Web designer needed

[canarlee]

as some of you may know, if you dont then you will soon, im opening a pro biker bar/cafe soon. im just wondering if anybody out there might be able to help me with setting up a website for it! obviously it will be a payed job(but i WILL want a discount lol)


ta muchly

[Busy]

What are you after, a one pager or a web site, maybe even a database for shop or what not?

If you aren't using microsoft (.asp) I could be interested but need more info as to what, when ... and how many peanuts ya got ;)

If you just want some tips on hosting etc let us know, can save heaps of $ if done right, example a .co.nz domain name is roughly $29 a year, but a .com is $7.95 (US) a year, depending on your site requirements as to how much webspace you'll need (ie a forum can take a bit) then is way cheaper to go off shore, 20gig for $10 US or 20 gig for $500+ NZ.
If you want to save more money on hosting get a reseller account and rent out a bit of space and it will pay for your costs.
No need to buy software either, lots of freeware scripts out there that are very versatile, forums, shopping carts ... even templates and icon sets

[NighthawkNZ]

What are you after, a one pager or a web site, maybe even a database for shop or what not?

If you aren't using microsoft (.asp) I could be interested but need more info as to what, when ... and how many peanuts ya got ;)

If you just want some tips on hosting etc let us know, can save heaps of $ if done right, example a .co.nz domain name is roughly $29 a year, but a .com is $7.95 (US) a year, depending on your site requirements as to how much webspace you'll need (ie a forum can take a bit) then is way cheaper to go off shore, 20gig for $10 US or 20 gig for $500+ NZ.
If you want to save more money on hosting get a reseller account and rent out a bit of space and it will pay for your costs.
No need to buy software either, lots of freeware scripts out there that are very versatile, forums, shopping carts ... even templates and icon sets

what he said :stupid:

realistically need more info on what you are actually after and wanting to achieve... Do you want a static site or a database driven Dynamic site bot have their advantages and disadvantages...

[canarlee]

um guys, your dealing with someone that knows very, and i mean very little about websites and how they work!

what i need (i think) is a site where you go on and it gives you all the details of the place, a place to put the menu, maps to get there ect and a guestbook for people to leave their comments NOT a forum(most of you lot allready spend too much time on this forum without joining another :p)

all advice is gratefully recieved

ta muchly

[NighthawkNZ]

um guys, your dealing with someone that knows very, and i mean very little about websites and how they work!

what i need (i think) is a site where you go on and it gives you all the details of the place, a place to put the menu, maps to get there ect and a guestbook for people to leave their comments NOT a forum(most of you lot allready spend too much time on this forum without joining another :p)


Going by that quick description a simple HTML static site wite a script for the guest book so your visitors to sign.

Need photos of the place, address and menus etc.

But you do have to sort the hosting side of things out... I can temporary sub host and possible set up a dot com. But my server is off shore in the states.

[Delphinus]

Just remember the cheapest may not always be the best... Didn't you have some issues with your site getting hacked Nighthawk?

If you go with a nz based company, (not offshore) they are more likely to be able to help with any problems you may have, someone you can call up when you need help.

Also faster for your customers, especially if they nz based.


Depending on your site requirements as to how much webspace you'll need (ie a forum can take a bit) then is way cheaper to go off shore, 20gig for $10 US or 20 gig for $500+ NZ.

That is true, but its a bit of false economy if you only need 5mb for a basic information site with a guestbook.

[NighthawkNZ]

Just remember the cheapest may not always be the best... Didn't you have some issues with your site getting hacked Nighthawk?

If you go with a nz based company, (not offshore) they are more likely to be able to help with any problems you may have, someone you can call up when you need help.


The server itself wasn't hacked... and to hack a straight html site is harder than one using php or MySQL, or even ASP. Any one with a bit of knowledge knows that php and MySQL sites are pretty easy to bust... No server is secure even the a so called secure server... there is simply no such thing (yet). Saying that NZ based servers are safer or more secure is, well false. (Though I know you aren't actually saying this...)

The hacker hacked the Drupal (http://drupal.org/) php software I was using ... not the server.

I get 24hr 7 days week help with my package. And I have had problems fixed with 10 minutes of asking for help via live chat and the the help tickets at 3am in the morning or 3pm in the after noon.

My own personal server I have here at home has never been hacked though I have noticed some try.

Finally I was only offering a temp hosting solution, for if I was asked to build the I simply sub host the site, so the client can view the site being built in front of them untill they decide on a final host.

[Delphinus]

Sorry it wasn't meant to be a stab at you NH. In my experience i've just found local providers to be much more helpful and experienced. I can ring my hosting provider, and just say my name, they know who I am and I can hear the hum of servers behind him....
Correct no server is 100% secure... but there are varying degrees of secure ;)

[skelstar]

The hacker hacked the Drupal php software I was using ... not the server.
Just had a look at Drupal...interesting. Have you tried Mambo before?

[NighthawkNZ]

Just had a look at Drupal...interesting. Have you tried Mambo before?

Yes Mambo/Joomla have also used phpNUKE, also Jamroom (Targeted at musicans) I built Indiehitz.net and a few other CMS... I do like Mambo/Joomla interface and template system.

[skelstar]

Yes Mambo/Joomla have also used phpNUKE, also Jamroom (Targeted at musicans) I built Indiehitz.net and a few other CMS... I do like Mambo/Joomla interface and template system.

Hmm...got a handle on it now, but found Mambo learning curve quite steep. First CMS that I've tried though.

[NighthawkNZ]

Hmm...got a handle on it now, but found Mambo learning curve quite steep. First CMS that I've tried though.

was the first one I tried too... :gob:

[Biff]

as some of you may know, if you dont then you will soon, im opening a pro biker bar/cafe soon. im just wondering if anybody out there might be able to help me with setting up a website for it! obviously it will be a payed job(but i WILL want a discount lol)


ta muchly

Need a website professionally hosted:

5Gig - $150 pa
10Gig - $250 pa
20Gig - $400 pa
*free 1st year domain name (.com .net .org .info .biz .us .name)
$20 for : .co.nz

And the part owner of the company is a really nice guy. :yes:
PM me for more details.


Contact Big Dave for pro website design.

Or ask me for a cheap one.

[Big Dave]

Cheers Biff,

I read the thread and was reminded of one of my favourite David Ogilvy quotes:

'Designers seldom make good advertising men - they get so caught up in the beauty of the picture - they forget that goods must be sold!'.

I wonder what he would say about geeks?

[Busy]

If you go with a nz based company, (not offshore) they are more likely to be able to help with any problems you may have, someone you can call up when you need help.

Also faster for your customers, especially if they nz based.

That is true, but its a bit of false economy if you only need 5mb for a basic information site with a guestbook. Just about all (decent) web hosting has 24/7 support these days, and a lot of NZ based companies pawn the help desk jobs off to India like many other NZ companies.

It's a myth that it's faster, think about it, you go to a website and the page is served, if the coding has the full address each request whether it be for an image, an included file or wahtever has to go out of the domain, back into cyber land then back into the domain. Every website is served from the net, does the same journey if you live next door or half way around the world from the server, the files are requested, files sent and displayed, same jounery. It's like a mobile phone, sending a text to someone standing next to you can take longer than texting someone over seas, why? because the interweb doesn't know where you are - same journey ...

[imdying]

That is such tripe Busy :rofl:

[Delphinus]

Actually a server in auckland will be faster than a server based in europe or the states...

Dont believe me? Its called latency. If you're running windows (if you're on linux I'm guessing you already know this) go start > run > type in "cmd" then press ok.
In the black box type "ping delphinus.co.nz" and it'll do 4 pings and tell you how long it takes for a round trip message to my server.
Then try "ping bbc.co.uk" and it'll tell you the round trip time to the UK and back.
This is called Latency, higher the latency, longer it takes for a message to get there and back.

Also you have to take into account bandwidth (size of your hose, so how much data can move through at one time), most connections will have more national bandwidth than international bandwidth. There are not many connections out of nz.
I lurk in 2 forums mainly, this one (hosted on a good server overseas) and nzgames.com (on a good server in wellington). If I do a search for new posts on both it takes a good 2-3 secs longer on here... which could be due to a number of factors, latency, bandwidth, and also server load.
http://www.quasimoto.co.nz/ is another website hosted overseas and I find that slow to load.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is, make sure you take all factors into consideration when choosing hosting. I host my clients sites on my server hosted nationally because I feel I can give better and high quality service. At very comparable rates.

[TerminalAddict]

I got servers in hamilton and auckland
http://interspeed.co.nz

[The Lone Rider]

Can I suggest you go to www.geocities.com and build yourself your own website. You don't have to use it as the site you are planning to hire someone for, but I reckon if you build your own and play around with it you will have a better idea of how it works. Thats how I learnt and I continue to use geocities free site service for my band website. Boy, you should have seen the first version of the site... SHIT SHIT SHIT !

[imdying]

To be fair on Busy, doesn't 'local' Telstra traffic make a round trip out of the country due to the ISPs not peering anymore?

[Toaster]

Web designer you need hmmmm??? Plenty of spiders outside my place dude.

[NighthawkNZ]

here we go...

You may have fast servers... you may have fast broadband, but you will only recieve the data as fast as the slowest link on the network.

thats no matter where you are... ;)

[Delphinus]

To be fair on Busy, doesn't 'local' Telstra traffic make a round trip out of the country due to the ISPs not peering anymore?

Sometimes yes sometimes no. We're with an ISP that peers directly with telstra (only about 4 hops away)and WIX, and soon APE.

[TerminalAddict]

we're wokring with the guys to get the missing link so that APE and WIX can peer happily .. yay!

[scracha]

Well if it's just static HTML I'll host it for a whopping 60 bucks a year inc GST. .co.nz is 40 bucks with email redirection (you really just want the email being redirected otherwise it comes out your bandwidth allowance). PM for more details.

Don't think you need a CMS site or anything. Adding in wee widgets like Google Maps API make it purty too.
A simple webbysite using tables (i.e. not "web 2" stuff) along the lines of this :-
http://www.mach1yamaha.co.nz/

Would set you back around couple of hundy as it wouldn't take too long to knock up. Can also shove on short videos too.

I've got a bit of a backlog though so it'd be a 3 or 4 weeks or so before I could knock it up. Quite happy to host it and have someone else do the webby bit though.

There's a real simple web publishing wizard in Microsoft Publisher if you want to have a go at it yourself. There's a $hitload of lads on kiwibike who could do the sort of site I think you want.

(NB: I don't host the mach1 site..I think their (NZ) host is as slow as. And they keep uploading huge images and not putting in alt tabs...and ..and...)

[TerminalAddict]

even still .. I'm pretty sure my penis is larger

someone had to take this thread to gutter .. it always happens when I bunch of geeks are involved ... may as well be me :yes:

[NighthawkNZ]

Quite happy to host it and have someone else do the webby bit though.

There's a real simple web publishing wizard in Microsoft Publisher

Though publisher and word do have this function I would avoid using them, the output code and absolute utter crap and is filled with extras that is not needed... Slowing page load, and causing some errors in some browsers etc...

However the good news is there are many free WYSIWYG Editors on the net. I recommend NVU http://www.nvu.com/index.php

[Busy]

I concur with NighthawkNZ, stay away from word and publisher, they create bloated code that slows down even a basic web site.

I can't recommend any editors as I dont use them (freehand baby, freehand), but dreamweaver is meant to be pretty good although not free.

Web standards are your friend, not only easier (and tidier) to work on/update the search engine eat em up more ... w3c.org even if it's only HTML Trans.

[Holy Roller]

I use Hotmetal Pro that came bundled in a mag a while ago a few years ago.
I have done several websites for friends and one for our Ulysses branch.
The wysiwyg types make it easy though some understanding of the code is helpful to debug the page.
My kids use dreamweaver but I havent played with it too much and prefer what I know.
Your ISP should have free space to upload pages to as part of your email account or one of the many free servers, only downfall is the adds that come with them.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/whakatane-ulysses/index.html
is the link for our clubs site hosted with Angelfire.com for free

[skelstar]

Yeah I used Dreamweaver for about 5mins. Those packages, at least when i was using them, produced some terrible code. Its worth learning how to handwrite the stuff....esp when you want to start doing your own style sheets etc.

[Big Dave]

Yeah I used Dreamweaver for about 5mins. Those packages, at least when i was using them, produced some terrible code. .

Pretty good now. I use Dreamweaver and tidy up manually.
I also do a lot of stuff in Flash too.
www.bigiron.co.nz

[skelstar]

Yeah played with flash a fair bit a while ago. Struggled to get it to hook up to a MySQL database as it just wasn't that simple. I'm sure theres better tutorials on the net for it now.

Also, I kinda don't 'own' Flash :innocent: so have been reluctant to use it in anger on the net.

[Big Dave]

Also, I kinda don't 'own' Flash :innocent: so have been reluctant to use it in anger on the net.

I only kinda mentioned it to goad the geeks.:innocent:

I bit the bullet and lashed out $2K for Creative Suite.
It's all online activation now - hard to 'evaluate' software any more.

And then other times I just use jpegs and html.
Current (unfinshed) job.
http://www.davidcohen.co.nz/www.stuzzi.co.nz

[skelstar]

Its funny how angry people get about Flash eh? Have had many a heated debate with workmates.

Don't even getme started about the fixed width webpages debate :)

[Big Dave]

Its funny how angry people get about Flash eh? Have had many a heated debate with workmates.

Don't even getme started about the fixed width webpages debate :)

You tube killed the flash and even the whole plug in 'debate' for mine.
I deploy with impunity.

I use 800px as a starting point and push the envelope from thar.

[canarlee]

oi you lot, i aint got a clue wot yer on about!!! can you do all this in babytalk so i can undastand it pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze

[Big Dave]

oi you lot, i aint got a clue wot yer on about!!! can you do all this in babytalk so i can undastand it pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze

OK.

If it's hobby:
You can make a rudimentary web site yourself. We all started that way. I used the free Mozilla thing in 1996 and learnt html basics from there. This is the cheapest way. Not necessarily the best.

or

You go to a pro - and they look at what you are tyrying to achieve and give you commercial support in selling your product - far beyond where it is hosted etc. A commercial plan.

or

You get a freelancer to design you something and you look after its maintainence of their design.


Start with a budget and I can point you in the right direction. off line if you like.

[Joni]

Its funny how angry people get about Flash eh? My boss too - she is a SEO guru, and we all know that SE's use HTML to track a site... she gets very cranky about Flash!

[NighthawkNZ]

Im relucant to put flash on a web site... but if I am ask to I will I don't use Flash I use SWiSH Max...

As for coding your own... Dreamweaver is easy but $$$ NVU is similar but free... but all apps will put waste of code in. it just makes it easier as a designer not as a coder to quickly put a site together... I can the switch to text mode and tidy up the code a bit.


ah its all good...

[skelstar]

As for coding your own... Dreamweaver is easy but $$$ NVU is similar but free... but all apps will put waste of code in. it just makes it easier as a designer not as a coder to quickly put a site together... I can the switch to text mode and tidy up the code a bit.
True that. When I was playing with Dreamweaver it had a habit of making a lot of tables, whereas I do everything by DIV tags...and CSS blah blah.

[Big Dave]

True that. When I was playing with Dreamweaver it had a habit of making a lot of tables, whereas I do everything by DIV tags...and CSS blah blah.

And it also used to put five or six font tags in a row and stuff like that.
Now it's all CSS based and XHTML compliant.
Pages validate without a tweak mostly.
One click at the top of the window and it's published too - I like that. The site management tools are now also pretty good.

It's also why the arse has fallen out of building web sites for small business. Stuff I got $5k for 5 years ago buys a plug and play option including the box now. But I can make 4 in the same space of time so it's still viable.

[imdying]

I bit the bullet and lashed out $2K for Creative Suite.
It's all online activation now - hard to 'evaluate' software any more.Evaluate away :yes:

http://www.isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=creative+suite+crack

/edit: You just gotta know where to look... I'm doing 2 pages at the moment... $16k :D

[Big Dave]

Evaluate away :yes:

http://www.isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=creative+suite+crack

/edit: You just gotta know where to look... I'm doing 2 pages at the moment... $16k :D

Nah - I rather play by the rules - less stress.

I did say small business. Giving them good advice is part of the gig.

Corporate remains lucrative. I have 30 rest homes on the books. Preparing for my dotage.

[imdying]

Yep, using pirated stuff for commercial stuff is just asking for an MV Augusta sized fine to be extracted from your wallet :(

[Busy]

you can always use something like HTMLTidy to clean up the code WYSIWYG creates.

Nothing beats hand coding thou ;)

[RantyDave]

Hmm...got a handle on it now, but found Mambo learning curve quite steep. First CMS that I've tried though.
Have you tried SilverStripe - http://www.silverstripe.com/

I'm currently blagging office space off the guys that make this and, I have to say, I've been mightily impressed. They've even got google to put some summer of code students onto it. It goes without saying that you (one) can get killer tech support for it by merely taking the right person out for a pint :)

Dave

[TerminalAddict]

doesn't work with safari.

and I've spent all day today babysitting a site that was sold shit code from silverstripe.

check out http://firstin.co.nz to see their fine work

[RantyDave]

doesn't work with safari.
Really? I'll kick some arse, then. They have heaps of macs.

and I've spent all day today babysitting a site that was sold shit code from silverstripe.

check out http://firstin.co.nz to see their fine work
Ah. That's complicated. PM me if you're having a real problem...

Dave

[yod]

I use Dreamweaver at work since they bought it (before i got there) but i never use it as a designing tool just a coding app and its handy since it has ftp built in but there are a crapload out there HateML, PHP Designer (Beta) are a couple - they all have their pros anbd cons - but most use a f*ckload less resources than DW does!!!
tables are an utter pain and farkin ugly - you should see some of the systems i've 'inherited' holy shite....

[skelstar]

If theres any Mac coders out there who want a friggin awesome app then get a hold of skEdit. Its at www.skti.org (I think). Ironically is was written by my namesake!

[Busy]

For those not using safari but want to test your sites go to http://www.browsrcamp.com/ (just use the free version)

[scracha]

I concur with NighthawkNZ, stay away from word and publisher, they create bloated code that slows down even a basic web site.


Whilst I'd agree if he wants something "future proofed", it sounds like he just wants two or three pages and something simple. If it saves him paying a "web designer" a few hundy then he's as well doing it himself.

As for "slowing down" a basic website....just using something like irfanview to compress the jpegs does the trick nicely.

Mambo/joomla is likely overkill for his needs too (and I wont' say anything about the bloated code my mambo sites have). Have you ever actually tried training even semi-computer literate peeps how to use the nice mambo site you've knocked up for them?

[skelstar]

Have you ever actually tried training even semi-computer literate peeps how to use the nice mambo site you've knocked up for them?
Ill be trying that with a couple of KB's racers real soon. If you set them up as 'publishers' then you get a reasonable amount of flexibility. Was a bit worried about letting them loose in the admin section :)

(hope she doesn't read this ;))

[scracha]

Ill be trying that with a couple of KB's racers real soon. If you set them up as 'publishers' then you get a reasonable amount of flexibility. Was a bit worried about letting them loose in the admin section :)

(hope she doesn't read this ;))

My tuppenceworth. The mambo/Joomla editor is a lot easier to use than a year and a half (actually, there were about 4 popular ones back then) but it's still not that straightforward for new users. The image/multimedia uploader is counter-intuitive. Best to start them off with just editing and perhaps copying existing pages rather than doing anything too flash.

Perhaps having them use firefix with the bbcomposer extension might help?

[Racey Rider]

How do I get a 'web spider' to index a web page to google so it is searchable? (http://thestarlitecafe.com/poems/105/poem_91029079.html)
Thanks.
Racey.