Outsourcing website design - What do I need?

[Hibernicatio]

I basically have an idea for a website that I would like to build and I intend to use www.getafreelancer.com. I am not well versed in website language and I do not know the exact constituents of a good website, apart form the few things that I know I want on the site.

What questions should I be asking, or is there a 'best practice' model for building websites?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ButtermilkJa]

Not sure what you mean by 'using' the site you've mentioned above, but in terms of general web design best practices, this is really to hard to answer with a sentence or two. There are so many areas you need to pay attention to. But to give you a quick answer…

- No website should be built unless it conforms to current web standards
- Information Architecture is very important
- You should be aware of the distinction between web 'design' and web 'development' and should employ an experienced person for each field.

There are loads of important things to consider when building a website but these are just a few that if you get right will mean your site will hold it's own from the start.

 

[nossie]

Hi.
I'm just about to register myself as a sole trader developing websites and other areas of I.T. that I specialise in once I get a few tax questions answered so maybe I can help if it ends up taking too much of your time.

For now it's hard to advise you without knowing fully what your objectives are. From the bottom up does it matter to you at all which technology is used? (Windows or Linux) If so that would limit your options one way or the other to the next step.
How simple or complex does your website need to be? Is it a simple brochure advertising your service with some text and a few pictures or should it be a full blown webstore like amazon.com with a monster for a database running in the background handling 100's of transactions every second?

 

[Hibernicatio]

Thanks for the replies.

The website will be a fairly simple and user friendly site, focusing on the provision of information, news stories, commentaries etc. It will support forums (like AAM) and also allow users to upload video content using youtube.com.

No flash required, just simple and easy on the eye.

The replies are very helpful and I realise it is a very vague area so will just make a start and figure out as I go along.

 

[BetterBiz]

When outsourcing to a freelancer the more detailed a spec you have done upfront the better. If there are designs that you like on other websites note them down as this will help when trying to explain what you want to a designer.

In terms of functionality you need to be able to spell out exactly what you want to appear on which page and how they relate. I often find it can be helpful to map out the content in a word document first. Also give some thought to whether or not you want to be able to update the site yourself in the future or will you be tied in to that Freelancer. If you want to be able to update the site yourself you might like to incorporate a CMS system. For this I would recommend you consider looking at Joomla which is an open source web development application.

Another thing you need to consider is how people are going to find your website. There is no point having a site with all the bells and whistles if no one can find it. With this in mind you need to build in search engine optimisation from the outset.

Outsourcing to a freelancer that you haven't met can be a challenging experiance at the best of times. I have worked with a number of freelancers on GAF and some are great and some truly woeful, from experience I have found the freelancers on Elance.com to be better as I think they have been vetted a bit more.

Good luck!

Matt

Irish Marketing Consultancy

 

[CGorman]

- No website should be built unless it conforms to current web standards

I'm sorry, but IMHO that is rubbish. Google.ie fails web standards on 48 accounts, Yahoo.ie on 53 accounts, Youtube.com on 153 accounts and Amazon.com on 1157 accounts.

Conforming 100% to current web standards is a very rare feat in web design and is not necessarily desirable. If the aforementioned websites spent their resources on web standards rather than doing what they wanted they would not be where they are today. Does Jeff Bezos stay awake at night worrying that Amazons homepage throws up over a thousend validation errors? Not at all.

A far better objective than 100% validation is to ensure the maximum preportion of the target audiance can access the website in its fullest form.

I'm just about to register myself as a sole trader developing websites and other areas of I.T. that I specialise in once I get a few tax questions answered so maybe I can help if it ends up taking too much of your time.

Just did the same myself last week. AFAIK, register your business name online with core.ie (costs just €20), then fill out form TR1 for the revenue commissioners. If you're registering for VAT and PAYE/PRSI, complete those sections on TR1. Then annually fill out an income return before October 31st - form 11 or 12 I think. Keep good accounts and thats all there really is to it. As regards VAT, you are not obliged to register unless expected turnover is greater than 35k. However you can opt to register even if you are below this level. If you do register and vat libability is below 3k a year you can file vat returns just twice a year, if the liability is less than 14.4k, you can file three times a year, anything greater and you must fill out VAT3 every two months. Good luck in your new business!

I'm in the same boat as you, except about 1 week ahead of you, so if you have any questions, just PM me.

 

[ButtermilkJa]

I'm sorry, but IMHO that is rubbish. Google.ie fails web standards on 48 accounts, Yahoo.ie on 53 accounts, Youtube.com on 153 accounts and Amazon.com on 1157 accounts.

Conforming 100% to current web standards is a very rare feat in web design and is not necessarily desirable. If the aforementioned websites spent their resources on web standards rather than doing what they wanted they would not be where they are today. Does Jeff Bezos stay awake at night worrying that Amazons homepage throws up over a thousend validation errors? Not at all.

I'm not sure I agree. I know what you're saying regarding Google, Amazon et.al, but my guess is that these sites are quite old and have just been added to over the years. I would imagine if they were starting from scratch, they would like to build a standards compliant website.

Besides, just because everyone else is doing it...

A far better objective than 100% validation is to ensure the maximum preportion of the target audiance can access the website in its fullest form.

Isn't that what web standards is all about

 

[Keentoinvest]

Hibernicatio,
Speaking from experience:

Portfolio
Make sure whoever you go with has a good portfolio they can show you.

Blueprint
I generally draw up a blueprint of the website I want built so that the wed designer has a good idea of what I am looking for. The more you add along the way the more you are likely to see the price and timeline increased.

Examples
Give them a list of websites you like and let them know what aspects of the sites you want drawn into your site i.e. you might find a website with a nice sharp clear website template that you like.

You may need to pay a few extra quid to nice sharp clean design but its worth it in the end.

 

[auto320]

If you just need a simple website to display your product or service, and you intend to drive traffic to your website with advertising, vehicle signage or word of mouth, don't waste a fortune on website design. Try www.mrsite.com for an "instant" website, about 60 euro including domain name and one years hosting. I know someone who set up his own website in about two hours and he had no experience and has only normal computer literacy skills. I'm told that it is also very easy to make changes and add or remove material, and you don't have to wait for an IT expert to come in and do it for you. Looks to me like a very good solution for a start-up business, assuming you don't need a database driven setup with a lot of technical work involved in the setup. I saw the website and it looks great (at least to my uneducated eye!).

 

[Keentoinvest]

Not very fancy portfolio but certainly cheap.

 

[auto320]

When you see the prices that are charged by website designers, often delivering websites that are all form and no function, you would have to say that the Mr Site operation must be high on the list for anyone starting out in business and trying to manage costs. The one I know about -- put together by a friend of a friend in a couple of hours -- is www.fourflannerys.com which looks good to my untrained eye anyway. Also look at www.indigo-island,com and www.leehealey.com to give you an idea of what you can do with the basic template.

By the way, I don't have any connection with the Mr Site business! I just think it's a remarkable product at the price. If I was in any kind of start-up situation, or even involved in a residents group or other voluntary operation, this would definitely be the way I would go. Not just on price alone, but also you could be operational in a couple of days without waiting for some designer to decide which month he could fit you in.

 

[ButtermilkJa]

Sorry, I don't mean to burst your bubble but those sites are dreadful. They can't even come close to competing with anything you'd get from an experienced designer. It just proves to me that money will buy you quality.

 

[ivorystraws]

Sorry, I don't mean to burst your bubble but those sites are dreadful. They can't even come close to competing with anything you'd get from an experienced designer. It just proves to me that money will buy you quality.

If it is true that it provides dot com domain name and hosting for approximately €60 along with;

- Secure Paypal Shopping Cart
- Support
- Email and Webmail
- Anti-spam
- Photo gallery
- Contact Forms
- Guest Book
- Music Player
- Password Protection
- Forum
- Blog
- Graphical Stat Charts
- FTP Access
- 2Gb Bandwidth per month

...then it seems ok to me to start off with. What would a Web Developer offer for €60?

If the user had a larger budget then they obviously they would have more options. I would just see it as a stepping stone or a starting point.

 

[paddi22]

I agree that those sites are perfect for voluntary groups or personal sites. But as regards a company, I think they look very cheap and a bit unprofessional. Your company branding is often the first thing people see about you, if you look cheap and unprofessional, then that is how people will view your company. People tend to denigrate web design nowadays as there are so many cheaper software options available. But to compare it to hair dressing say, everyone has a scissors at home and can give themselves a haircut, but there's no substitute to getting someone who is a trained professional to give you a proper style, which is unique to you and flatters you.

 

[ivorystraws]

I agree that those sites are perfect for voluntary groups or personal sites. But as regards a company, I think they look very cheap and a bit unprofessional. Your company branding is often the first thing people see about you, if you look cheap and unprofessional, then that is how people will view your company. People tend to denigrate web design nowadays as there are so many cheaper software options available. But to compare it to hair dressing say, everyone has a scissors at home and can give themselves a haircut, but there's no substitute to getting someone who is a trained professional to give you a proper style, which is unique to you and flatters you.

Yes, but once again, if you don't have the budget, then there's very little you can do apart from get the siccors out!
If a startup was eligible for a web development grant and perhaps some other funding, then by all means, put it out to tender to for the experienced designers/developers to bid on, to give it that professional look! Otherwise, don't waste a tight budget or you'll run out of funding and then what?

 

[auto320]

I would certainly advise any young person starting out to think of using the budget approach to their first website. Unless you need a very high-tech database driven website, then the Mr Site package is perfect for the majority of start-up businesses who just need a www shop window.

I know that peope in the IT service business don't like the Mr Site approach and will slag it from all angles, but it delivers what to my mind is fantastic value to new businesses at a time when they need to keep funds for more important things. In the event that the business grows, they can then afford to spend lots of of money on a fancy site. The biggest killer for new businesses in early stages is cash flow, so this approach is a no-brainer to some extent.

As for the expensive website designers, I have seen the track record of many of these and it leaves a lot to be desired. The ones with the technical competence seem to have no design flair, and vice versa (I know I'm generalising, but just look at any website you like and consider if the end result was worth maybe ten grand). These companies promise much and deliver little in many cases, often take months longer than planned, and then leave the site in such a way that they have to be called back to make even slight changes. They also tie the clients into expensive hosting and other hidden costs.

In the case of Mr Site (again, I hold no brief for them, they are a UK company and I know nothing about them), they proivide anyone on a limited budget with the possibility of getting their site up and running on the same day, at a tiny cost, and the business owner can make all the changes he or she likes without incurring fees. As another poster pointed out, they also include payment options for people selling online.

I think that the only people who will have a problem with Mr Site will be the people selling the more expensive options. In addition, the only people who will notice anything "cheap" about a Mr Site site will be those same IT bods; the majority of people will visit these sites and not notice that they cost less, nor will they care. As long as a website is easily navigable, and has the necessary information, it is ok with most people.