Advice on making a website from scratch

[b23avfc]

You can get templates for Wordpress and it works well with google with a few easy plug ins.

And no site is that safe. You can take measures to protect yourself and as Wordpress is so popular there is a lot of help.

Just as with Microsoft, the hackers will go after the largest user base. Which means they have to work hard to keep a step ahead.

[limpid]

Just as with Microsoft, the hackers will go after the largest user base. Which means they have to work hard to keep a step ahead.

FUD. Crackers go for the easiest return, which is often not the most widely deployed.

 

But I agree that if you update Wordpress regularly and don't use plugins from non-reputable sources, you'll probably be fine. Just keep backups.

[Big_John_10]

So basically to build a website for paid members only that has lots of video clips on I've been quoted £11,000 by an agency and £6,500 by a freelance guy.

I mentioned Weebly to him and he said there's no way that would do what I need but from looking at it I can't really see why not. I'm not sure wether I do need someone to build it for me or if what he's saying is just him trying to sell me his service.

The great thing about weebly is it also comes with a simple forum which is also something I wanted on my site.

I'm struggling to see why I need to fork out thousands of pounds but then I'm pretty clueless about the website building process.

[PaulC]

Personally I use a combination of Dreamweaver, Photoshop and webassist dreamweaver extensions for the content management. These days you need to be looking at responsive designs so the site looks good no matter what device you are viewing it on. Dreamweaver cs 5.5 onwards supports responsive designs and also supports the jquery mobile framework. There loads of free php forums you can use like mybb and phpbb. If I were you I would try and learn the basics of html5 and css3. Some knowledge of PHP AND SQL is helpful but not essential. Likewise with jquery and ajax.

 

Databridge 3 which are dreamweaver extensions includes everything you need to create a dynamic website. The cost of that is $399

 

You obviously need dreamweaver as well

 

Of course you can use wordpress but I have always designed my own sites and built my own content management so cant comment on that.

 

To build a site for what you want and make it secure would be pretty easy really, depending what payment gateway you will use. Paypal express is easy to incorporate. With paypal express you don't need to worry about ssl certificates which can be expensive, also no monthly fees with paypal express. The problem maybe the bandwidth if people are downloading and streaming videos, so that's where the extra costs may come in.

Edited April 22, 2013 by PaulC

[TheDon]

I'm struggling to see why I need to fork out thousands of pounds but then I'm pretty clueless about the website building process.

 

This is why you need to fork out thousands of pounds.

 

Feel free to try to do it yourself, but if you want a professional job done, pay a professional.

[Big_John_10]

If i could afford £11,000 I'd spend it. Right now though that's too much so looking for much cheaper options.

[Big_John_10]

These days you need to be looking at responsive designs so the site looks good no matter what device you are viewing it on

Weebly automatically fits desktops and tabs the same.

Mobiles can look a bit dodgy.

[PaulC]

Yes if that solution is best for you than go for it. You can always build a separate mobile app later and just stick a bit of javascript into the head of the index page like

<script type="text/javascript">
  <!--
  if (screen.width <= 350) {
    window.location = "http://m.domain.com";
  }
  //-->
</script>

replacing the http:/m.domain.com with your mobile url

[darrenm]

To all webdevs: Please stop assuming my phone needs a mobile website. It doesn't.

[TheDon]

To all webdevs: Please stop assuming my phone needs a mobile website. It doesn't.

 

However feel free to keep assuming it does if your mobile site is actually decent. There are some amazing mobile sites out there that make it a lot easier to read on a mobile. However far too many just go for the "strip out all the content and just display big blocks of text" approach, which have be reaching for the "request desktop version" button.

[PaulC]

You don't have to have a mobile version if you don't want but I made that suggestion because Big_John said it didn't look too good on mobiles. He could use media queries but again it takes a bit of learning and if you don't use Dreamweaver then its not so easy.

[NIVillan]

As well as Wordpress there is also Joomla.  Find a theme you like which can set you back upto $100 and tweak.

 

You can buy addons that will handle paid subscriptions and Video services.

 

You can start a proof of concept site that you build yourself using one of the content management (Wordpress/Joomla)  and see how it goes.  If things are successful you can then start talking to the guy for the £11,000 version.  Best to find out if your idea for a site is actually a good one and has a user base before spending thousands making it look pretty and all dancing to find no one wants to visit.

 

I have a dedicated box/server sitting int he states that I use to test my ideas.  I will put a site on there and watch what the stats say.  If the stats show promise I can move the site to a better host and think about improving the site. 

[PaulC]

To be honest £11,000 sounds totally extortinate

[TheDon]

To be honest £11,000 sounds totally extortinate

It depends what you want really.

£11,000 would get you 10 days of my time.

[Stevo985]

It would get you a whole night with me.

[PaulC]

 

To be honest £11,000 sounds totally extortinate

It depends what you want really.

£11,000 would get you 10 days of my time.

 

 

Are you Stephen Ireland?

[TheDon]

 

 

To be honest £11,000 sounds totally extortinate

It depends what you want really.

£11,000 would get you 10 days of my time.

 

 

Are you Stephen Ireland?

 

 

If I was it'd be more like £11k for 1 day.

 

Sadly I see nowhere near that amount, that's just how much the company I work for bill our clients for my time.

The point being web development can get very expensive depending on what you want, and as always, you generally get what you pay for.

[limpid]

... but I thought the internet was free and no-one has to pay anything.

[Big_John_10]

Thanks for some of the advice guys. Much appreciated.

I think the plan is to go with Weebly and Sentrylogin at the moment as they seem to do what i want. I have no idea about HTML and coding so need to go with the easiest thing that looks decent.

Just hope it's easy to move a weebly site from their host to one of my choice.

Then if it did start to make money and had potential I'd happily pay the money but can't do that right now.

Weebly also comes with its own stock images for free or ones that only cost $5. Also theres a site called Divtags thay sell add ons for a reasonable price that are designed soley for weebly sites. This is certainly helping to keep the cost down.

[PaulC]

 

 

 

To be honest £11,000 sounds totally extortinate

It depends what you want really.

£11,000 would get you 10 days of my time.

 

 

Are you Stephen Ireland?

 

 

If I was it'd be more like £11k for 1 day.

 

Sadly I see nowhere near that amount, that's just how much the company I work for bill our clients for my time.

The point being web development can get very expensive depending on what you want, and as always, you generally get what you pay for.

 

God no wonder I am skint because that is what I do and don't charge a fraction of that. Putting together a site for what Big_John wants would not take that long as its pretty simple to do.