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Hey Ashtray
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey!
Two questions: 1. Who to host with and: Can we do this with a site builder or should we get it coded by a pro?
We've had a website designed for us in Adobe Illustrator, and now that we like how everything looks it's time to code it. I'm not that savy with coding, but I believe our site is so simple that a hosting website that has one of those website builder things could work well enough. Here's all we need to be able to do:
And that's basically it, it's just a one page site that directs you to our facebook/twitter/myspace etc. Is this something that would take someone that codes like 10 minutes since we have all the image files and a pdf of the completed look, or should we try this ourselves with one of those site builders. I HATE templates, if I were to use a site builder it would have to allow to start from scratch with coding allowed.
Cool, thanks! Can't wait to hear your suggestions.
Two questions: 1. Who to host with and: Can we do this with a site builder or should we get it coded by a pro?
We've had a website designed for us in Adobe Illustrator, and now that we like how everything looks it's time to code it. I'm not that savy with coding, but I believe our site is so simple that a hosting website that has one of those website builder things could work well enough. Here's all we need to be able to do:
- Background image fitted to any resolution: no scroll bars
- Text that is formatted so that it is on the same place on the background image for any resolution
- Icons/images that are links and change to a different image on mouseover
And that's basically it, it's just a one page site that directs you to our facebook/twitter/myspace etc. Is this something that would take someone that codes like 10 minutes since we have all the image files and a pdf of the completed look, or should we try this ourselves with one of those site builders. I HATE templates, if I were to use a site builder it would have to allow to start from scratch with coding allowed.
Cool, thanks! Can't wait to hear your suggestions.
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Hey Ashtray on
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Unfortunately I can't help with who to use as a host. If this sort of thing cannot be done in normal HTML (HTML5 isn't widely supported by most users), then you would be looking at some kind of scripting language like PHP or you'd have to use a plugin like Flash. All in all, it's not impossible, just gotta find the right technology to use. Hopefully someone has some more helpful input in that regard.
Jesus, no.
Javascript is your friend.
What OP wants can be done with regular HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
What resolutions are your images you plan on using?
Can you make and upload an image of the desired look so we can see how simple or complex it might be?
Kinda difficult to say how hard it'll be to do what you want without actually seeing what you have in mind though.
1) Static background image sized according to the user's window height / width
2) "Text" images (your text is the image) placed with javascript math in the right places based on user's window height / width, and then stretched via javascript math to look right (either by very large resolution images or a hierarchy of sized images)
3) events attached to those text images to make them links / rollovers
While not exactly easy, it probably wont be a days worth of work for a web guy. However, if it is some kind of very complicated design, then obviously it will take longer.
Of course, the next problem is really how much of an effort you want to deal with. If the user resizes their browser window to 300x200, your website isnt going to fit in that small of a space probably. What you should do is specify a maximum and minimum resolution to support and let your designer do work from there.
Then you'll need a round of testing on both your min and max resolutions, as well as many common resolutions in both normal and widescreen configurations.
Their client list is pretty impressive, so they're obviously really over qualified for a site this simple, is it unreasonable to think we can find someone to do this for under 500 bucks?
You may be able to find a student on craigslist but you get what you pay for there, oftentimes. I usually end up doing some crappy code for folks myself in these cases. I'm not a pro but it isn't all that hard if it's pretty basic. Without seeing your design, of course, I don't know how hard it is or isn't so I could be talking out of my ear here.
Oh, as for webhosts: I really like IXWebhosting.com myself.
It's going to take anyone that 18 hours to do the site. You could maybe get it done a bit less but really that is such a low number for effort that ANY site is going to come in close to that at a minimum.
At the rate they charge, you're wanting to pay for 4 hours of effort, which is simply not enough.
At $500, the only way you'd get that kind of rate is looking at a student or someone who isn't doing webpages as their primary income, since you can't live off the rate you're wanting to pay. :P
Are you a band/sports team/notable people(s) and want a web presence so Google will funnel people to your social media? Are you starting a business/service and this is a placeholder to build awareness while you prepare a full site?
Apparently you have a budget, so I have to ask what for. What are you trying to achieve with your site?
The basic process goes something like this:
- A client has a project they want done - it could be a Wordpress theme, or a complete new website, or a logo design. They post information about their project on Elance, including a detailed description of what they want, any applicable deadlines, and their project budget. Clients can choose whether to have open or sealed bidding on their projects, but sealed is usually preferable.
- Freelancers and web design firms - Elance calls them "providers" - browse the project postings on Elance. If they see one that appeals to them, they submit a proposal, where they talk about their qualifications, offer information about how they intend to approach the client's problem, give an estimate of how long it will take them, and specify how much they'll charge.
- The client reads over all of the proposals he receives, and chooses one provider to award the project to. A contract is signed, payment is put into escrow with Elance, the provider gets to work, and once certain predefined milestones are reached, the payment is transferred to the provider.
The great thing about Elance is that it lets you shop out your project - big or small - to an international marketplace of providers ranging from major web design firms in Argentina to that college kid down the street. The problem with Elance is that you get what you pay for; the college kid might be thrilled to make you a website for $100, but the college kid might have no concept of little details like making sure that website actually works on different browsers.The other, bigger problem with Elance, though, is that you only get what you ask for. Clear communication from both clients and providers is absolutely crucial. Like, take a look at this posting.
He has no idea what he wants. He says he needs an "elaborate" website, but doesn't say what that actually means. Does he just want it to look pretty and complicated? Does he want lots of bells and whistles like RSS feeds and Facebook integration and built-in Flash games? What's the purpose of his website?
Compare that to this proposal. The client there has a very clear idea of what he wants, he knows what the site will be used for, he knows his target demographic, he even has a specific colour scheme in mind.
It sounds like you know what you want; you just need to make sure you communicate that in your project description, because most of the good providers on Elance won't even bother submitting proposals on poorly-described projects - they know projects like that end up being nightmares. Similarly, you need to be very careful in your examination of proposals: if a provider submits a five-page form letter describing how awesome they are two minutes after you posted your project, they obviously didn't even bother reading the damned thing, so what assurance do you have that they're going to pay any attention to your feedback or requests? If that Indian firm submits a dirt-cheap proposal in horribly broken English, are you going to be able to communicate effectively with them? The cheapest proposal is very rarely the best one; you're generally much better off paying an extra hundred bucks to a provider whose bid is clear, articulate, and obviously tailored for your specific project.
As far as hosting goes, Pixels says "MediaTemple should be fine, until his website is big enough that he understands why MediaTemple isn't fine."
However, they have a pricing structure that's very different from most other providers, so take a look at their policies before you sign up.
To do it for under 500 bucks? Sure.
Your best bet would be to craigslist it and put it up at local Universities with CS and IT departments. They'll have an interest in doing a good job so they can use it for their portfolios.
Fair warning though, there is an increasingly large danger of getting a crappy product at that price range. In an effort to save money, you may waste even the 500 dollars. Remember that sometimes you get what you pay for.
Any web developer worth the money isn't going to even consider a job under $2000. It just isn't worth the effort.