new website.......HELP!

I have recently lost my job so have decided to start a pet/house sitting business. I want to set up a website, nothing too fancy, but I have NO clue where to start. I need cheap and cheerful and something I can manage on my own. I am thinking of getting business cards from vista print and am wondering whether to go with them for the website as well. I would like to incorporate the card design with the site to help make it look uniform. Any help or advice from you computer savvy folks would be most welcome!! Keep it in English though or I will likely just glaze over!!!

 

No advice but just wanted to say: Good Luck with your business venture

 

Sorry to hear you lost your job catz and like Mum, I have no advice to offer, but wish you well in your new venture, which is right up your street.

 

Thanks Mum and Victoria. Yes it IS right up my street and with the extra experience I've gained in working at the cat hospice I think I have the confidence to make it work. Plus there's the gardening experience I have to offer in the summer time while people are away. I'm hoping to build it up enough that hubby can join me in it too, if he wants to. I will keep you all posted on how things are going.

 

i havent tried it yet, but wordpress.com seem to be quite common among beginners.

Good idea to open a business to take care of small pets.
If I had a pet, I'd rather leave it in a private home when I go on holiday rather than the pension for pets. Let us know how it goes!

 

Thanks Mira. I want more of a typical website than a blog which is what word press mainly is. I figure I need 5 or 6 pages for various items such as a home page, an about page, prices, contact, links, etc. Just something simple and easy to navigate.

 

Hi Catz, I'll give you a hand if I can. I can guide you through the process of getting a website online, and building it up. I'm not designer (like I told my current boss in my interview, someone makes it look pretty, and I make it work), but I can get you started using one of many free templates.

There are two options for a starting point.

1. You can choose a web hosting company first. Many have web design tools included.

2. Design your site, and then find a hosting company to publish it on.

The advantage of the first one is that you can get up and running quickly (in theory), but it means you're paying hosting fees for the time when you're not quite ready. Also, I suspect the built in design tools that some offer are quite limited.

The advantage of the second option is that you can get the site working on your own computer, and edit at leisure until you're happy, and then take out a hosting account and publish straight away.

If you choose to go with the second option (that would always be mine recommendation), start by having a look here:

http://www.oswd.org/

On that site, there are a load of website templates that are completely free. If there's one you like, then you can download it and use it as a starting point for your own website (again I'll help you out if you like).

As for who will host it, there are loads of choices. I hate to say it, but I would stay away from a UK based company. You'll pay more than you need to and I've found that support is sometimes not as good. I like this company:

http://www.godaddy.com/

So armed with all that info, the main thing you need to decide is what exactly you want to put on your website.

I'd suggest you make a bullet point list of info/pics/features you want on there. Then break the list up into categories which will become the different pages of your website, and finally, do a first VERY rough draft of the actual wording/pics.

Armed with that, you then have enough to start building. You could if you fancied learn HTML and CSS, or if you don't want to, ask someone to give you hand. Again, I'll help where I can.

Good luck, and keep us posted

 

Thanks so much Clueless! That's the sort of info I was after. And in plain English too!! Im no dummy but completely ignorant on the tech side of things. I will have a look at those sites and see what's what. No doubt I will have more questions for you. Thanks again!!

 

I forgot to add, when looking through the website templates, if you see one you sort of like but the colours aren't quite right, or the font etc, don't rule it out because we can change all that with ease. Its mostly the structure of the design that's important, as that's the bit that can be time consuming to get right, so that's where a template comes into its own because someone else has already done the hard part.

 

this is also quite a new website builder...www.weebly.com

 

Looks good, but there is a catch. As a member you are considered fair game for having your profile supplied to advertisers. Or you can pay for 'extra features'.

 

Some reviews of web hosting providers here >
http://www.consumer-rankings.com/hosting/uk/

I've run three websites in the past and the web space and domain were provided by my ISPs but my longest lasting free site courtesy of BT has been discontinued. I didn't use on-line templates but used MS FrontPage to create the site and then uploaded via FTP. But if you are new to site building one of the providers who supply templates would probably be an easier route to follow.

 

I definitely recommend WordPress for anybody setting up a website for the first time be it for a business or hobby and avoid like the plague any cheap or free website builder software especially those that call itself 'Professional'!

 

Vistaprint do websites for u. U can order matching business cards aswell.