Small Business website & WYSIWYG software for web-design - can be used?

Julian.V

Hi,
I do not try to cut corners here or to be cheap (maybe I am cheap but that needs to be discussed on a different topic ), just want an opinion about how can a website be created without html/xml knowledge.
I do not expect to get a prize for the design - I'm looking more for functionality and results.
After many,many hours of "research" i've decided to use Coffecup software.
The website should be for a home based salon. All that i knew/know about "html" was more related to occult low profile organisations than web design .
I even choose a Media Marketing course to get me started, and the results look like this:
http://www.affordablebeauty4u.com/ - the first attempt, I've bought this domain name because .ie was way to expensive (everything related to .ie seems to be like this )
http://www.affordablebeauty4u.ie/ - the second attempt, the one that I intend to use and promote. (I was lucky enough to receive this domain when I bought hosting service)
I'm quite sure that someone's 5 yrs nephew will be capable of a better results, but maybe someone needs a mid 30s nephew- that will be me- and will give him some feedback. Do not get me wrong, any advice it's highly appreciated:P, but don't want to waste your time: first will be great if someone cold tell me- there is something done right in any of the websites above? there is any hope to achieve something? or are bigger chances that I will learn Chinese by my self on a deserted island? (I might be forced to exile on a such island if I do not deliver some results with my wife's website ).
Thank you in advance for your opinions.
Regards,
Julian

P.S. Any honest opinion will do for me, after all I'm a big boy and should be able to take it!

NeverSayDie

You'll probably get better responses here OP;
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=23

Eoin

Hi Julian.V. I'm afraid they don't look good - they're quite reminiscent of sites from the 90's. Your best bet might be finding a nice template and amending it to suit your needs. Try www.oswd.org to start with.

daymobrew

I recommend looking at competitor sites to get an idea of how good your site needs to look.

Fergaloc

If you do not want to use programming languages like html, xml, php , mysql, c, c++...ect

Here is a website builder , u just choose a template and create away, no code required - Ewisoft Website Builder

Hope this helps


Fergal

Evil Phil

Moved from development.

<shamless self publishing>
Have a read of this too. I understand you're probably on a shoestring budget but doing this yourself is going to cost you hours of work.
</shamless self publishing>
TBH wordpress + a suitable template is a very inexpensive solution and probably all you need. Seeing as you've gotten this far I'm sure you'd be able to do that yourself. If not it's not going to cost a lot to get somebody else to do it for you.

I don't normally recommend people do things like this themselves but you seem to be capable enough

<edit>
I'm contradicting myself, haven't had coffee yet.

ScumLord

Use a CMS and you need to know very little about whats going on underneath.

Wordpress.org and joomla.org being some of the easier ones. Your hosting company probably has an automatic install for both if they use cpanel to administrate the space.

daymobrew

Evil Phil wrote: »

TBH wordpress + a suitable template is a very inexpensive solution and probably all you need.

+1.

You might find a template at TemplateMonster.com (though they are often a bit intense)
You could use their Massage template, Nail salon template or spa treatments template.

kim_office_team

You can check out Office Live Small Business. You can integrate it with the domain name by re-directing it to Office Live Small Business. It's template-based, so you don't need to learn how to code. And, it is supported by a variety of other tools like online storage and filing, email, and a support community.

Here are some client testimonials who've used Office Live Small Business to execute their business website: http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/customer-gallery

Learn more about it at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/.

Cheers,
KIM
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team

unklerosco

I've been using Serif Webplus for about 2 years now n find it great, http://www.serif.com/webplus/. Its easy to pick up and use, its been great for getting our business to where it is now. Next up is getting someone to take the sites to the next level but for a startup I couldn't recommend anything better...