement and a basic CMS for you to update it, standards and best-practices compliant and fully cross-browser compatible.

Below that, something's gotta give.

If you didn't need a CMS, then you'd have a chance at getting it done for less, but again, without knowing what the service is or what you'd like on the site, it's difficult to tell.

2) When you start providing your service, can we ask you to sell us something for half or one-third the price ?

What would you tell us ?

Oh - MS Frontpage is for people who don't know any better. It is to websites what a hammer is to a screw.

DonJose

I'd recommend you google "website template", go to a site like http://www.templatemonster.com/ and find a template that matches your business, then change the content and add your title and keywords, you'd get a decent template for $60-$70.

Left

Oh - MS Frontpage is for people who don't know any better. It is to websites what a hammer is to a screw.

So well put

Pablod

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Oh - MS Frontpage is for people who don't know any better. It is to websites what a hammer is to a screw.

I would have agreed with this a few years back when Frontpage was out and it was Microsofts main web design package

But now, Frontpage is gone and has been superseded Expression Web (now on V3, V4 due shortly) which I have to say is a great product if you are only starting out. you can build and code Xhtml/html/CSS sites that are fully W3C compliant

I'd definitly reccomend giving it a go, plenty of free tutorials on the web on it aswell

Liam Byrne

Pablod wrote: »

I would have agreed with this a few years back when Frontpage was out and it was Microsofts main web design package

But now, Frontpage is gone and has been superseded Expression Web....

The fact is, though, that the OP explicitly said Frontpage, and that is what I was commenting on.

I can't vouch either for or against Expression Web, because I don't use it.

Pablod

Liam Byrne wrote: »

The fact is, though, that the OP explicitly said Frontpage, and that is what I was commenting on.

I can't vouch either for or against Expression Web, because I don't use it.

True-True, my bad,
Sorry just taught i'd elaberate on Expression web,
becuase I think everyone knows the "rolleyes" start as soon as someone mentions Frontpage...which I wouldn't blame them... lol..;)

onemorechance

Go with a template or a Content Management System!