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I know somebody who works for a small foundry and is wanting to build a website for it because there isn’t a lot of local business coming in. I have no problems helping them out because they’re willing to comp me for my time while paying for everything, but I don’t even know where to start. I know I need to get a domain name and a host, but considering that this will be for online purchases a credit card processor is necessary and I’m pretty sure I’m missing a whole lot more. Could anybody please give me some advice on where to look for help on setting this up?
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Dec 24, 2018 04:25
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 07:42 |
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Foam Monkey posted:I know somebody who works for a small foundry and is wanting to build a website for it because there isn’t a lot of local business coming in. I have no problems helping them out because they’re willing to comp me for my time while paying for everything, but I don’t even know where to start. Make them get the domain and hosting on their card or you'll be playing tech help for years. Most places will have payment services like shopify available for you to add to your site; it's as easy as pressing a button. Pick a decent theme that's mobile friendly, pick a domain that's search friendly. Not much more than that. I would highly recommend having a static site with no blog or contact options, again, because if they ever need help it'll be you they call.
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Dec 24, 2018 08:19
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moana posted:Make them get the domain and hosting on their card or you'll be playing tech help for years. Most places will have payment services like shopify available for you to add to your site; it's as easy as pressing a button. Pick a decent theme that's mobile friendly, pick a domain that's search friendly. Not much more than that. I would highly recommend having a static site with no blog or contact options, again, because if they ever need help it'll be you they call. I didn’t even think about shopify, so thank you for the advice. And no worries. Everything is getting paid by them and put in their name. I’m just trying to get them set up. I have no intention of getting haunted by them forgetting to charge sales tax or something. I also warned them that they’re opening themselves up to a whole lot of potential fraud but they’re like “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
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Dec 24, 2018 15:13
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Foam Monkey posted:Could anybody please give me some advice on where to look for help on setting this up? You're looking for someone who builds websites for a living. Why would you agree to take this on if you don't know how to do that? More importantly........ Foam Monkey posted:wanting to build a website for it because there isn’t a lot of local business coming in How does a web site fix that problem? There may be some unreasonable expectations going on. You're better of using social media to drum up business than putting together some bland template web site that's not going to get indexed well and nobody is going to go to.
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Dec 24, 2018 18:27
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Motronic posted:You're looking for someone who builds websites for a living. Why would you agree to take this on if you don't know how to do that? If they made enough to hire somebody they would. But when I say this is a small foundry, I mean it’s small. Like a 3 person operation. As for me building a website, I can make a personal one, I was asking more about making one for a business. That is something I’ve never done. As for social media, with the things they make they say it’s too niche for most people. Tractor seats, eagles, things like that. They want a website to toss into a magazine ad for hobbyists.
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Dec 24, 2018 22:01
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Foam Monkey posted:They want a website to toss into a magazine ad for hobbyists. Wow. Perhaps they should hire someone who has some semblance of an idea how to market what they produce? Or maybe direct their production into an area where they can make money. They don't sound qualified to do this on their own, which is pretty typical of a lot of small businesses. But if you're in a niche one you better be able to figure it our or hire it out. If you're going to do this anyway, just use Squarespace or similar. They obviously won't be capable of maintaining/updating the content on anything else. Speaking of which, they HAVE provided you with quality photos and copy, right? Along with SKUs and prices for the e-commerce portion. Or is this another one of those deals where they think web sites are just technical things and you can figure out the rest? In case it's not obvious enough, I think this is a bad idea and you should tell them that it's a bad idea and ask them to spend some more timing coming up with an actual business and marketing plan before they go entirely out of business. Because if they "can't afford" to pay for someone to develop what sounds like a very simple ecommerce site I don't think they'll be in business much longer.
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Dec 24, 2018 22:23
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 07:42 |
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Motronic posted:Wow. I’m not arguing with you on any of your points here. I’m not invested in their business thankfully, but they are friends. Why they don’t branch out, I don’t know. They have enough cute little trinkets to make a killing on Etsy, but they’re not interested. I did direct them to Shopify and Squarespace though, as well as GoDaddy because they do offer templates and are easy enough to figure out. Surprisingly they do have photos, prices, and SKUs, because they do sell items already here, it’s just they really want a website.
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Dec 25, 2018 00:22
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