Discussions

I am a new small business owner who is wanting to create a website. I am not strong in this area and don't know where to start. It is overwhelming trying to figure out where to go to get a domain name, how to design an effective website and then make sure it is found on the great big web. Any pointers on where to start would be greatly appreciated. Even recommendations on who I could contact to create this for me at a very reasonable cost would be appreciated. Thank-you!

Can't offer much advice on making your own website but Reaxion Graphics on Rosser offered several different price points for websites based on our budget when we were looking. Their website is www.reaxiongraphics.com

Contact someone at the University. They found a science student to do mine for cheap. Good experience for the student too.

try these guys, westman husband and wife team, great people  
 
http://new.burningicesolutions.com/

Heard a lot of good things about squarespace.com and wordpress.com And pretty basic drag and drop. What you create works across multiple platforms also

James is an excellent web designer/business consultant/tax expert. He will be able to help you in many aspects of starting and growing your new business. Good luck.  
http://jburrconsulting.ca/

rebel.ca  
They have domains and do website hosting. You can use weebly or wordpress and they have tech support available 24/7  
 
If you hire someone to build your site make sure they register the domain in your name. Makes it much easier if you want to transfer it to a different host.

Rather than a website, I would set up a facebook page.  
More versatility and able to get your page out to more people.  
Check around for a student who is good with FB.

Squarespace.com.... super easy to use.... drag and drop.....

Wix.com  
 
Fantastic interface, easy to work with.

Not wix.com! They make you pay for the domain then a subs:cription to "activate" the website. We did that and then our credit card info was stolen and used fraudulently and the only place we used it was wix.com

We used vista prints website service. It is fairly easy to do, about $250 a year and have had no issues

Check out freelancer.com  
I'm currently using it to get a website built. You choose your project, your budget and people bid on it in the ranges of your budget. You aren't just getting someone sitting at home trying to find gigs, there's actually companies and professional people who have years of experience. Most of them are overseas but they're super good at what they do. And ironically, the person who told me about this site was a website designer and coder here in town who said for anything similar, you'll pay upwards of $1500 here but on there maybe $500. I put my budget range from 250-750 and the average bid is $400 and over 100 people bid on mine. It's time consuming going through them and checking all their portfolios, but not much different than doing it local, just faster. And if you aren't satisfied with the work, then they'll do everything to make sure you are, and then you pay them after you're happy. They also have a review section so you can choose based on their previous work feedback, how they stayed on budget and their rate of completion. (Some have 100% on all points) I was skeptical at first, but seems really amazing. I'm surprised at how many quality designers have bid. Worth checking out.

Your info was likely stolen another way. Wix is extremely reputable and blaming them for fraudulent credit Card charges is a bit of a stretch.  
 
Anyway - it's worked well for me and many people I deal with.

I am currently working on our website right now. Once I get a good idea of what you''re looking for I can make it happen.  
 
helptek.ca  
 
Edited by Helptek, 2017-03-06 12:22:47

Think of a website as an extension of your business. If you were building a extension to you building you would get a professional to design and build it. The same goes for a website.  
 
What do you want it to do? How can it make your business better? how do you want people to perceive your business?

If you are overwhelmed and don't know where to start, a DIY website solution is a bad place to start. Folks quite often look at a $1500 website budget at face value but don't consider a website will stay contemporary for about 3 - 4 years if you start with a good design.  
 
It's not just the technical aspects of building your site you have to worry about - does the person you are working with understand your business if you only communicate by email? Once they understand your business they are able to set your site up with appropriate calls to action and lead capture features and consult you on direction and type of content will and will not be ideal for your business site.  
 
If you are investing money into your site it should be working for you and generate clients - even $400 is a waste of money if it doesn't turn up a lead. But what if a $1500 site provides $5000 in leads in a year? You can DIY a website and you can DIY dry walling from YouTube (been there but you can always tell...  
 
That being said - post your website link if you've done it yourself or went overseas! Very curious!

If you are overwhelmed and don't know where to start, a DIY website solution is a bad place to start. Folks quite often look at a $1500 website budget at face value but don't consider a website will stay contemporary for about 3 - 4 years if you start with a good design.  
 
It's not just the technical aspects of building your site you have to worry about - does the person you are working with understand your business if you only communicate by email? Once they understand your business they are able to set your site up with appropriate calls to action and lead capture features and consult you on direction and type of content will and will not be ideal for your business site.  
 
If you are investing money into your site it should be working for you and generate clients - even $400 is a waste of money if it doesn't turn up a lead. But what if a $1500 site provides $5000 in leads in a year? You can DIY a website and you can DIY dry walling from YouTube (been there but you can always tell...  
 
That being said - post your website link if you've done it yourself or went overseas! Very curious!

I appreciate all the feedback and advice. I have found someone to work on a website for me and I'm very excited to see this come together!