I need a proper website

Pure Cork

I need to set up a professional looking website, which will need to contain a shop. Who would you recommend to set up a website? Will they purchase the desired domain name if possible on your behalf? How much does it cost? How long does it take to set up?

keefg

Pure Cork wrote: »

I need to set up a professional looking website, which will need to contain a shop. Who would you recommend to set up a website? Will they purchase the desired domain name if possible on your behalf? How much does it cost? How long does it take to set up?

There are plenty of web design companies out there to choose from ranging from a student in his bedroom to a "proper" design company.

Write down a spec of what your requirements are and the go to see at least 5 web designers for a price.

Have a look at their own websites - most of them will showcase work that they have done for other clients.

They can buy in a domain name for you if you like and some may even offer you some free/cheap hosting on their servers.

If you can get one that's fairly local to you that is a bonus.

How long does it take? - How long is a piece of string? - this all depends on your requirements & the designers current workload.

Note: You mention that you want it to contain a "shop" so I am guessing that you will need some form of online payment system on your site. You will need to sort this part out yourself, go to your bank and ask them for the relevant forms to set up a merchant account.

Good luck with it.

Pure Cork

Thanks. I'm thinking about approaching http://www.nitrosell.com/ about it. They have some decent websites set up, with online shops. Hopefully they are decently priced. If anyone has recommendations for web designers in Cork, please share.

I'm thinking about buying the .ie domain name (and maybe rent .com .net) myself to ensure they're not taken while I'm choosing a web designer. I've seen godaddy.com for .com .net but are there any other good places to rent/buy? Who should I buy the .ie domain name from?

DJB

You'd be better off talking to an Irish company about your web design (and shop) needs. They can tell you things like what rate to expect for your online merchant account, info on setting up a payment service provider like www.realex.ie, pros and cons to selling online in Ireland, etc.

There's loads of freelancers/companies out there that could do this. I'll recommend the following as people I've either worked with or think their work is good:

- www.kenstanley.com
- www.2bscene.ie
- www.vitalspark.ie
- www.forbairtmedia.com
- www.redflystudios.com
- www.eoghanmccabe.com
- www.thedesigntribe.com

There's loads more out there too if you just google "web design companies". Look at the portfolio and compare prices. Try to compare like with like. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for usually (but not always the case so check the portfolio).

A project like this could take 1-3 months in development time depending on requirements and work load. In addition it may be held up by you waiting for your online merchant account, which can take a few weeks and even months depending on which bank and how good you are at responding to their requests. I know because I'm going through it at the moment.

Stay away from godaddy. Go over to www.blacknight.com and register your domains there. You'll need some documentation for your .ie to explain you are entitled to it but they'll explain what you need. To explain domain names: you buy the rights to use a domain name on a yearly basis. Currently you can only purchase a .ie on a year by year basis, while you can purchase up to 10 years for a .com or .net.

Personally, I don't think any company should set up an online shop if they don't have 20k to pump into the design/development of a decent shop and also to do some marketing. I think they are possibly wasting their money otherwise. There are exceptions to the rule of course but if you are serious about setting up shop, you need to back it with decent money. Just my opinion! I say that to any of my clients that want to set up a shop - I don't want them giving me 5k and it not work out for them. It could be a waste of money. So I only do those type sites if they are really getting behind it with staff members, online/offline marketing, etc.

Anyway, hope that info helps!

Rgds, Dave

fintan

i'd recommend www.newodyssey.ie they have done a lot of very good work for me including intergrating a shopping cart into a website

JoeTurner

I'd recommend a company called etailor - you'll find their details at www.etailor.ie

dahamsta

[I've replied to Pure Cork privately as I didn't want to appear to be pimping, and I've covered the other stuff there.]

I agree with most of what DJB says, very strongly in fact, but there is one part I'd take issue with:

DJB wrote: »

Personally, I don't think any company should set up an online shop if they don't have 20k to pump into the design/development of a decent shop and also to do some marketing.

Certainly if you want to jump into online sales feet first then that's true, in fact if anything I'd be thinking more of a multiple of that figure to do it properly, particularly if you're including marketing. However it's a lot of money for an entrant, and even if the money is available, it can be a big risk. For that reason I usually advise my clients to dip their toe in the water and take it slow and easy. If they list a dozen products and they sell well, then there'll be a path to start ramping up, either in a big way or on a nice gentle curve. If sales aren't good, there's the option of letting it run for a while more as the initial investment wouldn't have hurt them too much, or stepping up another rung to see if that'll help, or simply deciding that web sales isn't for them, and cutting their losses.

adam

fintan

DJB wrote: »

Personally, I don't think any company should set up an online shop if they don't have 20k to pump into the design/development of a decent shop and also to do some marketing.
Rgds, Dave

Thats purley subjective, it really depends on the nature of the product being sold. If your filling a niche in the market, you can do it for a lot less, if your entering a competitive market then I'd say 20k isn't enough.

DublinDilbert

Alot of small companies set up their own E-commerce site, then also sell via ebay as a way of attracting business onto their own site, but it deppents on the product you are trying to sell...

Also as every ebay add you put up with have links to your own site this should help your site get noticed by the search engines as they scan the internet...

DJB

The budget will really depend on what you are selling. If you wanted to sell computers online for example, you'd need a massive budget to go up against komplett, dell, alienware, etc. If you have a new innovative idea in a niche then you might not need that much to get going. I'm setting something up in the latter category described there and we've spent 20k on the design/development alone. Marketing will probably cost us another 20k to start with.

What kind of products are you going to sell in your "shop"?

Rgds,

Dave

betonit

20k... that would want to be one serious website with alot of functionality crunching alot of data.
Im not going to recommend anyone but i would advise to shop around and see examples of peoples work. The price range will be huge. There is also alot of free modules out there that would just need to customized, if that suits. If you decide on someone keep involved and make sure they are flexible with changes. Also be aware some companies outsource their work abroad. Eg get your spec and outsource the coding.

Laslo

betonit wrote: »

20k... that would want to be one serious website with alot of functionality crunching alot of data.

Using terms like "a lot of functionality crunching a lot of data" just shows 1) why you shouldn't be developing websites and 2) why you don't see any value in a professionally developed product.

I hate this fcuking industry. Full of ignorant cowboys.

20k is not a lot to pay for an eCommerce site IF it's designed and developed by professionals.

betonit

I dont develop websites. As customer im offering some advice. I think you have the "cowboy" problem with a completely unprofessional reply. If you have something to say do discredit what i said back it up with some facts of your own. What was untrue with what i said.

20k is alot and you would want to be getting a hell of alot for that.
Plus it is true that there will be huge variance in price if you shop around.

Pure Cork you will also come across alot of people in your search that will say excatly what the previous poster has said. AS i said im not recommending anyone just giving advice, WHos to say the last poster is wrong or right or if im right so my advice is see the work and compare with others.

dahamsta

Not doing yourself any favours there Laslo.

Andrea B.

DJB, I'm curious. What's the issues with GoDaddy?

dahamsta

My standard response to that enquiry:

http://www.google.ie/search?q=godaddy+nectartech

That is not an unusual occurence with GoDaddy.

Is it worth it for the sake of a fiver a year?

adam

Andrea B.

I see, but in that case it's your hosting companies registration you should be worried about, irrelevant of where you bought your name.
I have a good few domain names, most active, with GoDaddy and have never had an issue.........yet:rolleyes:

In reply to the OP who is probably as tech savvy as myself :-), I would highly recommend that he researches existing e-commerce sites to find a layout and functionality that might suit him and use this as a spec to a designer. The visual and graphic design could be spec'd seperately.

In relation to e-commerce. See below what a bad designer who doesn't know how to fix images properly to the page can leave you with. Disgraceful.

http://producten.hema.nl/

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

i'm with godaddy as well, but was well aware of their woeful service beforehand. Just that the cheapness of the place was enough to outweigh the known bad service.

/ if you are setting up a shop, can you not just use an open source shopping basket, and then link it in to paypal - for the situations where you are just starting in business and don't have too much money to spend?

dahamsta

Andrea B. wrote: »

I see, but in that case it's your hosting companies registration you should be worried about, irrelevant of where you bought your name.

No. I posted a Google result so several stories were available for context. GoDaddy received a complaint about content hosted on a website and killed the domain name by changing the nameservers. They were acting as registrar, not as host. And in doing so, they didn't just kill a website or a few email accounts, they killed a web host, and therefore all of the web hosts customers. Does that strike you as the actions of a competent company that cares about their customers?

Roundtower2, if you have hundreds of domains then I guess you can justify it. If you have just a few or a couple of dozen, is it really worth it for approximately five bucks per domain per year?

(For the record, yes, I do eat my own pie: I host approximately 500 domains for myself and my customers, and I deal with Tucows rather than GoDaddy and it's ilk, despite higher prices. I can't afford and won't tolerate incompetence and a lack of respect from my suppliers.)

adam

Laslo

dahamsta wrote: »

Not doing yourself any favours there Laslo.

Tsk! I've done worse. I am a very, very vocal advocate when it comes to cowboys and incompetents in this industry and I'll continue to do be such as a matter of principal.

dahamsta

Laslo wrote: »

Tsk! I've done worse. I am a very, very vocal advocate when it comes to cowboys and incompetents in this industry and I'll continue to do be such as a matter of principal.

I wasn't talking about your point, I was talking about the context. You haven't even had to the courtesy to apologise to them for your inaccurate accusations.

Laslo

M'eh.

EKRIUQ

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Alot of small companies set up their own E-commerce site, then also sell via ebay as a way of attracting business onto their own site, but it deppents on the product you are trying to sell...

Also as every ebay add you put up with have links to your own site this should help your site get noticed by the search engines as they scan the internet...

No this is incorrect, I've tried, ebay will delist any listing on you have with links to an outside site or reference to another type of shop.

I tried that approach and it takes a while for ebay to cop on using certain programs but they'll will just delist your listing

bernard colgan

I have just started a new company and also what to sell online. i will only be starting with 6 to 8 products targeted at the retail trade. I need to get a web site designed and hosted, but have a limited budget of about 1000 euro. the design does not have to be complicated as there is only 8 max products, but it does need a shopping cart. My question,is this realistic or am i only dreaming ?

dahamsta

You'll get a college student to do it for that price, but the quality won't be up to much tbh. The design will be pretty generic, the development will be very basic, and it's unlikely it'll scale. You'd really be better off in the long run with a budget twice that at the very least.

I'd strongly recommend NOT going with a company that will accept that btw. They won't be professional at all. Find an eager student that's out to impress and get them to do it.

adam

thesteve

With packages such as Joomla that can be easily setup / integrated with payment solutions etc this can all be easily done without paying someone 20k to do it... It all depends on your requirements really.

A lot of people rush into paying someone to 'design' a site and it tends to turn out looking worse than anything you'd get off templatemonster...

TheThreeDegrees

Laslo wrote: »

Tsk! I've done worse. I am a very, very vocal advocate when it comes to cowboys and incompetents in this industry and I'll continue to do be such as a matter of principal.

Very cowardly being a critic hiding behind a forum.

seaner

Try using an open source ecommerce site. Something like OSCOMMERCE, if you've no idea of anything technical then get a student to help you out mayber as part of a project?

20K is alot for a site. And this kind of money shouldn't have to be spent in order for you to realise whether your product is successful or not.

To get a bit of experience in online trading, try setting up an ebay shop first. It might help you iron out a lot of cracks that you mightn't have thought about otherwise.

Good luck with it anyway!:D

EKRIUQ

seaner wrote: »

Try using an open source ecommerce site. Something like OSCOMMERCE, if you've no idea of anything technical then get a student to help you out mayber as part of a project?

20K is alot for a site. And this kind of money shouldn't have to be spent in order for you to realise whether your product is successful or not.

To get a bit of experience in online trading, try setting up an ebay shop first. It might help you iron out a lot of cracks that you mightn't have thought about otherwise.

Thanks great advice, as people here don't realise that an online shop is just as hard to make a success as an offline shop you can have all the bells and whistles as you want but if your not getting the customers to the site its worthless.

To set up an online shop with every feature is easy to accomplish I've set up many with Zen cart and they look professional but unless you have a history of an offline shop its difficult to get customers to by items with the big players out there.

A clean cloded website with easy navigation doesn't have to cost the earth with the open source resources out there but your promotion and advertising can cost the earth.

Another thing very important with running an online shop is you have to keep tight stock control between selling online and offline and always know what stock you have. Last year I installed a sysytem where the shop could sell all there items in there high street shop but it was connunicating with the online shop via the database on the server,and updating accordingly. Now this system was alot more expensive than your os-commerce or zen cart shop but it was a lot powerful resource

Laslo

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

Very cowardly being a critic hiding behind a forum.

I offer my work up for public criticism all the time. Just not on amateur fora.

Yellowhill

Hi,
We launched our online business last year. www.jenerate.com are the company we went with in the end to do our website (shop etc). did a lot of research in the area and went with them. all worked out well. check out our finished website
www.gagababy.ie

Best of Luck with the venture:)