What's it take to create a simple web site?

[Al Shades]

I'm a personal trainer and I want to set up a simple web site to help me attract clients.

What is the time and money commitment that is required to do this?

I want a basic, but good looking site. I'm not a web designer so I would like to create the page based off a standardized template. Where can I find such templates?

I need to have about 4 pages on the site.
Intro/Home, Photo Gallery page, Rates/Pricing, and maybe Client Testimonials.

As far as hosting goes, what's involved with it? Can I use my ISP to host for free or should I pay for it?

How do you get a custom domain and custom email, along the lines of:

www.CustomDomain.com

[email protected]

Is that included as a standard part of most hosting packages?

 

[Al Shades]

bump

 

[DriverDan]

Templates suck. Don't do it yourself, get a GOOD designer to build you one from scratch. Drupal is a great content management system. It has a bit of a learning curve but the basics aren't that hard to pick up.

You can get basic hosting for $5/m or less. For something as small as what you're looking for you wouldn't need anything more than the cheapest plan.

 

[Al Shades]

Aren't many net sites built on templates?

"Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd."

How much would I be paying to have someone design it for me?

 

[Palo Alto Labs]

there are some GREAT Flash templates out there for under $50. dont have anyone design it at this point... not worth the $2-5k by any means. i dont see any problems with templates as long as you can 100% control the content and images in the template.

but if you have ZERO web building history, you might want to pick up a book or something to learn... or you could prob find a cheap class at the community college..

the main issue is not building the site, but driving traffic to the site.. do some research on "SEO" (search engine optimization)
you want to find out how to make you small page 'rank' among the competition out there.

there are a lot of web design forums and SEO forums.. take some time to look.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

there are some GREAT Flash templates out there for under $50. dont have anyone design it at this point... not worth the $2-5k by any means. i dont see any problems with templates as long as you can 100% control the content and images in the template.

but if you have ZERO web building history, you might want to pick up a book or something to learn... or you could prob find a cheap class at the community college..

the main issue is not building the site, but driving traffic to the site.. do some research on "Search Engine Optimization" (search engine optimization)
you want to find out how to make you small page 'rank' among the competition out there.

there are a lot of web design forums and SEO forums.. take some time to look.

I love reading those seo forums. Its full of guys that usually have no clue what they are talking about

Web design forums, that's a different ballpark....web design is a pain in the ass...seo is easy

 

[Al Shades]

I am computer literate. Just not with designing webpages. I could DL any app I wanted to, but I don't really feel like spending hours creating content. That's why I'd prefer a template.

 

[Palo Alto Labs]

I am computer literate. Just not with designing webpages. I could DL any app I wanted to, but I don't really feel like spending hours creating content. That's why I'd prefer a template.

well if you know basic HTML, then buy a template, and customize it to fit your needs. You can probably finish it in a day or two.

 

[moklepaul]

I used to be a backend programmer for intranets and websites. For what you need, it's fairly cheap and easy. I'd imagine you're using this more as a dynamic business card rather than hoping to drive a tonne of web traffic to it right?

Get a domain, I use www.godaddy.com

Get some hosting. I wouldn't use an ISP, there are a plethora of shared hosting companies out there. Shared simply means you share one server with numerous companies. I believe HOSTGATOR WEB HOSTING - cPanel, Reseller, and Dedicated Website Hosting is reliable and very cheap.

When you aquire the hosting, they will give you DNS information to route your domain name to your hosting plan. Go back to where you purchased your domain and enter the DNS information. It should begin to resolve to your site in under a day.

As for design, you have plenty of options. Go the profesional route and pay for someone to do it, or purchase a premade template and do it yourself. Back when I was in the business, premades were usually sloppy when it came to their coding, and usually had to be resliced and recoded... I never was a big fan.

Do you have a general idea of what you want? Most premades are too flashy for my likes, but they may fit your tase quite well. I know you can get some very clean ones at sites like Open Source Web Design - Download free web design templates.

For a respectable price you can also pay to have it made, I always liked the way Design Outpost - Graphic Design Firm - Logos, Templates, Print Material, and More did it. You pay upfront and post the project, and a team of designers posts templates, then you may ask them to tweak them to your liking, and then pick the one that suits you best. Haven't been to the site in a while but last time I was there the prices were below market average and the designs were awesome.

 

[EasyEJL]

Web design forums, that's a different ballpark....web design is a pain in the ass...seo is easy

I found a new slick SEO trick but I wont share



www.templatemonster.com has a huge selection of templates.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

I found a new slick SEO trick but I wont share

I've seen them all....and so have the google engineers

 

[boxmeman]

I've seen them all....and so have the google engineers

Considering thats all they do...combined w/ a few other things... I'd love to work for Google!

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Considering thats all they do...combined w/ a few other things... I'd love to work for Google!

I've spoken to several of them....they are "interesting" people.

 

[scottalot]

You can create a website quickly on Wordpress. You need to buy a domain from a domain hosting site.

 

[ChocolateClen]

You can create a website quickly on Wordpress. You need to buy a domain from a domain hosting site.

Hopefully he has one by now, the thread is 11 years old

 

[HIT4ME]

Hopefully he has one by now, the thread is 11 years old

Yeah, strange that when this thread was made, iPhones and Androids didn't even exist.

 

[ChocolateClen]

Yeah, strange that when this thread was made, iPhones and Androids didn't even exist.

Damn I feel old as ****