Who can build a website?

[AndrewC]

If it is just static information, I think you can buy a website template and just fill the information.

[thing]

Originally Posted by BallaActuary

I have $$

PM me por favor with links of your work.

As previously stated - there are many here with the skills, but probably none with the time/interest. Check out squarespace, or shop it out to elance, or go to your local craigslist. Or... use your $$ to order a build-a-website-for-dummies book and go it alone. You could probably pick up the technical chops necessary in a long weekend, if you're so motivated.

[BallaActuary]

Originally Posted by ahow

Will there be ecommerce or just information?

Information.

[BallaActuary]

Originally Posted by thing

As previously stated - there are many here with the skills, but probably none with the time/interest. Check out squarespace, or shop it out to elance, or go to your local craigslist. Or... use your $$ to order a build-a-website-for-dummies book and go it alone. You could probably pick up the technical chops necessary in a long weekend, if you're so motivated.

I figured that paying someone to do it would make the apperance well worth the money spent. I don't want a cheesy website.

[AndrewC]

Try to Google website template, there are many high quality, professional website template that you can buy for a very reasonable price.

[thing]

Originally Posted by AndrewC

Try to Google website template, there are many high quality, professional website template that you can buy for a very reasonable price.

Templates are not, by virtue of being a template, cheesy. You're thinking of the late 90's. Things are better now.

[Gedankenexperiment]

Originally Posted by thing

Templates are not, by virtue of being a template, cheesy. You're thinking of the late 90's. Things are better now.

It's easy to make a stylish informative website. Even in the 90's this was easy, if you had taste. For example, I remember my AOL homepage had this sweet javascript animation of fire outlining my name...

If you want an actuarial to do it, I'd ask in the career forum.

[Expunge]

From what I'm reading, you need to:

get yourself a domain,
and a host,
install wordpress,
find a wordpress theme,
load up wordpress with content.

None of the steps is particularly hard. I've dabbled in all of the above, but nothing truly from start to finish.

And I agree with the above posters. You can get a very nice wordpress template for under $100, some even free. But before you pick a template you should have an outline of all the information you want on your site, so you can figure out if the template fills all your needs, or if you'll need to do additional customization, other than the words \ pictures.

[Dumbdumb]

Originally Posted by Expunge

From what I'm reading, you need to:

get yourself a domain,
and a host,
install wordpress,
find a wordpress theme,
load up wordpress with content.

None of the steps is particularly hard. I've dabbled in all of the above, but nothing truly from start to finish.

And I agree with the above posters. You can get a very nice wordpress template for under $100, some even free. But before you pick a template you should have an outline of all the information you want on your site, so you can figure out if the template fills all your needs, or if you'll need to do additional customization, other than the words \ pictures.

I'm speaking from experience (and I am experienced at this), the above is exactly what you should do. It'll cost you domain registration of about $8, and then another $5-$10 a month in hosting and you can do it all yourself. Erso's two hosting companies are fine, though they are on the low end of the spectrum. I have a few dozen crap websites at those companies, my premium stuff doesn't go there.

Be careful, you seem fixated on 'cheesy'. This seems to translate into making a website into a glossy, pleasant-appearance display of graphics. Don't do that. Visitors are there for information not pictures.

Or to put it another way, you're asking the wrong question. It's not 'do I have a nice website that people like'?. It's 'do I have a website that drives business'? The two questions normally have opposing answers. My website deliberately looks like a professor's webpage from the 1990's. Converts like crazy. And I'm in an industry where everyone has websites overburdened with graphics. My site has one graphic - my corporate logo. Again...don't care if you have a 'nice' looking website. Don't go ask your neighbors and mother if they like your website. Care about whether it gives you business. And it gives you business if it converts. See point #2 below.

Three other points.

1. Phone numbers prominently at the top of every page
2. Every page must contain a primary focus. The focus something that makes them contact you. It could be 'please call me', or 'sign up for a newsletter' or 'get a quote'. When you look at any page on your site, this must be the most important visual thing on the page - not your logo, not your pretty images of smiling people.
3. If you're business is local, learn to optimize for Google local. It's an easy, free, and very effective way to get business. My business is national/international so I'm no expert on local optimization, but everything I've read and seen says Google local is totally the way to go for local businesses.

[AndrewC]

Building website is only step 1; how to bring customers to your website that drive your business is another huge step.