[Dino355]

As per title

Any web designers or developers on here?

[nicktyler]

What sort of web design/development are you after?

[MEGA]

That's a very loose term.

What do you actually want?

Someone to make a nice template?
Someone to do a simple flat HTML website
Someone to do a dynamic website incorporating a database say

Do you have any leanings on what technology you want to use?


I can put you onto an excellent designer and am myself a developer. We also do work together as and when both are required.

Drop me a PM with what you are after if you are interested in a possible quote.

Rgds
Dave

ps. my most recent site, not that I'm particularly fond of the subject matter, is http://www.jroberts-gunmakers.co.uk
Collaboration between the two of us including layout, design, and all of the dynamic contents for the gun store.

[Dino355]

My current website design is fine but I need a content management system either added to it or the site ported over from .asp to .php (this is what other developers have recommended)

At the moment I am in limbo as my current web guy has some personal issues and hasn't updated the site and I need something done asap. Whilst I am happy with his work the CMS needs to be done so that I don't have to rely on him doing it when I ask him to.

[briers]

They would recommend porting as this will net them the most

Have a look at Wordpress (free) it will do a good job with plugins, easy to manage, lots of support from the community, plugin based.

If you need bespoke functionality or greater than 10k pages its a custom job

Its php so keep this in mind for your hosting

[magic77]

PM sent dont want to get banned for advertising

[Dino355]

Originally Posted by briers

They would recommend porting as this will net them the most

Have a look at Wordpress (free) it will do a good job with plugins, easy to manage, lots of support from the community, plugin based.

If you need bespoke functionality or greater than 10k pages its a custom job

Its php so keep this in mind for your hosting

Thanks for the tips.

Yes I guessed that they will recommend what makes them the most money!

I've known about wordpress for quite some time but I simply don't have the time for it. I run two businesses with no staff but myself so I really don't have the time to get a website up and running. Whilst I could use wordpress and get things up and running from a functionality point of view it's the design aspect I'm crap with!

[MEGA]

PHP is definitely the bost non compilation based language in my opinion, IE something that will run in a vanilla apache without any messing around. Way better than ASP in this day and age which is really a dead language (markup wise, asp.net doesn't really count .. )

I imagine you would also need to consider a new webhost and therefore also making changes to DNS and all the rest of it.

Starting again or tailoring and off the shelf solution is going to be easier than "porting".

Otherwise: Just find someone who knows ASP and get them to take on the modification.

I'd imagine you could find a polish guy on gumtree or somewhere like that who will do it very cheaply. Depends what the budget is? It seems to be a strong motivational factor for you.


If you are interested in a proper service, I could help - but what to be honest I can't provide in any case is a very fast one. The web work I do is evening work. Maybe someone else on here can assist further.

Advice is free though of course so happy to either keep posting here or take it to PM if I can help at all

Dave

[Dino355]

Hi Dave

Advice is much appreciated.

As this is a car enthusiast forum I am willing to offer the services of my company in exchange for work!

This could be a strong motivational factor for someone on here that could help me.

I run an events company that runs driving tours to Europe (Nurburgring, Spa, Swiss Alps, etc etc) so would happily offer someone a place on a trip in lieu of work.

My designer (upto now!) has offered me a very cheap and professional service for the last 4 years but it's time to move on and have a website that I can update as and when I choose.

I've been looking at wordpress and joomla as possible alternatives so any advice about these platforms is welcome.

[briers]

I have been outsourcing my development to the Ukraine for a few years now I have a few guys who work on my stuff and I can really vouch for them.

The beauty is they have a load of people there so resources are rarely an issue, wide range of skills and designers and a very good project manager.

Their rates are very good too and they are all hard workers. I'm sure they would give you a favourable price.

[BoondogUK]

I'm also a dev, well more a UX consultant these days...

A solid templating cms like wordpress or drupal will get you a long way however I am not a fan of Joomla as it has to be patched so often because of security issues.

I'm not pitching for the work as I dont have the time, but would recommend before getting any design done, you understand what it is that the user of your site wants from you, rather than the other way round. If you fancy some reading, look up User Centered Design (UCD), it will save you a lot of hassle, and allow you to maximise your visitor conversions.

Good luck with what ever you go for, but make sure you know what your users want before you start!

[dopper99]

Originally Posted by Dino355

....hasn't updated the site and I need something done asap.

What exactly do you need changing on your website that your guy was supposed to do? Is it just some content needs changing?

[Dino355]

Originally Posted by dopper99

What exactly do you need changing on your website that your guy was supposed to do? Is it just some content needs changing?

Pretty much yes, I need my events pages updated!

In the short term this will help me but longer term I need a CMS on there to do it myself.

Problem is I can't even get ftp details off my guy!!!

[dopper99]

Mmmmm problem...if you cant get the ftp details then no-one can help update what you currently have.

For the long term, I agree with whats been said and its best porting it to Wordpress. No-one needs to be a web designer and have fancy skills in that area as there are plenty of great templates out there and you can swap and change them until you find one that you like. You just need to learn Wordpress. Its not too difficult - just follow a few tutorials on Youtube.

One concern I have is where are your site visitors currently coming from? If you are getting a lot of search engine traffic then building a new site with new pages will basically cause pages of your site to drop out of the search engine rankings. Your home page will most likely be ok but inner pages will tank due to the fact the page names will have changed. To fix this you need to look at permanent redirects from your old pages as to make it appear to the search engines your old site still exists.

[dopper99]

You also need the log in details to your hosting account that which may or may not be the same and the ftp details. You will need to point your domain to the new nameservers of wherever you host your new website. Your current hosting provider may well offer a PHP package and you should then get Wordpress for free. This would make things simpler. But you may want to move the lot to another hosting company. Lots of choices!

[Dino355]

Hosting will be with the same company (Fast Hosts), I've spoken to them today and they said they can transfer to my control within 6 - 14 days.

As for the visitors yes they are all from search engine traffic. The site was last revamped (totally redisgned) in June 2011 and search engine rankings were not affected. Worried I might not be so lucky next time.....

[MEGA]

If you keep the same page urls titles and googleanalytics/ meta headers then you'll be fine on the google rank front.

It sounds like a bunch of us are in the would like to but too busy camp!

The static update I'm sure someone can do FoC. I'd offer that and others may too. The redesign is another matter of course. Briers Ukranian guys seem a decent shout?

Good thing is the dynamic redesign can happen in parallel to any static updates so in that way thered be no big rush..

[Dino355]

A mates brother is now undertaking the port to php and via Wordpress and it should look very similar to how the site does now.

He is charging me though but it's a pretty decent price compared to what I have been quoted elsewhere.

All we need now is the hosting company to transfer control to me and we are good to go. I can't believe the stress of it all! When it's your lively hood that's affected it's not nice!