Website design

[bowtech_182]

Can anyone point me in a good direction for website design help.  I need to create one for my custom rod business.  I already purchased a domain name from Godaddy.  Are there any programs(FREE) that are easy to use that I can just create the website and upload it to the server?

[GTrombly]

you can use dreamweaver 5 for 30 days to get the website up and running. after that you have to buy it or learn xhtml.

[burleytog]

You're better off paying for a program.

This is what I've used to design and maintain my club's website.

http://www.avanquest.com/USA/software/web-easy-professional-8-130293

[done]

Have you ever done a site yourself? If not, you may be better off spending money on a local site designer? There is a lot of competition in the field so it is they type of market you can get a good deal in. I know of a few in my area (Charlotte, NC) they are really struggling and making lower priced deals than they have ever made.

There are a lot of subtleties in getting a professional site right. Navigation, scrolling, color scheme, etc all play into it.

[Eddie Munster]

I built one years ago but not business related which IMO would be a bit more involved. I used a combination of programs such as MS Frontpage and Adobe InDesign.

If you do it yourself, here's a tip. Use your software to create a basic web page. Then surf around, finding sites that have features you like and save the webpage to your computer on your hard drive. Then use your software to pull it up, highlight the features you want for your site (such as drop down menus, etc..) and go up the the View tab and click on Source. That will show you the entire HTML code with the portion you like highlighted. Then copy the highlighted code and viewing the source code of your basic web page, paste it into it whereever you want it. It will take a little time to get it right but there's no need learning the all there is to know about HTML code when you can just use what others have done. In other words, don't recreate the wheel.

After you play around with the software for awhile you'll become pretty good at manipulating the code.

Good luck.

[GTrombly]

you might be able to steal the code from other sites but if it is controlled by external css style sheets it will not look the same on yours.

[TopDog]

Look into a Content management system like Wordpress, blogger, and joomla. They will get you up and running. You can customize them all you want and you really wont have to worry about cross browser issues. Sometimes a page looks good in Firefox, and looks like crap in IE. Just a PITA. Are you thinking shopping cart and all that Jazz? or just a simple sight to show off your work and have people Email you and call you for the rods?

Agree with above, this day and age a first impression says allot. If your site ends up looking like crap, people will not give your business the time of day.

Good luck man!

[GTrombly]

there are a lot of free css templates out there. you just need to learn how to integrate the html into the divs to make it work and look good. it is not that hard just aggravating.

[bowtech_182]

Look into a Content management system like Wordpress, blogger, and joomla. They will get you up and running. You can customize them all you want and you really wont have to worry about cross browser issues. Sometimes a page looks good in Firefox, and looks like crap in IE. Just a PITA. Are you thinking shopping cart and all that Jazz? or just a simple sight to show off your work and have people Email you and call you for the rods?

Agree with above, this day and age a first impression says allot. If your site ends up looking like crap, people will not give your business the time of day.

Good luck man!

I am not looking for online sales.  All I really want is something to show off my work and an email with my domain in it.  I plan to sit down some this weekend and start messing with it