Buying A Website – Big Spender Or Bootstrapper?

When it comes to buying a website what is your attitude to budget? There can be two extreme spending approaches to buying websites, they are the ‘big spenders’ and the ‘bootstrapper’.

The Big Spenders:
Let’s have a look at the ‘big spenders first’. There are two type of people who fit this profiles. The first group are the people who believe that if the website does not cost them a lot of money, there must be something wrong with it, or it’s just not good enough. The more they spend the happier they are, in a way. They will probably have a niggling feeling in the back of their minds that maybe a lower cost site would have been just as good, though they will never admit this to others or even themselves. These people have to spend money, and good news for them, there are plenty of web studios out there only too happy to oblige them fulfil their spending desires.

The second group of ‘big spenders’ are people who work for a fair sized company. They are given a generous budget to spend and if it’s not all spent, there next budget is likely to be cut. So, spend they must, and spend they do. I dare say these are a rarer breed in light of the current economic client, but there’s still bound to be some around.

The problem with ‘big spenders’ is they often pay way above the odds for their website. With advancements in web authoring technology, even budget websites can pack a serious punch and deliver as many options and features as their more expensive counterparts.

The Bootstrapper:
Bootstrappers are the other side of they coin. They often think a business website will cost a fortune and their small start-up business cannot afford to take the hit to capital. So instead of getting a good low cost site they either keep putting off getting a site or just use Facebook or similar social media pages. The truth is that for a few hundred down, they could have a powerful content management site with all the update tools and features they could dream of.

Contacting a web designer that provides excellent value and excellent web design packages could be the first step to really taking advantage of the Internet for business purposes. Bootstrappers need to keep tight reins of their marketing budget, so a good web designer will provide a fixed quote for them with a clear outline of what is included in the job.

So whether you are a ‘Big Spender’ or a ‘Spendthrift’, you’ll most likely find that a good budget website design will fulfil your budget requirements and your online business needs.

Check out the web design Ireland blog and website about more advice on setting up a website.

Irish Website Design For Small Businesses

More Irish business owners understand the importance of getting their businesses online, but many are unsure at how much it costs to have a website designed and the annual costs involved? It really can be difficult to gauge just how much you should spend and quotes from companies can vary wildly.

So, let’s take look at the basic costs of starting your very own website and what’s involved.

How much you spend is largely up to you. You could easily spend thousands of euro on ‘bells and whistles’ that you really don’t need. To ensure you’re not paying too much for your website try to first educate yourself about what you really need from your website provider. The following guide will help.

To get started, every website needs a domain name and a web host.

Register A Domain

A domain name (also known as ‘URL’ or ‘website address’) is simply the name you want to give your website. For example, MSN’s domain is msn.com. To get a domain name of your own you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar. This gives you the right to use that name for your website. Prices vary from one registrar to another and for different types of domain (.com, .eu, .co.uk, .ie etc.) but you can usually expect to pay between Euro10 and Euro30 for a domain.

Web Hosting

Now that you have your domain you need to host your website and point your domain toward it. Hosting servers are connected to the Internet making your website available for the world to see. Think of your web host as your landlord, but instead of renting an apartment you’re renting space on their server. This hosting space is where your website is housed and your domain is a signpost to direct people to your site.

Building Your Website

It’s Never Been A Better Time To Get Online

As far as actually building your site and adding content, there are plenty of options, from free website builders (provided with some hosting services) to building a site from scratch yourself to using the services of a professional web designer. Professional websites can be expensive; however there are companies in Ireland that provide excellent services a low cost, tailored in particular for small businesses.

Starter Websites a Kerry Web Design service and a leading low-cost website provider in Ireland. Each website has custom design features, is built to recognised industry standards and rigorously tested in multiple browsers to ensure it displays correctly. All Starter Websites come as a complete web package that includes a free .com domain for 12 months, free hosting for 6 months as well as other bonuses (such as SEO) and regular special offers.

What You Need To Do Now

It’s always a good idea to shop around before making your choice of web designer and finding a designer you are happy to work with is equally important. Getting your business online is made easy by website design providers like Starter Websites. All you need to do is provide text about your business, detail your services and provide contact information and the name you would like for your website. Starter Websites will typically have your new website live within 5 to 10 working days, usually for as little as Euro395.

Conclusion

The cost of getting a professional website need not break your promotion budget, and your website will add value to your business, enabling prospects to visit your site and learn about your services 365 days a year. So don’t put if off any longer, get you business online starting today.

Exclude A Page Link In WordPress

OKay, gotta’ tell you about this handy little plug-in for WordPress. Excellent for those customizing WordPress sites.

Let’s say you want to add a new page but DON’T want it to show up in your navigation list.

You can download this WordPress plug-in, upload it, activate it and then exclude pages just by unchecking a check box in the page edit section for any page.

It’s real easy to use and takes seconds to set-up.

Get it here: Exclude Pages In WordPress.

Enjoy!

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WordPress Customization Tips – Listing Sub-page on child pages

Okay, this is as much for my future reference as it is for you right now.

I’ve been looking for this solution to listing sub-pages navigation on both the parent and all the child pages. Anyway, don’t know how I missed it but it was right there at the bottom of ‘Template Tags/wp list pages’ all along (I assume).

Here’s the extract from that page. Enjoy and good luck with your WordPress customization!

Website Year Automatic Update With PHP Code

To update your website year information automaticlly (usually in the site footer) add the following php code to the footer:

<?php
ini_set(‘date.timezone’, ‘Europe/Dublin’);
$startYear = 2006;
$thisYear = date(‘Y’);
if ($startYear == $thisYear) {
echo $startYear;
}
else {
echo “{$startYear}-{$thisYear}”;
}
?>

Save, upload and view. Simple.

Remember to change ‘$startYear = 2007’ to the year your site went live. Also, when adding PHP code your webpage must be a PHP page.

Important note: If you copy and paste the PHP code into an editor (like Dreamweaver) you may need to replace the commas etc. For some reason they don’t ready properly sometimes. Beats me!

Install Multiple Versions Of Internet Explorer On Your PC

Following on from an earlier post about testing your website design in multiple browsers, I thought something more targeted for IE 6 and lower would also be of use to some of you good folk.

Gerry, our technical director an all round good guy at New Odyssey sent me a link to this site today, http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE.

In short these guys have made an installer that you can use to download and install lots of versions of Internet Explorer on your PC without the sky falling in. It’s about 10Mbs to download and you can uncheck the browsers you don’t want to install.

So just look for the link “Download Multiple IE installer“, download and follow the instructions.

You’re done.

P.s. Just a quick note on browsershots.org (mentioned from my earlier post on the subject):

BrowserShots.org is a great piece of website development kit and I’m not suggesting that simply getting the multiple IE installer is the cure to all ills. It’ll just let you develop your sites faster for Internet Explorer 6 and lower. You’ll probably still want to check the look of your site in other browsers and browsershots.org is ideal for that.

Good luck!

Test Your Web Design In Different Browsers With Browsershots.org – It’s Supa-Kool

Test Your Web Design In Different Browsers With BrowserShots.org Or Else!

If you’re styling your website with CSS (who isn’t?) then you will probably be aware of some problems your styling will display on certain browsers, IE 6 and IE 5 in particular. Most designers perfect their styling in Firefox and IE 7. But how does your site look on a Mac running Safari 1.3 or Linux Opera 9.50 or WindowsXP Internet Explorer 6?

“Who cares?” says you, and that’s fine if that’s your line. Chill.

I’m not the browser police or anything, but maybe take a quick look at your website analytics. Chances are you’re getting at least half of your traffic from visitors running Internet Explorer. And chances are about half of them are still using IE 6 to view your site.

Do you know what your site looks like on IE 6?

Well lets hope it looks supa-kool but there is a likely hood that your CSS looks shi… is not displaying as you and God had intended (for reasons to do with how IE 6 renders the CSS Box model that I’m not getting into right now).

Anyway for a free or cheap solution to your browser blues check out www.browsershots.org, it’s supa-kool!

What is Browsershots?

From the horse’s mouth…

“Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.”

Now the free services is fine if you have time to write your novel between loads of your screenshots but it might be best to splash out 10 or 15 notes and register for the paid service for a month at a go, it is well worth the money.

You Will Need To Know How To Target CSS for IE 6 (or other browsers) Of Course, Here’s How

In your <head></head> tags you’ll need to target your CSS for IE 6 or lower IE browser. So very quickly (because I’m late for dinner and my wife will kill me this time) add the following to the head tags:

<!–[if lte IE 6]>
<link href=”css/ie_hacks.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
<![endif]–>

This will display the ie_hacks.css stylesheet for IE 6 and lower browsers. You can do this for any browser. You will of course also link or import a stylesheet for IE 7 and Firefox as normal.

I better get going!

Just keep blogging

Cheap Websites Make Perfect Online Business C.V.s

Yes it’s true, cheap websites make perfect on-line business C.V.s.

This is great news for small business thinking of finally catching up with the rest of the planet and getting themselves a website.

But wait! No doubt you have questions about Prices and Packages and FREE stuff, who doesn’t. Here’s what to do. Watch the video below (that’s me by the way, Peter – should have shaved!), then read the rest of this post.

Off with you now, go on…

Cheap Websites Can Cut The Mustard

Okay, so you have a MySpace, or a Facebook account but when it comes to business that just will not cut the mustard.

Imagine exchanging business details with a potential customer or partner at a networking lunch. The guy/gal takes a look at your business card and where it should read http://www.mybusinesswebsite.com it reads, http://www.myspace.com/mikedooley125. That will be the last time you hear from that potential customer.

There are a couple of barriers to people getting a starter website for their business. Getting prices can be harder than finding gold on a sandy beach, and when you do you wonder which kidney you’ll have to sell to pay for it.

There is a solution, drum roll please: www.StarterWebsites.net.

Website Prices and Free Stuff

Lets start with the good stuff, PRICES! Prices start from €195 (check with a currency convert for the equivalent in your currency)

How about Free Stuff?
Free .com, .net, .biz, .org and Free hosting for 1 year.

How about Free Search Engine Optimization of your content as standard? How about a turnaround of 5 to 10 working days after you supply content?

Check out www.StarterWebsites.net for the full story.

Domain and Hosting Sign-up Tip For Newbies

Save Yourself The Hardship A Year From Now

This is a domain and hosting sign-up tip for newbies to web development. Following this simple instruction could save you a lot of hardship a year from now. Read on or be damned …

Buying Domain Name and Hosting

So, you’ve finally figured out how to build a basic html page with notepad and display it in a browser (remember save with .html as your file extension instead of the default .txt – it is amazing how many HTML books neglect to tell readers to do this!).

You’re now beginning to understand the boundless possibilities of the powers you newly possess as a “webmaster”, good for you. There’s a lot to learn but it ain’t rocket science, not yet anyway. Now you’re probably looking towards setting up your own website. That usually means buying hosting and a domain name.

Here’s the web tip, when signing up for a domain and hosting you’ll be asked to supply a contact email address. Be sure to use a free email address that you will always have access to. If you have a Hotmail or Gmail account that will do, there’s lots of other accounts you can use. It’s important that you use an email account that you access regularly.

This last point is important because when the time comes to renew your domain and or hosting accounts for another year the notice will be sent to the email account you nominated at the time of sign-up. If you miss this notification because your email address is defunct or rarely accessed your renewal will not be made and your hosting, and more importantly, your domain will expire.

Take It From One Who Learned The Hard Way

If this happens someone else might buy your domain and you’re out of luck. This happens all the time and can have a devastating effect on your business. Think about it,

• you’ll have to change your domain name on printed advertising (expensive)
• find a new less suitable domain name (bummer)
• contact all your existing clients to notify of the change in email and domain (major hassle)
• the list goes on…

Take it from one who learned the hard way many years ago, I was that soldier.

This has been a domain and hosting Sign-up tip for newbies, all the best.

Lorem Ipsum For Web Design Mock-ups

Lorem Ipsum

We web designers often have to mock-up designs without the benefit of having text for the page. Rather than using your shopping list or extracts from your private emails as text placeholders, why not copy and paste some ‘Lorem Ipsum’ text into you web page design instead?

Lorem Ipsum is classical Latin literature from 45 BC (over 2000 years old) and has been used by the print industry since 1960’s. It will not distract from your design as your private emails would and gives a more finished appearance to your mock-ups.

Good for your web design mock-ups, good for your clients.

Visit www.lipsum.com for the full history and a whole bunch of Lorem Ipsum to choose from.