Website building - PLEASE HELP

[you be betty]

hey guys, i need to make a website for my "fashion label" - fast.
 
 only problem is, i know absolutely nothing about making a website.
 
 i presume that a lot of people on here have websites or are in bands that have websites and i want to know...
 
 1) what are good websites/companies/prices for hosting?  i'll do whatever is cheap and reliable and convenient, i just don't even know where to look.
 
 2) do i need to pay someone to get the page together for me or will i be able to do it myself?
 
 3) if i need to pay someone to do it for me, who, and how much?
 
 4) if i don't...what do i do!
 
 
 i'm starting to freak out a little (a lot).

[RatBastard]

YBB PM me.  I do this for a living.  Have my own web servers and can hook you up at a very reasonable rate.  I'll give you the 930 boardie discount as well!

[sweetcell]

Originally posted by you be betty:
  hey guys, i need to make a website for my "fashion label" - fast.
 
 only problem is, i know absolutely nothing about making a website.
 
 (...)
 
 2) do i need to pay someone to get the page together for me or will i be able to do it myself?
 
 3) if i need to pay someone to do it for me, who, and how much?
 
 4) if i don't...what do i do!

*can* you build a website all by yourself?  sure, it's not that hard.  hell, you can use MS Word to put together a website - not recommendde, but it'll work.  dreamweaver or frontpage would be better, there are even free website editors out there.  chances are you can get enough support here about to get a simple site online (for example a gallery of images of your fashions).
 
 will it be pretty?  will it look professional?  probably not.  
 
 so if you just need *something* to point people to, you should be able to do it.  if you're hoping to impress folks with a flashy site, you might want to hire a designer.  wait, aren't you at RISD?  aren't there other students there who would put something decent-looking together for (relative) peanuts?
 
 you might also want to look into hosting that includes a website creation wizard.  these tools can, at times, generate some decent-looking sites.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

If you want to host and build it for free, the easiest and fastest way is to use a blogging site like Wordpress, which gives you all kinds of easy-to-use layout tools, and which has a very broad definition of "blog."  If you have a good sense of aesthetics (obviously you do), and some patience, you could get something quite nice just by going that route.

[you be betty]

thanks.  i'm not at RISD, that was just for the summer...i'm here and i'm in the dark...
 
 it needs to be a "www.___________.com" because we've already got a myspace.
 
 
 what i basically need on the website is to post photos of pieces, an e-mail address, and eventually a paypal system or something.
 we have a magazine article coming out soon and i'm scared that people who don't have myspaces will be interested in stuff and won't be able to get to it.  i'm also caught in the middle of college applications so i can't even put anything for sale yet.  i just need a baseline website to say hey, we're here, this is our email address if you need anything, here are some pictures, we're working on college apps so please come back to us in a couple of months.
 
 and then when i finish college apps i can add more photos and deal with a paypal and stuff.
 
 
 i don't really care how professional it looks as long as it's tasteful and gets the job done.  i really don't have the money at this point to pay someone to do it for me, considering that i don't even have the time to make anything right now to be sold...just need to get a site up in the next couple of weeks.

[Random Citizen]

I work for an interactive agency, so the cost and quality of a website can vary greatly depending on what the need of the client is. The more thought put into the site before the design begins, the output will be of a better quality.
 
 With that, I would suggest thinking about the following before going to a designer, whether you get one for free or pay:
 
  </font>

• <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">What is the purpose of the site? (e.g. provide information, transactions, etc.) How many pages will the site have?</font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">What do you want to show on the site and how do you want to show it? (e.g. pulling in a Flickr feed of photos vs. building a Flash gallery, use of audio, etc.)</font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">Who will be responsible for updating the site?</font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">After the design is complete, if you plan on maintaining the site yourself, how much time do you realistically have to devote to it and would you be comfortable doing so?</font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">How often will the site be updated, either for content or using new technology?</font></li>

<font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

Originally posted by you be betty:
  i just need a baseline website to say hey, we're here, this is our email address if you need anything, here are some pictures, we're working on college apps so please come back to us in a couple of months.
 

This all could be done on a blog site like Blogger or Wordpress with almost no time or effort.  You wouldn't have exactly your own domain name, but it could be youbebetty.blogspot.com, or whaetever.

[6949]

The main problem I've run in to when doing these is that people don't have the website's content ready (what you want to see on the page). But if you have the pics and text (video/audio are great too) I can help.  
 
 I'm not feeling well so I'm staying in today. If you want me to do it PM me with the details.

[sweetcell]

Originally posted by you be betty:
 it needs to be a "www.___________.com" because we've already got a myspace.

so you're looking to do three things: a) register a domain, b) create a website, and c) host the website.
 
 a) you can't just declare that you own www.youbebetty.com, you have to register it.  check out www.godaddy.com or google "domain registration" and see what deals are out there.  you should be able to get your own ".com" domain for less than $10-15 a year.  even cheaper might be to register a ".info", ".cc" or other top-level domain.  this is simply to "reserve" your domain.  you still need to host it somewhere, and sometimes you get the best deals by bundling registration with hosting.  check out    http://www.webweaver.nu/domain.shtml    for ideas and cheap options.
 
 b) create website: see my previous post.  based on:
     

Originally posted by you be betty:
 i just need a baseline website to say hey, we're here, this is our email address if you need anything, here are some pictures, we're working on college apps so please come back to us in a couple of months.
 
 and then when i finish college apps i can add more photos and deal with a paypal and stuff.
 
 
 i don't really care how professional it looks as long as it's tasteful and gets the job done.

... you should be able to do this yourself.  you can always go back later, when you have more time, and improve it, add more pictures, etc.
 
 c) hosting: one you've registered your domain and created your content, you need to put them online with a host who will serve out your content everytime someone goes to www.youbebetty.com.
 
     

Originally posted by you be betty:
 i really don't have the money at this point to pay someone to do it for me, considering that i don't even have the time to make anything right now to be sold...just need to get a site up in the next couple of weeks.

that's a tough spot to be in... can't do it and can't pay.  looks like you have some offers of help here tho, 930 bboard to the rescue.  in a past life i used to be a webmaster and am happy to offer some help too.  PM me with questions.

[RatBastard]

YBB I PMed you back.  Let me know what you think.  As far as this whole topics goes, my site is http://www.pczero.net if anyone wants to take a look.  Our newest client is Sonny Mayo from Sevendust.

[Random Citizen]

Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
  This all could be done on a blog site like Blogger or Wordpress with almost no time or effort.  You wouldn't have exactly your own domain name, but it could be youbebetty.blogspot.com, or whaetever.

Just buy the domain name, get it hosted and have someone set up Wordpress. That way, you can have access to a blog package for free, but still have the flexibility down the road if you want to add additional pages to your site outside the blog.
 
 For my personal site, I use GoDaddy as my host and they now manage the domain name renewal process for me as well.
 
 One last thing, if you haven't already, get your company's name registered through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It will save you a lot of trouble down the road.
 
 This is probably a lot to think about, but if you do it right the first time, it will save you a lot of time, money and energy later.