Looking to create own website.

[Parky-RFC]

I'm looking to build my own website for my business. Initially it will be for promoting/advertising a product I designed but hopefully as things progress I can start to sell the product on the website.

I'm from the UK so the domain would preferably be .co.uk. Obviously I would like it to look as professional as possible but have no experience at all in this field so perhaps I would be way over my depth. Is there any recommended sites to use? There seems to be a lot out there. If I'm not capable of doing it myself, where would be a good port of call?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[kmote]

There's quite a few sizable questions there so I'll have a go at answering some of them:
1) Think carefully about the domain before you buy and attach your brand to it, for example, if you have multiple words in the name, do you separate them with hyphens or not? .co.uk is a good TLD for a UK business.
2) Shared hosting is probably fine, at least at the start. Unlike the domain name, this isn't something that your brand will become attached to so upgrading to a VPS (or whatever) down the line won't be an issue.
3) I'm guessing that there isn't going to be any dynamic content on the site so the classic HTML and CSS combination will serve your purposes just fine. This also means you don't have to worry about your coding skills, just poke it until it looks OK and says what you need it to.
4) Don't be tempted to rip of other people's code/designs, there are common patterns but people get annoyed when you use their work for purposes they didn't intend.

 

[Parky-RFC]

There's quite a few sizable questions there so I'll have a go at answering some of them:
1) Think carefully about the domain before you buy and attach your brand to it, for example, if you have multiple words in the name, do you separate them with hyphens or not? .co.uk is a good TLD for a UK business.
2) Shared hosting is probably fine, at least at the start. Unlike the domain name, this isn't something that your brand will become attached to so upgrading to a VPS (or whatever) down the line won't be an issue.
3) I'm guessing that there isn't going to be any dynamic content on the site so the classic HTML and CSS combination will serve your purposes just fine. This also means you don't have to worry about your coding skills, just poke it until it looks OK and says what you need it to.
4) Don't be tempted to rip of other people's code/designs, there are common patterns but people get annoyed when you use their work for purposes they didn't intend.

Thanks for the response.

The domain name is sorted now, just the name of the product.

Not fully understanding you in point 2. I'm a total noob. Are you talking about where about the site will be hosted on?

The content will consist of information regarding the product, what it does how it works etc with some pictures and perhaps a video to help fully understand how it works.

 

[kmote]

Not fully understanding you in point 2. I'm a total noob. Are you talking about where about the site will be hosted on?

Yeah. What don't you understand?

The content will consist of information regarding the product, what it does how it works etc with some pictures and perhaps a video to help fully understand how it works.

That's all static stuff so my previous advice stands.

 

[Parky-RFC]

Yeah. What don't you understand?

That's all static stuff so my previous advice stands.

What would be the benefits/disadvantages of a shared host and what's the alternative?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Reckless]

You would probably want to find a company that does professional web design.

They do offer packages of fully designing the website and hosting it for you also.

 

[carnageX]

You would probably want to find a company that does professional web design.

They do offer packages of fully designing the website and hosting it for you also.

Then you won't learn anything... Gotta start somewhere to learn.

 

[Reckless]

Certainly need to start somewhere but at the point you want to use this site for business / advertising / promoting / marketing you are no longer in a position to learn, you will want this done correctly and make sure it works 100% of the time.

Learning web design is great.
HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, Java, MariaDB, notepad++, Dreamweaver, the list certainly goes on but from a business point of view, it is best for him to have it done professionally.

 

[kmote]

Certainly need to start somewhere but at the point you want to use this site for business / advertising / promoting / marketing you are no longer in a position to learn, you will want this done correctly and make sure it works 100% of the time.

Learning web design is great.
HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, Java, MariaDB, notepad++, Dreamweaver, the list certainly goes on but from a business point of view, it is best for him to have it done professionally.

Most of that stuff is really unnecessary in this case.
This is probably (and certainly initially) going to be a simple, static site so there really isn't a need for programming talent.

OP: I would recommend you give it a try, ask if you get stuck and hire a professional if you want something much more complex or if all other avenues have been explored.

 

[carnageX]

Certainly need to start somewhere but at the point you want to use this site for business / advertising / promoting / marketing you are no longer in a position to learn, you will want this done correctly and make sure it works 100% of the time.

Learning web design is great.
HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, Java, MariaDB, notepad++, Dreamweaver, the list certainly goes on but from a business point of view, it is best for him to have it done professionally.

Notepad++, built-in dev tools in Chrome (or another browser), and HTML/CSS are all OP should really need. Like Kmote said, the other stuff mentioned was unnecessary.

When I do static sites for people, that's all I ever use (and PhotoShop for images).