Need to Develop A Website

[srodriguez7575]

Howdy folks...I'm Sam from Texas, starting a business, with a launch date in January (goal).

I need a site to be developed that can give users a login, and maintain their activity accurately and easily so they don't have to recreate their info for future purchases.

Any recommendations on who to use to help develop that? Ideally, a tool or application(s) that anyone has found easy to use themselves, even if they have had limited prior knowledge or experience in site development. As most would probably say, I'm on a relatively tight budget, and starting this up on my own, so I need to see if there is something that I can easily develop to help me out.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Sam

[Wozcreative]

I'm a website designer and developer and can offer those types of services. With respect to starting a business, especially software related which usually is expensive to do (if you want quality and your business depends on it), it is wise to first educate yourself on what the cost is and then save up. "Limited budget" is scary if you are developing something for the collection of user's information. A lot of work is needed for just the security aspect of the site.

Have a look at my signature for details of what I offer, and if I'm the right fit, feel free to send me an email, or message on this board and we can talk about what you need and the budget you have in place for this project.

[huggytree]

I am just finalizing my new website and the total cost was around $6,000 range.....ive done a $500 website and a $2,500 website.....neither were any good....so I hope your budget is high enough for quality....skimping doesn't work for a website.....I made 1 change to my website 1.5 years ago and I increased my web sales by 3x....so minor differences can make huge differences in your calls...

there's no shortage of web designers here....

I chose to get a local guy because I felt more comfortable with it....turns out his 1.5 month web site took him 5.5 months....so picking local did nothing for me...

[UK_Business_Consultant]

I am just finalizing my new website and the total cost was around $6,000 range.....ive done a $500 website and a $2,500 website.....neither were any good....so I hope your budget is high enough for quality....skimping doesn't work for a website.....I made 1 change to my website 1.5 years ago and I increased my web sales by 3x....so minor differences can make huge differences in your calls...

there's no shortage of web designers here....

I chose to get a local guy because I felt more comfortable with it....turns out his 1.5 month web site took him 5.5 months....so picking local did nothing for me...

What was is that you did that increased your sales x 3?

[srodriguez7575]

So far, yall's responses have been fantastic. Perhaps, I need to define a couple of things.

First off, I'm not looking to obtain or save anyone's financial information, so I am not taking payment online, nor do I have any desire to in the future.

My business will be a delivery business where I will be taking payment on delivery. All business will be done locally, so my needs are pretty simple, but again, I have 0 knowledge into how much a site costs to develop, nor the skill set I'm looking for.

I appreciate the input so far, and if anyone else has any, I'll definitely appreciate that as well.

Thanks!

Sam

[Wozcreative]

What are you actually looking for srodriguez7575? Are you looking to hire someone on the board or referral?

Your question and needs have been quite vague so it is difficult to understand what information you're looking for.

[huggytree]

What was is that you did that increased your sales x 3?

I added a photo of myself to the home page and did a slight rewrite of the website.....my goal was to make the customer feel like they know me before I arrive....many of my customers are women and they want to feel comfortable with who is coming to their door....by having a nice clean cut photo of myself my guess is it accomplished that goal

I also geared my website more to the quality type of customer....its all about spending more, but getting more in return.....-do it right- sums it up best.....the added benefit was it got rid of most of the price shoppers...price shoppers want it done cheap,not right

[vangogh]

Sam are you looking to do this yourself? You mention having someone develop a site, but I get the impression you're looking for something low cost that will help you build the site yourself. If that's the case I'd recommend using WordPress. It's free for the basic platform, though to get it to do everything you want will likely mean spending some money. How much would depend on what you want, but I'm guessing the cost will be under $500.

WordPress is something you can install yourself. Odds are wherever you buy hosting will have a control panel with a link to install it. A couple of clicks later and you'll have a site. You'll want to change the default them and I'd recommend buying a theme instead of grabbing a free one. You can find a good enough theme for $50-$100. You can extend WordPress beyond what comes it with by default through its plugin system. For example developers have created shopping cart plugins. Some plugins are free. The ones that do more like run shopping carts will cost something, but not necessarily a lot.

If you don't feel comfortable installing WordPress, its themes, and plugins, you can hire someone to set everything up for you, probably for a few hundred dollars at most.

Having said all that, I think hiring someone to design and develop a site or there for something like WordPress will ultimately be better for your business, but if you're just starting out, you can take advantage of some of the free and low cost options WordPress offers.

[Harold Mansfield]

Howdy folks...I'm Sam from Texas, starting a business, with a launch date in January (goal).

I need a site to be developed that can give users a login, and maintain their activity accurately and easily so they don't have to recreate their info for future purchases.

Any recommendations on who to use to help develop that? Ideally, a tool or application(s) that anyone has found easy to use themselves, even if they have had limited prior knowledge or experience in site development. As most would probably say, I'm on a relatively tight budget, and starting this up on my own, so I need to see if there is something that I can easily develop to help me out.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Sam

A January launch date is going to be a little difficult being that this is December.

Just adding to what VG already said, and based on the information you provided about what you want the site to do....I'd say WordPress for the bulk of the business website + a database driven client Management System ( maybe installed on a folder or sub domain) to use as a client center that keeps account information and history is the way to go if you are DIY'ing it on a budget.

I couldn't tell you what it would cost to have someone do it for you. Depends on who you hire and what ALL of the details are of what you want. Yes, I know everyone says "I just want something simple", but when you get down to brass tacks of whether you have or need:



Content written/Copy writing
Have any images
Need additional graphic work such as a logo/branding
Want SEO, and /or Social Media help and set up

...you start realizing that it's a little more work than just installing WordPress, dropping a theme in and waiting for the business to come.

My suggestion would be to organize your thoughts and look at some examples and make a list of exactly what you want your website to say and do, and then shop around to determine if it's something you want to tackle yourself, or hire someone.

[vangogh]

I hadn't seen where you wanted this to launch in January. I'd agree it's not realistic at this point, at least not if you're looking for something that can be successful. My thoughts above are simply what I think will be a low cost way for you to get a site launched quickly and inexpensively. Ideally you want to put time into creating great content and copy, work to improve the design of the site, and continue to market it effectively. Al these things take time and unless you have the skills to do them yourself, they'll cost some money too.

That doesn't mean you can't start right away. Install WordPress, set up a theme and any plugins you need and start marketing. As the site brings in revenue you can and should reinvest some of the money back into the site.

[tallen]

Good Quality
Done Quickly
Inexpensive

...

Choose Two

[snooder]

check theme forest. they have great themes for cheap and after the site you will need SEO but do adwords first and have an opt-in box to collect leads