How to design a website

[pitkennedy]

I have taken a lot of great advice from this site. I have now come to the conclusion that I am going to start painting & decorating again. So, I have a few questions for anyone who will listen and come to my aid. I need to know how to design a website, is it easy to do? As you know I have rhuematoid arthritis, and this made me reluctant. However, I thought I can't make my decision just on that basis and I shouldn't let that stop me. So, I am going to give it a go but only on a part-time scale as I already work part-time as a rehab assistant.
My questions are these, 1/ How much do decorators charge here in New Zealand? People have said $30 per hour does this include paint?
Do decorators charge by the sqm? I want to start at a reasonable price, not to cheap and not to expensive. Also has anyone got any good suggestions for a business name, I was thinking of something that states I am a female and something a bit Funky. All hung up, was a thought. Much appreciated everyone.

[newarrival]

I can't offer help, unfortunately , since the technical side of the whole computerworld is not my strongest part, just wanted to wish you good luck with your plans!

[eassae]

Google Wordpress and Wordpress templates. There are thousands to choose from and most templates are free. You can usually find something very close to what you want then slap a logo on it. All the content is handled through a content management system that is similar to word. There are tons of tutorials if you need help.

[jehanzaib_kiani]

hi there,

i can website for you ... let me know if you are still interested

[dbonnett]

Google Wordpress and Wordpress templates. There are thousands to choose from and most templates are free. You can usually find something very close to what you want then slap a logo on it. All the content is handled through a content management system that is similar to word. There are tons of tutorials if you need help.

Agreed! You can host for free on http://wordpress.com/ and if you want to set up a dedicated domain (i.e. www.pitkennedy.co.nz), it is still quite cheap. Beyond the look and feel (colours, fonts, images etc.) you can also add a wide range of other capabilities for linking to Facebook, sending emails and more without having to be technically savvy.

If you have questions, feel free to pm me - I work with this sort of stuff and am happy to give you guidance w/o charge (ENZ karma )

[Duncan74]

I've got a website I made / use for my photos, but I'm not going to talk about the technical side for now. What I think you need to think about is what the website is going to do for you and your business. If it's to promote the business, then it needs to be done to a very very high quality. For a small tradesperson then I don't expect them to have a website at all. However, if they do have one and it looks half finished, is out of date, or of a general low quality then I will take that as an indication of the work they are likely to deliver. So a bad website is much worse than none at all.
Free hosting (which normally means adverts / pop ups) is also a no-no. I pay UKP5.99 a month for my domain, hosting (20gb I think) and 50 email addresses. So if you're going to do a website then accept the costs of doing it properly. Likewise, I bought a textbook on webdesign, and even using some templates then I spent a long time making the site, and even now it's probably 'passable' rather than impressive. And this was just for a hobby / charity fundraiser, not a site I was relying on for business.

Now here's a question. Are you really wanting to decorate, or is the decorating the excuse to build a website? If the former, then I would suggest that in a place like Tauranga then spending the 40 hours (absolute minimum) that it will take you to build a website going around countdowns putting up cards, or spending the money on a small advert in the local paper will get you more work. And you'd need to advertise your website anyway, as people would need to look for www.pitkennedydecorating.co.nz as it's not going to appear as the first link when you google 'decorator tauranga'. Just my thoughts.

[eassae]

I've got a website I made / use for my photos, but I'm not going to talk about the technical side for now. What I think you need to think about is what the website is going to do for you and your business. If it's to promote the business, then it needs to be done to a very very high quality. For a small tradesperson then I don't expect them to have a website at all. However, if they do have one and it looks half finished, is out of date, or of a general low quality then I will take that as an indication of the work they are likely to deliver. So a bad website is much worse than none at all.

This is exactly why I suggested wordpress. You can get great free professional looking templates or if you want to go the extra mile and get nice built in js slideshows and other goodies you can pay $35 to $70. Plus there are tons of plugins for search engine optimization, or pretty much anything else you can think of. WP is used for blogs, by small and large businesses and even a few NZ government websites, and it was voted best content management system of the year last year.

For a business I would suggest your own hosting as the .wordpress doesn't look to clean in the address bar.

[pitkennedy]

Yes, I understand. No, I am definetly wanting to decorate, and I thought the website may have been a good idea so people can view pictures of the high quality work I can offer. If the advertising locally etc would get me the work initially then maybe the website is better put on hold until I can build the business up.
Many thanks to everyone for all their advice.
Does anyone know how much decent decorators charge for an hourly rate.

[benandclare]

Would have thought $35 per hour plus paint would be reasonable for top guy

[cjweaver]

Can't help with on the ground NZ questions, but for registering your own domain (which I'd highly recommend - much more professional looking) these folks are the cheapest I've found: https://registry.domains4less.co.nz

You can host with them (the smallest plan should do what you need) but it might be worth dropping them a line to see if they offer push button installation on wordpress, so that all you need to do is find a template and add your content.

Please let me know if I can help - folks here have been super helpful to me, and its nice to be able to pay it back!