Website Design

To_Be_Franck

Hi all,

Looking to buy a domain name for a 'company website'  (more of a hobby if im honest) and have found what I need on 123 Reg.

Now all I need is someone to actually make the website (very basic; company banner, small blurb and then a 'contact us' form to forward enquiries to an email address).

I have seen that you can attract 'bids' for such services on sites such as Upwork and People Per Hour....has anyone used these services? How did you find them? Value for money?

Oh, and I  need my new found creative provider to create my company banner too.

Any thoughts or insights would be great. 

Thank you

Franck.

To_Be_Franck

Should probably (maybe) add that its a wordpress website whatever that means!

To_Be_Franck

1st sign of madness talking to yourself...but...what sort of price should i be looking to pay? How much work is this for an expert?

Stig

Wordpress is a blogging site, isn't it? That means that they supply set templates and you just fill in the blanks. No need for designers, just pay up front for the template you want and fill in the details. If it's very simple you want you can just use one of their free templates and do it for nothing.

Whatever your thoughts now, I'd definitely recommend having a play around with it before paying out to engage someone.

randy andy

123 Reg have a site builder tool with thousands of templates. I'd only ever hire someone if you require bespoke functionality, or integration of s lot of features). If it's just a static site with s bit of content then there are tons of free tools to help you.

To_Be_Franck

Thanks both, appreciate it. 
Would still need someone to design my logo, so had hoped if easy enough the website would just be another hour(?!)  

I know if i do it, my website will look like a template jobbie. 

randy andy

https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design/creative-logo-design?source=hplo_subcat_first_step&pos=1

Stig

If you think it's worth getting a logo done, it may be better to put your money into the design of that, rather than the website. Few things reflect more poorly on a business (in my opinion) than a badly drawn badge. Even that's not always necessary, you can achieve a really good corporate feel just with a bit of attention to detail regarding things like consistency with fonts and colours.

Anyway, good luck with it whatever you do. 

To_Be_Franck

Thank you @randy andy   perfect as step one, and when i bodge the template I'll just pay someone to fix it  lol

SWEnglandAddick

Hi @To_Be_Franck - I run a marketing agency that do simple Wordpress websites like you’ve described.

Send me a DM with some more details and I can either help you create it yourself or send a quote for us doing it (Addicks discount ofcourse👍)

Leeds_Addick

Stig said:

Wordpress is a blogging site, isn't it? That means that they supply set templates and you just fill in the blanks. No need for designers, just pay up front for the template you want and fill in the details. If it's very simple you want you can just use one of their free templates and do it for nothing.

Whatever your thoughts now, I'd definitely recommend having a play around with it before paying out to engage someone.

Agree with this.

Logo worth paying for but setting up wordpress isn't too tricky if you just need basic functionality. Feel free to ask here for any help

i_b_b_o_r_g

Done all ours on Squarespace mate

SWEnglandAddick

Agree with everything people are saying about Wordpress, you can easily just pick a template, fill it in and off you go. 

Have a look at Astra or Ocean WP, they’re two themes that are free and will get you a professional looking website. 

Depending on how serious you’re taking this, there’s lots of stuff these templates/themes won’t do for you like SEO and more technical web features but the great thing about Wordpress is you can upscale your website easy enough. 

It’s 100% possible to make a Wordpress website without spending a penny (apart from domain and hosting) but to do it properly, it’s worth paying for a theme or help on certain aspects.

To_Be_Franck

Thanks again all.

For now all I want is a digital footprint, with the ability of any enquires to be captured and forwarded by email. Majority of my custom initially will be through existing contacts.

@SWEnglandAddick I'll give it a go once all domains are confirmed....I'm guessing that an amateur like me cant mess up a template so much that your company couldnt rescue it?!

SWEnglandAddick

To_Be_Franck said:

Thanks again all.

For now all I want is a digital footprint, with the ability of any enquires to be captured and forwarded by email. Majority of my custom initially will be through existing contacts.

@SWEnglandAddick I'll give it a go once all domains are confirmed....I'm guessing that an amateur like me cant mess up a template so much that your company couldnt rescue it?!

I’d be very shocked if you messed it up so much that it couldn’t be fixed! 

There are many contact form plugins that let you set up forms that then get emailed to you when they are filled in. Have a look at ‘Contact Form 7’ ‘WP Forms’ or ‘Ninja Forms’. You install one of these plugins, create a form, then embed it on your site. 

Send me a message if you need any help and I can point you in the right direction, have a look on YouTube too, there’s some great tutorials out there, I often find myself using them.

sillav nitram

i_b_b_o_r_g said:

Done all ours on Squarespace mate

Me too and very happy, plus very easy peasy.

MrWalker

A friend of mine uses windows. She puts all her design effort into flyers then posts them on Kensington phone box windows. Seems to work. Might be an alternative? 

To_Be_Franck

Hate to break it to you. The fact you pay her per hour, she aint really your friend.

MrWalker

To_Be_Franck said:

Hate to break it to you. The fact you pay her per hour, she aint really your friend.

She is for that hour. Though I think her pictures have been photoshopped...  

JohnBoyUK

Wordpress is ok if you've got time to find the template you need and you've got the technical ability to update when you need to etc etc.

I used to build websites many years ago but since I started my photography business, I use a CMS which does everything for me, including the SEO (Site Engine Optimization, the main thing that the web uses to rank sites and put your site in front of people when they type in, for example, Kent Wedding Photographer, London Portrait Photographer, Photographer near me, etc.)

There are loads of pre-built systems out there for photography, including Squarespace as our learned friend from Grove Park has posted above, Zenfolio, SmugMug, there's huge choice tbh but I opted for onlinepictureproof.  They pretty much handle everything for me, including receiving card payments, integrating my instagram feed, a password-protected client gallery, the ability for clients to order prints/products (a massive part of making money from photography is upselling products rather than selling digital images!) etc etc.

Feel free to give me a shout if you need any advice.

Covered End

My mate is a web designer etc.
If you want his details let me know.

Leroy Ambrose

FEEEEEEEESH

DA9

I built this for my friends clothing business using Weebly, and I’m a complete amateur with no coding knowledge 
https://www.flaminstarclothing.com/#

thai malaysia addick

Stig said:

Wordpress is a blogging site, isn't it? That means that they supply set templates and you just fill in the blanks. No need for designers, just pay up front for the template you want and fill in the details. If it's very simple you want you can just use one of their free templates and do it for nothing.

Whatever your thoughts now, I'd definitely recommend having a play around with it before paying out to engage someone.

Wordpress is a fully-fledged website design platform. Its basic theme is OK but it’s worth buying a theme like Enfold for $40ish if you want it to look good. DIY is OK but two things: 1) it can take more time than you might imagine 2) if you want to improve/expand it in future, you might need someone who knows what they are doing.

We use Upwork a lot but we give small tasks first to see how they go. That’s not so good in the case of a website as it’s an entity and 90% OK might still mean bad website.

i think it depends what is meant in the OP by ‘basic’. Different people have different concepts of what basic means. I’m happy to advise but I would suggest that if you are buying web design that you find a site you like so that the level of design that is wanted can be properly assessed.