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Can Anyone Help Me Setup A Website!? (Explained In Plain English…)
Many of my professional peers that are Webmasters, Designers and Hosting Sellers have told me that dumbing it down doesn’t help.
I find that to be unkind because it’s one thing to simplfy it and another thing to make it clear and concice to those that are not Internet savvy.
And I think that the order of the tasks to build a site are not clearly defined.
So, you want / need a website. OK, fine. Now what do you do? Shop for web hosting right?
I say no and here’s why:
Let’s just say you have a service business and you have your van and tools for the job.
Then after working with clients for some time, you may sometimes notice that there is an opportunity to provide services that are not a part of your current set of services listed.
Do you just go out and buy the necessary equipment, put that in the van and add this service to your price list?
Or will you use this client as a guinea pig to test your new equipment?
I’m a webmaster, I sell hosting packages, provide web design and customizing websites.
And I can’t tell you how many times I have had to pass on website projects because they were worm holes (Star Trek Reference).
My Concern was that the client wants a website because someone told them they needed one or a client of theirs asked for their website address and the light bulb went on in their head alerting them that they need a website.
Now If I go into a restaurant and after being seated, the wait person comes over to take my order and I say: Can you bring me some dinner, thank you. What did I just order?
The wait staff has no clue because I didn’t really tell them anything that they could use to fill my request!
This happens alot when clients come to me for websites. “I need a website for my business”. OK. You may ask: “What kind of business do you have?” or you may ask: “What do want the website to do for your business?”.
Most customers don’t know. Some will even get mad and say: “You’re the web professional, that’s why I came to you.”
That is the kind of client I will normally pass on to someone else. Because in my experience this type person will not be satisified no matter what you do.
I do try to explain to the client that I want to build a website that will help build your business and satisfy your requirements. But the client has to first have some real business-related requirements.
Now I don’t want to give the apperance that I only cater to a certain type of clientele but I also want you to know that a large portion of clients who contract out for website services are not happy with the results and blame webmasters for not delivering on what they wanted their website to do for them and their business.
The first thing I have asked clients that have come to me to have prior work reconfigured or totally rebuilt is: “What did you want done that the other design company didn’t do for you?”
And: “What planning paperwork or website specs did you provide the other web designer?”
Generally they didn’t have a plan going in and still don’t have a clear idea of what they want the website to be or do for them.
I say all of this to make the point that website designers, web hosting sellers, and other IT proessionals are not mind readers and if you, as a client, can’t explain what you want in a website to one of your employees to the point that they can see your vision, then how do you expect a person, not part of your company / group / organization to know what you want or need?
But once you can describe in detail what you want, or even if you can just explain what you need the website to accomplish for your company or organization but are short on details, then most professional web designers / webmasters can make recomendations to the client about what will help you to reach your goal.
To walk in / call / email a designer without a plan is like telling a contractor to build you a house with three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. What do you think you will end up with when the contractors are done?
To make sure that you will be happy with the final outcome, sit down with your staff, members or family and mock up the site on paper in Visio or any other drawing program.
Visit other sites built for companies / organizations similar to yours and see if there is some part of it / all of it that you like.
Make screen captures of the pages you like. make notes how you would change those pages to fit your organization’s needs.
Make sure that you’re getting enough “website” to satisfy your needs, and allow for future growth, but avoid paying for unneeded hosting features than you will need or use.
Know that you can use freely available software tools and apps instead of paying for a full-blown custom job that will cost $1,000’s and may lock you into one website design company. So that when you need even small changes, you will have to call them and pay bigtime.
Consider that major players online are using the same software I am talking about. Next time you go to your favorite blog site, go to the bottom of the page and look at the copyright link. See if it says powered by WordPress or something like that.
Some of the well known websites online use Joomla, Drupal, Moving Type and others.
The great part of this is that all of the above listed software is open source
Most website hosting packages you can get now offer an automated process that allows you to fill out the online form and click a button and your blog is ready for your content! Just like that!
Your WordPress Blog, Joomla Website or PHPbb Forum can be up and running in less than 15 minutes (depending on your connection speed)
Now, where you will probably need some help is with customizing the theme, changing the logo and adding your company line to the front page.
This is where you can hire local web professional to help you but at a much lower rate than building a website completely from ‘scratch’.
There are many WordPress, Joomla and other website professionals out there, and with some reading, it’s possible that this is something you could do for yourself.
Don’t forget that there are thousands of professional templates and themes available for WordPress, Joomla and PHPbb both free and pay.
Check with our friend Google to find all kinds of templates (Joomla) or themes (WordPress) you’re looking for.
Do you need a store to sell your products? Consider whether you need a full-blown eStore or do you just have a few products to sell or an ebook to sell per blog entry.
Use Paypay Buy Buttons that can be inserted into the blog post and accept credit / debit cards from your potential clients.
If you need a full-blown store, consider osCommerce stand alone eStore software or if you have a site based on Joomla (also free) the Virtuemart software modules are free and make for a very professional and stylish storefront.
The problems most people have is tweaking the software to meet their individual goals. This is when you find professionals with the skill set to provide those tweaks.
That work is far cheaper than having someone or some company create a full-blown site. Because all they’re doing is making cosmetic changes or installing modules.
In fairness, some of the modules and plugins that have to do with SEO and other in-depth processes can be beyond the scope of an average user or client. But most people that have those kinds of needs should have a professional to create and manage their sites.
Your website can be maintained by those in your group that are familiar with MS Publisher, Word or any similar application.
Because the software is freely available, you can have these “Media Types” download the software and play with it on their computers.
Once you’re sure and have confidence that your talent has the required knowledge to make successful changes to WordPress, Joomla and others, then you can have them make changes to your live website online with the confidence that your design ideas will transfer as you expect.
I mentioned Joomla earlier, Joomla is a CMS (Content Management System), many others use this as their main website. The beauty of Joomla is that you can post articles that go live right now or you can schedule them to appear and disappear based on your schedule.
I add my Halloween and Christmas articles in July and August. That way I can handle the in-town activities and / or take vacation without worring about my site not being updated.
Now if I have a ‘Breaking Story’, I can always add that into the rotation with no problem. Joomla is setup to accept Google Adsense ads or ads from your local community.
The same with WordPress, WordPress will scare you in that you have one form to fill out and then you copy the temporary password they create for you and you log in. Your Done!
Rule Of Thumb: Don’t make this web hosting process harder than it has to be and be willing to approach any problem with eyes wide open and from more than one direction.
Don’t get discouraged if your dream solution turns into the impossible dream.
Instead review your dream solution using a reality filter and decide what is important and necessary vs the wants and desires that your favorite Star Trek or crime show may have influenced.
Come on, ask yourself if you have seen your ideas anywhere on the net. Then you should consider that maybe there is a reason that your ‘dream site’ is not online. On the other hand, do some research online to find out what is possible.
Seriously consider if you, the client, are the best person to make this decision about web site hosting.
Maybe you need to speak to your neighborhood geek and share with them what you want and have them tell you what is realistic and possible. Then refactor your website design based on that knowledge, considering your budget and timeline.
The bottom line is this: Web Professionals / Designers are not mind readers. They don’t know how every business works and can’t think for you, the client.
If you, the client, can’t explain your desired website wishes / request to a co-worker / member of your organization, that may know what your company needs are but is having a hard time figuring out what your asking for, how can you expect someone not familiar with your organization to know what you want or need.
If you need the site to have handicap access, WordPress and Joomla either have that built in or you can get a plugin / module to make that happen. Most of the time those additional add-ins are free. Windows also have that built-in.
Know the difference between a Windows Hosted site and Unix/Linux Hosted site.
Most of the site online are Unix/Linux hosted sites.
Some sites offer database access. If you need to track members/employees, use WordPress, Joomla, or any of the productivity software, you will need a database.
There are some blog packages like Simplicity that don’t require a database and are used on smaller sites.
The tiny space most ISP’s give you when you get internet service from them, can run Simplicity (and not mush else other than plain HTML pages)
After saying all of this, there are people that still don’t want to be bothered with any of it and would like to order a simple package, ready to go, and all it needs is to have content added to it.
I believe some clients don’t completely understand what web hosting offers and more important, what they don’t offer.
Understand that hosting means the hosting company gives you the web real estate and you are responsible for putting houses (web pages) on the property.
If you have problems getting your pages to work because of your own lack of knowledge, the hosting company is not responsible for solving your coding issues.
Now if you have known working code but something on the hosting package is not working, then the hosting sevice needs to address that.
Instead of trashing your old computer, use it as a demo web server.
Put PHP on it and test run WordPress, Joomla and others. PHP is free as well. you can run the software and make sure that it fulfills your needs before going live online.
The software above (WordPress, Joomla) features training and F.A.Q. pages on their respective websites to help you figure out how to use their software. It’s up to you to know what you want it to do and apply the appropriate knowledge.
As a client, do your homework before you call your local professional.
As a closing thought, this article was not meant to dis anyone but if you took offense to this then this article was probably talking about you.
Too many times in this techno-world, we depend on others to do those things that we can do for ourselves. If you don’t have the time because of legit tasks then hire a professional.
Otherwise consider that if you tried and succeeded, how much money would you save? On top of that you have the confidence and pride that you got it done!
Get important recommendations in the sphere of one way links – make sure to read this web page. The times have come when proper info is truly at your fingertips, use this chance.
