Creating a website v. Outsourcing...(Need advice!!!)

[rmarc9]

Hey everyone;

Relatively new here, but read the book a while ago and have finally decided to quit my job (bartending for cash :)) and start getting my Muse together. I have things pretty much in order to get rolling, except a website. I know almost nothing about programming or anything else about actually building a website (although i am internet savvy) and wanted to know if you guys can give me some guidance. I posted what i need on Elance and got some responses (although minimal) and am considering them. However, after i have the website built for me, how do i manage it? do i have to hire another person from elance full time to maintain it? Not really sure what the step is after someone builds it for me.

Secondly, i searched for "Design a website" on google and there are tons of sites that you can like click and drag pretty simply to create a website using easy tools and templates - is this a good alternative to outsourcing it? the two websites below were some sponsored links that came up and i wanted to know what you guys thought. Please let me know if you have any advice!!! Thanks so much everyone

Here are 2 of the many websites to let you create your own site:
http://www3.web.com/ or http://buildyoursite.com/landing/index.html

[insidethenewrich]

i would have to disagree going with the "click and build sites". you have to go with the you get what you pay for mentality. i dont know how involved your site would be or what you are selling but if its a simple site and you are internet savvy i am willing to bet if you buy a good tutorial book you can figure it out especially if you have someone to ask when you have a question. very simple sites can earn you alot of money. you can also explore using a blog, its free and if used properly can generate you income. i hope i was able to help you a bit, if you have any other questions feel free to pm me.

[TinaD]

It would be helpful to have some idea of what your muse is. Some resources are better than others depending on what you are selling.

While blogging can generate income (hello Perez Hilton) my understanding is that those site generally run off ad's which means you would have to build a high volume blog, which requires a lot of hours on the computer.

I personally have tried a few of those drag and click sites before and never found them to be good enough...however, I have a design background (thought not in web creation) so I can be real particular about design.

I am planning on going through Elance to find a developer, but will also look around in other venues (not sure what yet). I need someone who can do all the techie things but won't get pissed when I get nitty gritty on details (that's the neurotic design background).

Hope that helps...tell us more and maybe we can help more:-)

[Rossatron]

Well when talking about point and click sites one that's getting a lot of Buzz lately is Blinkweb. You can try it out and see if you like it. If you just need a sales page or even a more complicated site it's supposed to be able to handle it. I'm in the process of using it now for my Muse idea to see if it works as I just to have the time to build a site and really don't want to use Wordpress as I need the ability to take orders.

Here's a link: [URL="http://business.blinkweb.com/[/URL]

They also have an affiliate program that you can plug into your site if you choose to host with them. That could be another stream of income whilst work on your Muse.

[Sven]

Do a search on website creation here first.

[rmarc9]

Thanks for the advice guys. I started getting some bids from some developers on elance (ranging $300-$1000) and i've gotta say i'm pretty impressed with the portfolios. I think i'm going to end up using one of them for this. Also i want to give you guys a better idea of my muse so feel free to give me any advice you have :) (i'm pretty nervous about this whole thing, haha).

My muse:
without giving away the entire idea this will sound pretty general, but anyway i'm trying to build a site where i can help my clients get their final work done with time saving research done on my end (already have a research team in place and standing by). i basically need a site where they can post what research they need done, which will then get forwarded to my research team. i will then supply them with a price quote via email (they must register with my site) and if they accept they can follow a quick link in the email to the billing page. after they purchase the results will be emailed to them in the timeframe requested (costs more for expedite)...

i know this type of service exists, but i'm focusing on a very specific target. if anyone has any criticism, pointers, or guidance i'd love to hear it. i'm taking things pretty slow cause i dont want to be in over my head (even though i almost feel that way already). thanks again everyone

-Raf

[nghs22]

Alot of the drag and drop websites have a tough time finding their way into the SE's.

[rmarc9]

cool, thanks for the input!

[leonard]

As the owner of an interactive firm, I wanted to make a few points. Ask your web developer firm or whoever you end up hiring as to how edits to the web site will be made. It will be very important that you get some kind of content management system. This will allow you to make edits to the content areas of your pages. Having fresh content on a regular basis is favorable to getting ranked higher in the search engine results over time.

If your budget is on the lower side, you may end up with a php developer who will end up implementing Joomla or Drupal. Both are very popular content management systems (CMS) and free to download. Also make sure that whatever CMS you get that the page filenames that it outputs are SEO friendly. This will help you big with getting indexed and listed by search engines. For example, some CMS's will create a url for your about us page as yoursite.com/page.php?pageid=10. This is called an unfriendly url. It should be yoursite.com/aboutus.php.

leonard the minneapolis web developer

[kamakiri]

Don't waste time building your own site. There are thousands of aspects you can spend time on and building your site with no experience is just a time sink relative to other things you can spend time on. Also (and off the point) do not quit your day (night) job first. Get your muse up and running and PROFITABLE before quitting your job.

Back to web design, think of your muse as a fruit tree. Picking any fruit on the tree will get you a nice juicy fruit to eat, so why go for the ones on the top? Pick the low hanging fruit first, the stuff that is easy to get done. Leave the stuff you know nothing about to the experts. Outsource your site, get it done, then concentrate on advertising, adwords, and gaining sales.

[TinaD]

Kamakiri,

If I remember correctly you used Elance. I currently have an ad posted there and if you have any suggestions on dealing with them and picking a vendor from them I'd love to hear it!

Tina

[Caesar_X]

Back to web design, think of your muse as a fruit tree. Picking any fruit on the tree will get you a nice juicy fruit to eat, so why go for the ones on the top? Pick the low hanging fruit first, the stuff that is easy to get done. Leave the stuff you know nothing about to the experts. Outsource your site, get it done, then concentrate on advertising, adwords, and gaining sales.

(Looking out the window at my lemon tree)

Great advice, Kamakiri. Well said. It's too easy to not get anything done because you want it perfect out the gate. Just getting it going and perfect it later:)

[kamakiri]

If I remember correctly you used Elance. I currently have an ad posted there and if you have any suggestions on dealing with them and picking a vendor from them I'd love to hear it!

I did use elance, and am very satisfied. Basically I threw my plan up and then choose the company that had a nice set of existing work. All of the companies that applied had impressive resumes, but I really liked the stuff the company I chose did.

I chose them, sent off the first payment, then we got started and I haven't looked back. Now I have a nearly finished web site, and all of the final touches were done while I was at Burning Man.

I can make well over $300 in a few hours of work, but would have spent hours making a site as good as the one they made for me. The decision was easy.

[dcorner]

If you can have them design your initial site in clearly defined page modules so you can use google site optimizer to test and optimize for the best combination of page factors.

Also, you obviously want to have a site which converts your visitors to clients but my suggestion would be to start out with generating a relative small amount of targeted traffic to your site using ppc. This will give you the chance to optimize and test everything. Once your conversion rates are such that you at least have reached your break even point you invest in long-term seo marketing.

Most people start with seo which by its very nature is less predictable, has a longer lead time and allows for less accurate testing than ppc. The idea is to drive enough traffic to have a statistical significant test result in order to make the tweaks to be profitable before fully investing in driving traffic (seo, ppc, etc.) to your site. Knowing your conversions for keyword specific ppc phrases will also allow you to avoid investing in seo optimized phrases which arent profitable. Hope this helped.

David Corner
Please leave email address on your personal profile only. Thank you.

[Rossatron]

Oh speaking of better web builders you may want to check out wix.com. You can keep your design and it's free. I haven't played around with it yet but it may be worth a look.

[clanshrapnel]

Oh speaking of better web builders you may want to check out wix.com. You can keep your design and it's free. I haven't played around with it yet but it may be worth a look.


WIX looks nice in appearance, but I don't know how practical it would be. At best, I would create a Wix page and treat it like a Squidoo lens or eZine article (i.e., just another landing page that advertises your REAL website).

Here's the bottom line: If it's 'easy' to make and reproduce (i.e., it is not custom-built with a lot of custom parts), then you will look like someone else's website and you will look like you didn't put much time/money/effort into your business. Those are not a desirable traits in the online business world where trust is usually the biggest problem between customers and businesses.

I'm definitely with Kamakiri on this one: hire someone to make the website for you. I work in the web programming field (website design and DB development) and I am STILL outsourcing my website to a 3rd party. That should tell you something.

I've also posted a project on eLance and am happy so far the process. As long as your requirements are detailed and specific, you can definitely leverage your time/money on more important things like advertising, strategy, and new approaches to build income.

[kamakiri]

I've also posted a project on eLance and am happy so far the process. As long as your requirements are detailed and specific, you can definitely leverage your time/money on more important things like advertising, strategy, and new approaches to build income.

Meh! Detailed and specific? Where were you with that advice when I posted the job? I am surprised the guys I hired didn't fire ME. Knowing what you want and knowing what you NEED are 2 completely different things.

The only thing I wasn't satisfied with the guys (Netfly) (http://www.showcase-me.com/) who made my site was that they made me write all of the copy. On top of that they had the nerve to bug me about it daily.

Seriously though folks, all you need is an idea and the pros (if you hire the right ones) will bust your butt to get the project finished. If Sam from Netfly hadn't been a perpetual pain in the arse, I would still be working on a tag line instead of having my site up and running for testing.

PS now I can get a referral bonus for sending people to Elance, but I would still rather send people directly to Netfly. They were great.

[DaveCraige.com]

I posted this elsewhere too.

get a site up with mediatemple (http://www.mediatemple.com) + wordpress.org (http://www.wordpress.org) + skins from themforest.net (http://www.themeforest.net)

begin writing about what you love. put up a few ads (but don't splatter them everywhere).


or hell. just start with a Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com). Thats an even easier way to start and is what powers my personal site.


Dave
www.DaveCraige.com