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Thread: cost of new website

  1. #11
    yourdj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marc J View Post
    That's slightly unfair. A web designer (what we're discussing here) will do just that - design the website. Any decent web designer will take the correct elements from the copy text (provided by the client) for the all important page titles, descriptions, headings etc. and structure it correctly for SEO purposes.

    What they won't do is write the content for you, track (or even check) your SEO results, and manage your digital marketing strategy. You'll want a digital agency for that, who'll charge you £££ (per month) but for that they'll do very little but give you nicely formatted reports every month.

    Step 1: get a moz.com paid account.
    Step 2: Call yourself an SEO expert.
    Step 3: Find gullible fools, and generate nice long, meaningless reports for them on a monthly basis while doing nothing of any real value

    Maybe a bit harsh...but I've seen it myself countless times. Nobody knows your business better than you, if you can then write good copy yourself, or work with a freelance copywriter to produce good content in the first place.

    When I build websites for clients I tell them from the start - they provide all content (text and photos). If they can't do that, I have professional photographers and copywriters I can put them in contact with (they deal with them directly), and maybe use stock images if they can't get anything else.
    I may have missed the obvious, but i thought you just hosted and managed sites. I would have got you to do the HDA one had I known you also designed them. I put a post on here asking about anyone but did not get much back so looked elsewhere. Costing me £1,200 or there abouts, but should be good, they seem OK. Would have made sense you doing it as I would guess it might have been a little bit cheaper and you know the industry.

    This is what I mocked up after they sent me a completely different idea (i.e. something fitting a template they already had!). For the price i expect them to do a bit of programming & personalisation for me.

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    Last edited by yourdj; 06-04-2018 at 06:20 AM.
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  2. #12
    Web Guru Marc J's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I may have missed the obvious, but i thought you just hosted and managed sites.
    My main business is setting up, hosting & supporting e-commerce websites using custom software (not WordPress / WooCommerce / Magento / Shopify or any that you'll have heard of).

    I occasionally take on web design projects, but never really anything that'll take up too much of my time. Mostly for friends or long standing clients (I've been doing this kind of stuff for more than 15 years). I can't link to samples, but I knocked up http://bennysmyth.preview-web.uk/ in a few hours as an example of how easy it is to take a £12 template and make something comparable to what Benny was working on without the bloat that inevitably comes with a CMS (see this post).

    I don't create WordPress sites, as I don't like using it. I host many WordPress sites, but 99% of them have either been migrated from elsewhere when a client comes to me, or the client has really wanted to use Wordpress and do it themselves. I do add some speed tweaks if requested, and additional security features, but don't really get involved in the design or content for WP sites.

    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I would have got you to do the HDA one had I known you also designed them. I put a post on here asking about anyone but did not get much back so looked elsewhere. Costing me £1,200 or there abouts, but should be good, they seem OK. Would have made sense you doing it as I would guess it might have been a little bit cheaper and you know the industry.

    This is what I mocked up after they sent me a completely different idea (i.e. something fitting a template they already had!). For the price i expect them to do a bit of programming & personalisation for me.
    That's why I don't like to do too much on the design side - you're right, of course, for £1,200 they should do more than purchase a template and stick it on a free CMS, but there are many, many "agencies" making good money doing just that. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that, and if I was actually going to put in the hours for my £1,200 I choose not to do it on web design as I don't particularly enjoy doing it.

    I knew you wanted WordPress as you sing it's praises all the time (that's fine - it works for you), and I also knew you'd be difficult (), which is why I didn't answer your post looking for a designer

    ...but if you're ever looking for decent hosting...
    Last edited by Marc J; 06-04-2018 at 11:43 AM.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marc J View Post
    My main business is setting up, hosting & supporting e-commerce websites using custom software (not WordPress / WooCommerce / Magento / Shopify or any that you'll have heard of).

    I occasionally take on web design projects, but never really anything that'll take up too much of my time. Mostly for friends or long standing clients (I've been doing this kind of stuff for more than 15 years). I can't link to samples, but I knocked up http://bennysmyth.preview-web.uk/ in a few hours as an example of how easy it is to take a £12 template and make something comparable to what Benny was working on without the bloat that inevitably comes with a CMS (see this post).

    I don't create WordPress sites, as I don't like using it. I host many WordPress sites, but 99% of them have either been migrated from elsewhere when a client comes to me, or the client has really wanted to use Wordpress and do it themselves. I do add some speed tweaks if requested, and additional security features, but don't really get involved in the design or content for WP sites.



    That's why I don't like to do too much on the design side - you're right, of course, for £1,200 they should do more than purchase a template and stick it on a free CMS, but there are many, many "agencies" making good money doing just that. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that, and if I was actually going to put in the hours for my £1,200 I choose not to do it on web design as I don't particularly enjoy doing it.

    I knew you wanted WordPress as you sing it's praises all the time (that's fine - it works for you), and I also knew you'd be difficult (), which is why I didn't answer your post looking for a designer

    ...but if you're ever looking for decent hosting...
    OK cheers. I would not say 'difficult' I know exactly what I want to wont be changing my mind, but I would be time consuming as I possibly see more attention to detail than the average person, but also appreciate simplicity, so the actual design would not be too over the top in terms of content (unlike my own site that is). I would not enjoy making sites for anyone. I knocked this up in an hour the other day, I have obviously not finished, but it works for her. http://trudielebeau.com



    This is the company, what do you think? I opted for them as he was genuine and actually got back to me, which was not the case with the more expensive company. See if you can find the template they wantd me to follow with their other clients?? http://sitesforbusiness.co.uk

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    Last edited by yourdj; 06-04-2018 at 12:38 PM.
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  4. #14

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    For future reference the word to use is not 'difficult' it's 'exacting'. As in 'that line needs to be 3 pixels higher' then 'oh. Maybe it was better before' ad nauseum. Been there

  5. #15
    Web Guru Marc J's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    OK cheers. I would not say 'difficult' I know exactly what I want to wont be changing my mind
    In web designer speak, that's the definition of "difficult"

    I've had clients who give me a Photoshop mock-up and want their website to be a pixel perfect match to that. And then they don't understand responsive design at all, which of course their mock-up doesn't allow for at all. If I get a mock-up from a client, that's the point I usually tell them that I'm not the designer they're looking for. Mock-ups go from me to them, not the other way

    Quote Originally Posted by Nakatomi View Post
    For future reference the word to use is not 'difficult' it's 'exacting'. As in 'that line needs to be 3 pixels higher' then 'oh. Maybe it was better before' ad nauseum. Been there
    Exactly!

  6. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post


    This is the company, what do you think? I opted for them as he was genuine and actually got back to me, which was not the case with the more expensive company. See if you can find the template they wantd me to follow with their other clients?? http://sitesforbusiness.co.uk
    If I'm honest everything under their 'Web design' Portfolio looks like some old free generic templates.
    Nathan.

  7. #17
    Web Guru Marc J's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    This is the company, what do you think? I opted for them as he was genuine and actually got back to me, which was not the case with the more expensive company. See if you can find the template they wantd me to follow with their other clients?? http://sitesforbusiness.co.uk
    Haha, I don't need to even look at the source or their client list, I'll put money on the fact that it's https://themeforest.net/item/porto-r...-theme/9207399

    FYI I use the HTML version of that on the site I linked to earlier (http://bennysmyth.preview-web.uk/) and a lot of other sites. It's very flexible and doesn't need to look the same every time. I might PM you some of mine!

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marc J View Post

    FYI I use the HTML version of that on the site I linked to earlier (http://bennysmyth.preview-web.uk/) and a lot of other sites. It's very flexible and doesn't need to look the same every time. I might PM you some of mine!
    I think you might be right there. The beauty of it being Wordpress is I can adjust things and add the rest of the content, I wanted a third party to do all of this as its not my money and its hard to justify if something took me x hours or so. They may not use the state of the art design but come highly regarded and I think will do a nice job for what i want. The main thing is they have just expanded to a bigger office so should be firing on all cylinders now, so wont be going under anytime soon or being crap with correspondence. I wanted someone local and I think I made a good decision.
    Your DJ - Mobile DJ The New Forest, Southampton & Hampshire. Toby
    https://yourdj.co.uk/

  9. #19
    Web Guru Marc J's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I think you might be right there.
    I am Just checked their portfolio, mostly the same template. I wonder how many times they've purchased it?

    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    They may not use the state of the art design
    I don't know, that template is kept fairly up-to-date, uses Bootstrap 4 (the most recent) and uses a lot of nice effects. It's good but not OTT. State-of-the-art usually means only works on Chrome Canary, and will need some work in future or it'll just end up looking like some web designer's play-thing.

    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    come highly regarded and I think will do a nice job for what i want. The main thing is they have just expanded to a bigger office so should be firing on all cylinders now, so wont be going under anytime soon or being crap with correspondence. I wanted someone local and I think I made a good decision.
    Looks good, hope they live up to your expectations

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Benny Smyth View Post
    Respectfully, your website should have been responsive three years ago when it was built. In 2018, the fact that you're only getting wind about this now would make me want to look elsewhere.

    Website prices range from a £20-odd quid a month template from Webnation to potentially thousands, and everything in between. After all, how much is a disco?
    After using webnation I'd look elsewhere to be honest...
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