My godmother recently called me and asked if I could help her make a website. She does consultant work and she wants to point her potential customers to her website. I'm only 15 so I don't have much experience making website (Except HTML and CSS), like you other webmasters So she wants a site that's easy to maintain because she doesn't have web experience. So what I'm asking in a nutshell is how could she make a well made professional site, without her having much programming experience? I know that she'll need a domain name and web hosting.
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Have to help my godmother make a site, please help
- Thread starter ComicStix
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The easy answer is to hire someone to do it, or use a template. But what will probably happen is that you will do it for free and get a bunch of people on here (who feel sorry for a kid and his godmother) to help for free and your godmother will have a free website that she will make money from. Genius!
You should just offer to mow her lawn instead.
I'm really 15, though. And I'm not asking for anyone to do anything for free, just asking for advice on how to get her set-up.
Install / setup wordpress or get her to use iWeb.
Wordpress performance depends on how many daily hits and other factors though.
Or tell her you are not qualified and she should hire someone instead.
Wordpress performance depends on how many daily hits and other factors though.
Or tell her you are not qualified and she should hire someone instead.
- An account on namecheap or godaddy (for her)
- An account on a hosted solution (for you)
A hosted solution can be any free/cheap online service that lets you publish things and use your own domain.
She needs to have the account on godaddy or namecheap so that she can point the domain anywhere, and get a new web designer later on if you are too busy with school, etc.
Examples of hosted solutions include: Wordpress.com Tumblr.com CushyCMS.com Wikidot.com
All hosted solutions are different, by nature, because they are pretty much unique to the provider. It's not like getting a webhost.
When you get a webhost, you are most likely going to use cPanel to manage your website. cPanel is a stack of Apache/PHP/MySQL/Email/FTP/DNS/Shell, etc. EVERYTHING you would need to get that website up. Unlike hosted solutions MOST web host providers are the same. A good exception might be WebFaction.com
.... anyway you really need to let her own the domain. If you decide to not help her anymore, she can change a setting to get the domain pointed somewhere else. Let her be the keeper of the user name and password to the namecheap/godaddy account. And after your site is set up, FORGET IT, don't log back in and have her store it somewhere safe as confidential info.
Hahahahaha..... This has made my morning
A professional project needs a professional, it's a simple as that (not just talking design here). The designers' expression for this is "polishing the brass on the Titanic".
Honestly she says she is a professional but is getting a 15 year old with limited HTML/CSS experience to do the site a professional approach? I sense someone being rather tight and a potential car wreck...
I don't know how many job I've fixed for smaller operators when they started "I needed a web site so I got a friend who is really good at computer stuff to do, but it's now not working can you help me out?"
The short answer you can't produce a professional looking site in iWeb, you need to learn Wordpress, Drupal, etc not to mention design... Again I don't ask my next door neighbour's son (who is in grad 11) who is very good at maths to do my tax return.
But if you want to create a web site I'd recommend checking Smashing out.
hahaha
i think she was a consultant... as far as consultants go, i'm sure some are slackers and some run legit businesses
same as web designers lol....
i think she was a consultant... as far as consultants go, i'm sure some are slackers and some run legit businesses
same as web designers lol....
hahaha
i think she was a consultant... as far as consultants go, i'm sure some are slackers and some run legit businesses
same as web designers lol....
I mentioned iWeb because she obviously doesn't understand business or web design.
Otherwise she would have picked up a phone book (yes phone book) and called for some quotes.
Didn't mean to have a go at you, but I can't see professionals doing to well with an iWeb site considering there are better alternative such as Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla...
Hahahahaha..... This has made my morning
A professional project needs a professional, it's a simple as that (not just talking design here). The designers' expression for this is "polishing the brass on the Titanic".
Honestly she says she is a professional but is getting a 15 year old with limited HTML/CSS experience to do the site a professional approach? I sense someone being rather tight and a potential car wreck...
I don't know how many job I've fixed for smaller operators when they started "I needed a web site so I got a friend who is really good at computer stuff to do, but it's now not working can you help me out?"
The short answer you can't produce a professional looking site in iWeb, you need to learn Wordpress, Drupal, etc not to mention design... Again I don't ask my next door neighbour's son (who is in grad 11) who is very good at maths to do my tax return.
But if you want to create a web site I'd recommend checking Smashing out.
No I didn't mean me designing it haha She just wants me to point her in the right direction. I'll probably just tell her to get a professional web designer. Anyone know a range for web designer prices?
£100 - £1m+
As with everything it depends on the scope of the project and the experience of the web designer / developer you are hiring.
Be fair, I think you can narrow it down a bit more than that. She wants a simple website detailing her consulting services.
Fine. For a custom Wordpress template with exclusive use rights I'd guess about £750. For an off the shelf one without exclusive use rights you could get one for £50 or less.
For a custom site with a basic database backend and simple dynamic content you'd probably look at £1,000 - £1,750 I guess.
Most companies charge more than that, but when you look at the work actually involved in doing it it gets a bit embarrassing charging more.
lol, you know... i didn't see the first time around that a username was consultant. we also have ethical on here telling us to be fair. this is great, but, kid, you've skipped over the good stuff which is just do it.
for example use wordpress.com to make a blog, chose a template and fill it with pages instead of blog posts. on the front page, instead of putting 10 most recent blog posts, put a page.
you will have a text editor, the ability to upload images. use your macintosh dude.
for example use wordpress.com to make a blog, chose a template and fill it with pages instead of blog posts. on the front page, instead of putting 10 most recent blog posts, put a page.
you will have a text editor, the ability to upload images. use your macintosh dude.
Here's what you need!
It sounds to me like you need to point her to http://www.webs.com
That will get her setup with all the website she needs for this! And you don't even have to do any work! It is so easy to do that even she can make a simple site! They have templates and free hosting so she doesn't really need anything else!
Good luck to both of you!
P.S. Give the kid a break! I have been in his position when I was his age and it isn't easy! So if you don't have something helpful to say, just back off!
It sounds to me like you need to point her to http://www.webs.com
That will get her setup with all the website she needs for this! And you don't even have to do any work! It is so easy to do that even she can make a simple site! They have templates and free hosting so she doesn't really need anything else!
Good luck to both of you!
P.S. Give the kid a break! I have been in his position when I was his age and it isn't easy! So if you don't have something helpful to say, just back off!
Just use wordpress. It's the easiest and with a bit of bodging of an existing free template you can make it look unique and professional. Have done it many times. Best of all is that any non tech can easily update content on the site....
That said, if your godmother has any sense she will hire a professional to do it because building a website is only half of what a professional service should/will offer.
The OP hasn't said much about what their "client" wants. We know she is some kind of consultant, but that is all. We don't know if this in just an informational blurb, or if there will be some sort of interactive features. We get a hint that the client will want to post periodic updates, but nothing of their natures or how often.
Yet posters are recommending specific solutions. What's wrong with this picture?
OP: more information, please.
Yet posters are recommending specific solutions. What's wrong with this picture?
OP: more information, please.
Nope she doesn't need anything special. She just needs like a couple pages to put how to contact her and her credentials and that's about it.
Hey thanks Dsync! I think I'll point her towards Webs.com because she can get the hosting, domain name, and e-mail accounts without her having to learn any programming knowledge. And I'm a girl
DON'T use Webs.com. please. for her sake, just don't do it. In my experience it's just a crap service, and makes even crappier looking websites, unless you know enough CSS to make a fully custom template. I just had to move a client over from a webs.com site and UGH. Horrible. And their customer service wasn't all that great either.
There are a lot of better website builders out there, or, again, use wordpress and find a good theme and go from there. A hosting account with wordpress through godaddy for example is 5 dollars a month - and you can just chose the wordpress account and godaddy will set it up on your custom domain.
Either that or just google "easy website builders" there are so many options that are 5000 times better than webs.com
There are a lot of better website builders out there, or, again, use wordpress and find a good theme and go from there. A hosting account with wordpress through godaddy for example is 5 dollars a month - and you can just chose the wordpress account and godaddy will set it up on your custom domain.
Either that or just google "easy website builders" there are so many options that are 5000 times better than webs.com
Well said dsync - some really pessimistic posts.
If you're interested in web design you can give it a go yourself bud. You'll enjoy it - however if you're not interested don't bother as it will just be boring for you.
Majority of the people on this site will help you as we've all been stuck in areas and that's what this forums for! Obviously you get the usual pesimistic idiots; as this thread has attracted some of them as we can see
.With wordpress I find it a little awkward as php and certain bits can get awkward as php coming from other pages and the css/ templates were created by others, and there's different ways of doing things. But if you find a template you like then that would probably be your best option.
If you've got a bit of time on your hands give it a crack and post for help when you come up against obstacles. I'm no expert but I managed to create my own 'amateur' .co.uk and some will say it's unprofessional etc but the fact of the matter is it's good enough for me as it's managing to pull me in new work in the recession and not many can say that in the uk at the moment
.Good luck
Only managed to create it down to the great people on this forum who really helped me out.A lot of people claim to be professional web designers and know it all, a colleague of mine at work paid over £3,000 for his website and it hasn't drawn in a single job lol. Whereas another guy on-site paid £300 for his and looks more professional than the guys for £3K lol.