I want my own web site...

[dann]

What do you want to achieve with the site, dann?

What is like to achieve is, showing the general public the products I produce and the services I can provide.
At the moment I don't think I need anything really compacted with methods of people purchasing products, I think if someone likes my things enough they can mail/ call me to order.
At the moment I'm living off wages week to week ( self employed carpenter/joiner)
And have just had 2 weeks off unpaid, hence why I can't pay for someone to make a web site.

 

[Rhossydd]

What is like to achieve is, showing the general public the products I produce and the services I can provide.

Right, that clarifies and simplifies things a bit.
Most of the legalistic issues of web design won't be a bother if you're not selling directly from the site.

One of the "free" (you get what you pay for though) offers may suit you, but for it to deliver any value to you, you'll still need to take a lot of care of the content.
What you actually write onto the site is critically important, Poor English, bad grammar, spelling mistakes, lack of capitalisation can all drive potential customers away. Similarly garish design, illegible fonts and unintuitive navigation can also make a business look bad. Photographs need to be good, clear and well tagged with text alternatives.
Also important is the text you don't see (coding); site title and metatags are fundamental to how sites are indexed. Fail to put the appropriate text there and a lot of effort is wasted.

Take some time to read through internet sites on web design, especially Google's own site on optimising content for search engines. Use your spare time to understand what works and what doesn't before you start building a site. It can be amazing how quickly a site is indexed once published, mistakes/WIP/under construction logos online all look really bad.

You'll probably find that an internet site on it's own won't generate much new business at all (especially if it's poorly written). What they can do is enhance your business, so having quoted for a job or made a new contact the prospective client will visit your site to check you out. A good site will reinforce your business case and may secure a deal, a poor site may make you look bad and the client will choose another supplier. That's why getting the design right is crucial.

 

[clk230]

Wordpress is a good option to showcase your work ,its free or for a small cost you can have a domain name.

Sorry to side track but Rhossydd please don't suggest that sites created using software 'almost certainly won't write an effective, legal and compliant site' .I'd like to know in what way they aren't legal
I think everyone realises that if you pay a web designer to do a website you 'should' get a much better site but these options offer some people a very good solution.

 

[Graham Orm]

PM'd you Dan

 

[Rhossydd]

I'd like to know in what way they aren't legal

The problem is that web sites are now subject to all sorts of complex legislation and failure to comply could result in prosecution or other legal problems.
Most(all?) of the DIY software doesn't originate from the UK, so there's no guidance as to how a site it produces might fail to meet it's legal requirements. It's too easy to fail to build sites that are compliant to UK & EU law.
Areas where legislation impacts on web design include distance selling regulations, advertising standards, disability discrimination, copyright etc.

There's sometimes a perception that the internet is a 'wild west' where anything goes, but a few careless souls have found that failure to run sites legally can drop them in trouble.

 

[powertools]

The legislation that applies to web sites is no different to that of any advertising the need to be aware of "distance selling regulations, advertising standards, disability discrimination, copyright etc" is the same.

 

[Rhossydd]

The legislation that applies to web sites is no different to that of any advertising the need to be aware of "distance selling regulations, advertising standards, disability discrimination, copyright etc" is the same.

How some of those aspects are implemented can be unique to web design, especially with respect to the DDA.

 

[AndyT]

Rhosydd you make an important point, but you ought to know that the 1995 DDA was replaced by the 2010 Equality Act.

http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/disabled-people-and-legislation/equality-act-2010-and-dda-1995.php

 

[Rhossydd]

.. you ought to know that..

And that's problem with authoring web sites in a nut shell, they do fall within different forms of legislation and keeping up to date with it is a task in itself.

 

[JustBen]

What relevance does DDA or Equality Act have to a small website displaying contact info and a gallery of work?

 

[Sheptonphil]

Our local Bee Association website (http://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk) is built with Serif webplus v6.

Is it the most professional site around? definitely not, but to build a site of some 160 pages containing the information required (and ability to have it updated on at least a weekly basis) would have cost thousands. The association just doesn't have that sort of budget.

The site is primarily an information and contact site for the county's beekeepers. As long as it is fit for purpose in terms of content, design, and ease of navigation, where is the benefit in spending, in this case, thousands of pounds on self promotion?

This, and indeed the pro builder supplied free with Freeola web hosting, means a very viable site can be built on a very limited budget.

Phil

 

[onlinename]

if you'd like to create similar sites to the ones i posted earlier in the topic, pm me and I can give you some pointers in the way you can do it yourself.

Keep in mind the ones i posted you pay approx 5 GBP per month to the respective hosts + the .co.uk domain you may choose.

 

[Rhossydd]

What relevance does DDA or Equality Act have to a small website displaying contact info and a gallery of work?

The basic theory is that all sites should be accessible to all.
For an example in the case you cite, any photos should have a sufficiently good description field (eg the ALT atribute of the IMG tag).
It's also possible that aspects of navigation and the way data is displayed ( forms/tables/frames etc) should be easily machine readable for text to speech technologies.

In practice the chances of getting into any legal difficulties with this sort of issue on web sites that aren't directly selling anything is vanishingly small.
However it is possible to upset people that want to cause others problems. If you understand the potential issues and ensure that your site is compatible as is reasonably possible, that should ensure that any aggrieved party can't cause you any significant problems.

 

[RogerS]

What relevance does DDA or Equality Act have to a small website displaying contact info and a gallery of work?

+ 1

The thread has been taken way off track by OTT web building stuff which us irrelevant to the guy wanting a simple shop window.

I used iWeb (but it does need a Mac). Plenty of good low-end website self-builders on the PC as already suggested.

 

[Rhossydd]

taken way off track by OTT web building stuff which us irrelevant to the guy wanting a simple shop window.

It's not off topic at all, it's absolutely fundamental to producing an effective web site.
The page making software is just a tool to ease the task of writing code. The author still needs to make the best choices with respect to the options available for a page and it's actual displayed content.

Just buying some woodworking machinery doesn't make you a furniture maker, you need understanding and skill to use the tools. It's just the same with computers.

 

[RogerS]

taken way off track by OTT web building stuff which us irrelevant to the guy wanting a simple shop window.

It's not off topic at all, it's absolutely fundamental to producing an effective web site.
The page making software is just a tool to ease the task of writing code. The author still needs to make the best choices with respect to the options available for a page and it's actual displayed content.

Just buying some woodworking machinery doesn't make you a furniture maker, you need understanding and skill to use the tools. It's just the same with computers.

Ever heard of a 'sense of proportion'?