Early Stage Start Up - Website set up

smcgiff

I'm in the process of registering a company with the CRO, and intend to be trading before Christmas (hopefully a good deal sooner).

I'll need a website from the start. It needs to look professional, but doesn't need to have much functionality. The main purpose of the site will be so that the salesman can show a demonstration of the service on offer to potential clients using something like an Ipad. FYI, it does need to be online.

Possibly in a couple of years (maybe sooner) if the "big idea" takes off from the initial ground work then the site will have to be a lot slicker.

Up until that point I'm going to build and publish the website myself. The main reason is probably down to wanting to be in total control of the process.

The one slight teensey weensey problem is that I know next to nothing about building and publishing websites (despite working in a software company for several years ).

I could easily use a contact to do it all for me, but I really want to do it myself. I feel it's crucial to the venture that I'm familiar with how websites work, so this seems as good a time as any to learn.

What I've done so far...

1. Registered my domain name
2. Just now applied for a hosting
3. Made some initial contacts with design companies re logo design
4. Asked the host company to set me up on Wordpress.org (which they do)
5. Downloaded Website Design for Dummies (first 80 of 650 pages read)
5. Posted a message on Boards.ie

So, anyone else care to share their experiences of building and publishing their own website from scratch?

Would people recommend a night course or is it something I could learn from a book (i.e. of the dummies variety) or is it something to be learned as I go along. Should say, I've a fair idea about how the website should look from a design POV.

Re the business itself, high potential especially if the "big idea" takes off, and will be making good use of business contacts.

Thanks in advance

Derekf1

Hi, in my opinion, if the site does not have much functionality you could design and build it as a brochure site initially and if you don't know how to do this you can approach any college and get a student who is studying web design to do it for you (cheaper and good for their resume), as the business grows and a database is built I would personally go to professionals, the only thing is to make sure that you hold the ownership of the source code.
With the student, to protect yourself you can always get them to sign a confidentiality agreement.

smcgiff

Hi Yip,

Brochure site is the way to go, and when it needs the professional design I'll go down that route.

Re contracting a student - I've access to professionals if I want, but it's the actual experience of doing it myself that's key.

The Apprentice

Well personally i have had a lot of sites built for me and i have done a fair few myself.. I still suck...

I would personally in your position stick to wordpress for now.. I can have a wp site from idea stage to running in under 5 mins. Its not a brag, its how easy wp is..
I would suggest u fool around with it.. the biggest problem you will face is getting it to look right and thats really a design issue, you cant really teach me that ..
U either have it, or u dont in my case.

5 tips to get the wp site online

1. Purchase hosting, u can get the cheap cheap package, 30 or 40 quid a year or 5 a month, again.. do your own research .. nothing over 10 a month cause quite frankly you will not have the traffic for a while.. u can always upgrade in the future.
2. keyword research .. 1-50 keyw0rds... whatever your selling.. Main Top level domain if u can for what your selling. .ie preferably .com .net .org .. nothing else
Puchase from namecheap or other carrier (go daddy, blackknight etc)

3. Your hosting nameservers should be ns1.godaddy.com or something simliar.. they change from carrier to carrier.. when your DOING step 2 there is always an option to use your own private ns... which will be YOUR HOSTING nameservers.
If u purchase the domain name from your godaddy, namecheap or black knight it will always be there own nameservers that are put on the domain name... just rechange them to your own namservers. Success now the domain is pointed towards your hosting.

4. Login to cpanel on your hosting account, scroll down to fantistico, then install wordpress on the domain name you just purchased... the name servers should be correct, the install will take 30 seconds and thats it..
Choose your name (admin) and password ( ilovefunkychickens)

That is it... wordpress is installed.. your site is up..
if it is done correctly you can type in you name.. www.yournewsite.ie etc etc
It is set to default yournewsite.ie ... u can change this


Umm i think that is all have fun .. if your confused on the steps pm me i,ll help u

The Apprentice

I have over €2000 in wordpress themes .. studiopress and the elegant ones .. if u find one you like let me know. I,ll have a gander for you.

Try not to search online for freebie themes, because most of them i have found contain malware, trojans or other linkback/traceback in them.

Cheers

smcgiff

Hi the apprentice that's very good advice especially re free themes - i imagine the free themes on Wordpress should be fine i.e. not containing trojans etc.

Might take you up on your pm invite !

I bought my domain name from myhost.ie- a .com domain, but went with laughing squid as the host as they were recommended by Wordpress as it states they would install Wordpress for me - Wordpress's own nstall instruction were double dutch to me.

When setting up with myhost.ie I would have gone with their default name server - hoping New hosting company will change to theirs in the change over process.

Looking forward to the building stage when I get that far - far too long I've kept my creative side hidden under a calculator

smcgiff

Oh, one other thing and real newbie question - do you need something like dreamweaver to add graphics to a website?


Thanks again for the detailed reply above!

The Apprentice

well wordpress no unless u want to edit the theme etc.. wordpress is really the **** for beginners because its drag and drop.. You would have to be more specific as in what graphics..
There is a BILLION plugins that do everything for you, all u have to do is input some information, its very simple and straighforward..

From adding adsense, amazon associates etc for monotisation or for backend stuff like making the seo more optimised like all in one seo or w3 cache for speed of the site...

smcgiff

Hey, almost sounds idiot proof which will most likely come in handy

Thanks again !

The Apprentice

Im online all night if u want to get that site up.. u really should try and install wordpress yourself..
All u need do is login to cpanel, scroll down to admin, it will have like 8 options, Click fantistico it has a smiley face..
it will open up a new window and search for install wordpress- Pick ure new ..www.newdomain.com and press install... done

heres my **** effort www.tdknews.com

smcgiff

That website looks clean and professional. Will be very happy if my site ends up loooking as good.

Can't do it tonight - host not due to set it up until Monday/Tuesday - they don't work weekends and I only signed up today.

The Apprentice

Thanks mate....

Thats cool .. slackers :P keep us posted.