Jan 20 2012
First steps to building your own website
Website building and updating used to be a bit of a technical exercise, but nowadays with the wealth of Content Management Systems, and webhosts who will configure it all for you, there’s very little reason to pay someone else to build or maintain a basic website, except for a lack of time.
First I need to point out that I’m not a website designer, programmer etc. I’m a computer hobbyist and most of what I’ve learned is by trial and error, and from other helpful people on the internet. Because I enjoy helping others, I get recommended to people by their friends, and that’s mainly what this website building section will be about – helping those people build and run their own sites. Hopefully, the lessons and tutorials that I’ll create will be of use to anyone who might just be starting out.
However before you really start, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
1 – Is it worth spending money on a website?
If all you business is local, then you may be better off advertising in your local paper. Even the most basic of websites, where you do ALL of the work will probably cost between £50-£100 just for domain name and hosting.
2 – Do I have the time to actually commit to building and maintaining a site?
The initial set-up and design can be time-consuming, especially when you are doing it yourself for the first time. You may find that paying a developer is actually cheaper and faster, in terms of cost per hour. The downside with a developer doing your site is that they will quite rightly, want paying every time you want to change or update something. Either way, the hosting and domain name will be an annual fee.
If the answer to the above questions is yes, then hopefully this will all be useful to you.
