Web Site Design and Construction

[ddavis]

I have a friend who wants to hire someone to build a website. My friend wants to post some technical papers and allow comments/discussion on the papers. He has no idea who to talk to, and is looking for some recommendations or contacts.

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I said I would throw the question out here to see what names I could get for him.

So if anyone can recommend a website designer, let me know.

Thanks for the information
Deborah

[tanya]

You are female! I just assumed male. It's nice to know there is another one around here!

Sorry, no idea on a web designer. Sounds like maybe a blog might be better for what he has in mine, since he wants to be hands on with the discussions.

[ibenick]

I agree. A Wordpress or Blogger type of thing would be really easy to setup and has comments for the posts.

[tanya]

Here is my sadly abandoned blog. I don't know much about which blogs are best, but this is the one I used and need to get with using again. He needs no help and no need to buy anything with this.

http://zionnationalpark.wordpress.com/

http://wordpress.com/

[Cirrus2000]

I agree with the blog idea, Deb. But I think Wordpress installation on your friend's own server would be ideal. Get a domain name, and a basic hosting account that supports Wordpress. Download the package from http://wordpress.org (not wordpress.com) and install. Very customizable. And that way, he is in total control.

If he is willing to spend some money to design a website, then the cost of decent hosting will definitely not be prohibitive, and the work is basically a DIY job.

[Iceaxe]

I have had really good luck and support with these guys hosting my website
http://www.ipower.com/

Search their "Knowledge Base" for Wordpress Install and they have tutorials on installing Wordpress.

Ipower Knowledge Base
http://www.ipower.com/knowledgebase/beta/search.bml

I have never used Wordpress and know nothing about it.... but it appears that Wordpress and its installation is built right into ipower. Just read the tutorial click a few buttons to have it installed and running.

If you plan to run a website you will need a host no matter what you do. Good hosting should cost less then $10 per month for most personal and small business websites. Ipower is currently running a special for $4 per month and i think their normal rate is $8 per month.

[Sombeech]

Yeah just whip up a free blogspot account for that. Or if the demographic of audience isn't that important and he just needs feedback, tell him to just join up here and post links to the documents. There's always some feedback given here. :afro:

[Sombeech]

I have never used Wordpress and know nothing about it.... but it appears that Wordpress and its installation is built right into ipower. Just read the tutorial click a few buttons to have it installed and running.

Wordpress is built into most hosting packages these days, if not all. Wordpress and Blogspot can accomplish pretty much the same thing, but Wordpress is better for customization, more professional. Blogspot is a quick easy way to get some posts out there for people to see.

[mcirque]

This is my shop

http://ascendantitsolutions.com/

If you want a site that you can tweak your digital PR stuff (blogs, facebook, twitter, youtube, seo, etc. integration) along with your web content we do that everyday for people.

Wordpress and the likes are ok as long as you don't try to go too far outside of what they were built to do. Most of the time its cheaper to build from the ground up than to retro fit wordpress, joomla, blogs, or whatever off the shelf framework that's out there to get your custom features in.

[Rau_Dawg33]

I do web development. I could put your friend in touch with our designer. Whats his budget like?

We can design build and host his site for him. And make really easy to update and manage content.

PM me if you're interested.

[ddavis]

Thanks for the suggestions. My friend is not only not interested in learning or doing any of this himself, he's also not able. He can manage a mouse and do some limited typing, but that's about all. And yes, probably what he's really most interested in is a blog - a pretty simple one. He's also after a specific (and fairly small) audience, so I think he needs the site/blog/whatever to show up on a google search.

D

[Rau_Dawg33]

And yes, probably what he's really most interested in is a blog - a pretty simple one. He's also after a specific (and fairly small) audience, so I think he needs the site/blog/whatever to show up on a google search.

D

We also do a lot of SEO. So we could market his site on Google and pay per click and whatever he wants.

[accadacca]

www.wordpress.com FREE and they handle the nuts and bolts. :2thumbs:

[ddavis]

Hey, I'd like to thank you guys for taking the time to give me suggestions and information. I've passed all of this on to my friend, and I'm sure he will find it useful. You're a great resource.

Thanks again.
Deborah