Building a website - Software Development Query

[tractor]

..

Well you are going to need some kind of database for that and you are going to have to sign the thing about storing customers data, I forget what it is. I would also personally make sure security is well covered, not just a simple open text password system etc. Also from a business perspective there is nothing worse than a home made site so a fail to start with unless you are a genius. Using standard templates also stands out a mile so will get people clicking off.

I would say listening to your explaination you are going to have to get someone to do this for you. You could do it yourself but it is going to take ages and be riddled with problems. Get it created and get it up as quick as poss then spend your time marketing it.

Might also be worth getting this moved to technical not business/contracts...

Explanation

I couldn't let you get away with it twice.

To the OP. If you cannot describe what you want to do a little more succinctly than this, you are wasting your time and will spend more time chasing rainbows than actually making any money. If this is just an exercise to learn a little web dev then go for it. If it's a serious attempt at making money there are kids that code for the web for peanuts, but if you pay peanuts, you know what you get.....

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Who/where should look for this resource, any tips for Cheap but good?

Not cuk where daily rates are £500 per day it seems

I'll do it for £490

[chef]

Taking a little pity on the OP I'll try explain why what you have described is difficult.

The main problem isn't the actual design (look/feel of the site). As has been said before you can get templates of web pages for that and then simply customise it with relative ease with company logo/text etc.

The problem comes with this search box idea

a 'search box' where you cut and paste a url into and then this saves the page

As has been said most users don't know what a URL is, my mum for instance wouldn't have a clue. The only user friendly way of getting a URL I can think of is by having the equivalent of a 'Like' button available on the users browser, that once clicked would send the URL to your site, this comes with lots of problems as for starters there are many different browsers and browser versions out there to ensure that it works for most users and secondly the user would have to install and log in to the 'like' button browser plug in. Storing user details and the results of the 'liked' URL's would mean your website would need a database backend of some sort to store the info. This then adds another complexity to building the site.

Alternatively you would have to have a Google search box on your site and explain to users how to search for their required site and then copy/paste the URL after searching and finding the webpage they are trying to get the URL of, something that unless it benefits them the users are very unlikely to do as they are effectively doing the leg work and users are generally lazy.

GoCompare has a site that doesn't allow users to compare prices of any website they wish, they are restricted to the (albeit very large) number of websites they can compare for whatever insurance they are looking for. This list is managed by GoCompare themselves rather than allowing the dynamic way of users submitting websites as you have explained. This also requires a database backend but without the extra complexity of somehow getting ANY url a user wishes to add into the comparison mix.

From what you've said I think you need to think a lot more about exactly what you need from your site and weigh it up against what you are prepared to pay for having it.

EDIT: I am in no way a website designer other than some old PHP pages created during uni and I'm sure any/all of the solutions I've mentioned above can/will be easily ripped to shreds by our resident elite and know it alls, however I was simply trying to express to the OP that what he's asked for is a lot more complex than I think he thinks it is.

[eek]

This list is managed by GoCompare themselves rather than allowing the dynamic way of users submitting websites as you have explained. This also requires a database backend but without the extra complexity of somehow getting ANY url a user wishes to add into the comparison mix.

The list is derived from the list of companies willing to pay gocompare for sales or contact information.

As for you both part I would refer to my comment before few people understand urls and there is little way to accurately process a page and ensure you have the information you actually want.

Until I have more details I'm not sure exactly what the OP is trying to do but the more I think about it the more the problems I can think of.

[oliverson]

Just stick an advert on something like 'freelancers dot net' and you'll get loads of offshore types undercutting each other. Just so long as you can articulate exactly what you want you should be ok. Sometimes, however, that's not as easy as it sounds.

As others have outlined on here if you pay a UK contractor a day rate it will cost you a fortune!

Alternatively learn how to do it yourself and you add another string to your bow as a contractor. A bonus is that you'll be able to maintain and extend your own web site without being held to ransom by somebody else. One thing you can be assured of is that the when the site goes live that's only the beginning.

[thelurker]

Just stick an advert on something like 'freelancers dot net' and you'll get loads of offshore types undercutting each other. Just so long as you can articulate exactly what you want you should be ok. Sometimes, however, that's not as easy as it sounds.

As others have outlined on here if you pay a UK contractor a day rate it will cost you a fortune!

Alternatively learn how to do it yourself and you add another string to your bow as a contractor. A bonus is that you'll be able to maintain and extend your own web site without being held to ransom by somebody else. One thing you can be assured of is that the when the site goes live that's only the beginning.

Whats the best way to do it yourself? What do I need to learn or what best package to use?

[jmo21]

Whats the best way to do it yourself? What do I need to learn or what best package to use?

jeez, are you a troll?

answer the £26,000 question?

You don't go from being a non-programmer to buildign a complex website just like that.

[kingcook]

Whats the best way to do it yourself? What do I need to learn or what best package to use?

How much time and/or money do you have to invest?

[thelurker]

jeez, are you a troll?

answer the £26,000 question?

You don't go from being a non-programmer to buildign a complex website just like that.

Non troll.

Thanks for the help though.

Lots of time now a role has ended and a small warchest.

Freelancer site is something I will look into but wondered what I could use to get a "test site" of sorts going and also upskill as the other poster mentioned

[eek]

Whats the best way to do it yourself? What do I need to learn or what best package to use?

It depends on what you know and what you are aiming to do.

Read The Trouble With Non-tech Cofounders | TechCrunch as that will explain why we can't easily answer your questions.

And remember that your initial website is only a starting point. Once you have a minimum viable website the next stage is to get customers identify how they use the site, identify if and how they are profitable and create the second variation based on the initial information.