Obesity Discussion Forums

[Steve]

How do you go about finding a good one? How do I go about finding one in general?

Is it the type of thing you should use locally, like find one in the yellow pages? That way you are able to meet with the developer face to face.

Or would you find a better one via the web?

Better to go with a large company or a small time company?

General costs?

Any other comments on information?

I am very ignorant when it comes to this. Is it something we could do on our own even? I want it done right, so I'd think not.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Steve

How do you go about finding a good one? How do I go about finding one in general?

Is it the type of thing you should use locally, like find one in the yellow pages? That way you are able to meet with the developer face to face.

Or would you find a better one via the web?

Better to go with a large company or a small time company?

General costs?

Any other comments on information?

I am very ignorant when it comes to this. Is it something we could do on our own even? I want it done right, so I'd think not.

You can go locally but you never know what you're going to get. Ideally you will want to find someone that has experience doing specifically what you're looking for, someone with a good rep, and someone with a portfolio of sites they've done in the past that you can look at and observe.

Web developers on the whole are VERY shady, so beware. That's why it's important to get someone reputable. I've dealt with a few rip-off artists myself. I personally would go large for piece of mind.

Costs vary drastically depending on what you're looking for....you may need certain software, licenses, etc too.

Then there's the issue of marketing.........if the site isn't setup well no one is going to find it via search engines....and that's usually where most sites' traffic comes from. Some people (including myself) pay for a little marketing assistance.

It would probably help to know what exactly you are looking for.

[justme]

Originally Posted by Steve

How do you go about finding a good one? How do I go about finding one in general?

Is it the type of thing you should use locally, like find one in the yellow pages? That way you are able to meet with the developer face to face.

Or would you find a better one via the web?

Better to go with a large company or a small time company?

General costs?

Any other comments on information?

I am very ignorant when it comes to this. Is it something we could do on our own even? I want it done right, so I'd think not.

It is good to ask questions and don't feel bad about not knowing about this stuff, I use to be a web admin and when it came time to set up a web page for my wife's business I was pretty much clueless about most of what needed to be done when it came to private sector.

As to costs they vary greatly depending on who you go with. One thing I will say it has been my experience that some of the smaller web companies were not as secure or as solid as some of the bigger.

I was once given a sales pitch that undercut my current provider by about 75% but they could not guarantee that my page would be up 24/7. In the 2 years I have been with my current provider the page has been down once and the smaller (75% cheaper) company could not match that

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

You can go locally but you never know what you're going to get. Ideally you will want to find someone that has experience doing specifically what you're looking for, someone with a good rep, and someone with a portfolio of sites they've done in the past that you can look at and observe.

Web developers on the whole are VERY shady, so beware. That's why it's important to get someone reputable. I've dealt with a few rip-off artists myself. I personally would go large for piece of mind.

Costs vary drastically depending on what you're looking for....you may need certain software, licenses, etc too.

Then there's the issue of marketing.........if the site isn't setup well no one is going to find it via search engines....and that's usually where most sites' traffic comes from. Some people (including myself) pay for a little marketing assistance.

It would probably help to know what exactly you are looking for.

Agreed

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

You can go locally but you never know what you're going to get. Ideally you will want to find someone that has experience doing specifically what you're looking for, someone with a good rep, and someone with a portfolio of sites they've done in the past that you can look at and observe.

Web developers on the whole are VERY shady, so beware. That's why it's important to get someone reputable. I've dealt with a few rip-off artists myself. I personally would go large for piece of mind.

Costs vary drastically depending on what you're looking for....you may need certain software, licenses, etc too.

Then there's the issue of marketing.........if the site isn't setup well no one is going to find it via search engines....and that's usually where most sites' traffic comes from. Some people (including myself) pay for a little marketing assistance.

It would probably help to know what exactly you are looking for.

For starters, the site will be a fitness site. It will have pretty much everything you can think of. Articles, forum, recommended readings, maybe exercise instruction vids, online training capabilities, calorie calcs, nutrition database.... list goes on. It's simply in the planning stages at the moment, but we have a lot of great ideas. It's just that we aren't sure exactly how to get them from ideas to the web.... I take it that's the developer's job.

Secondly, is it the web developer's job to get the site to come up in searches, or is that something else I have to consider... finding someone else for that?

Thirdly, marketing isn't too big a concern. I have quite a large following on the web and my partner is one of the head trainers in Philadelphia.

We tried going it on our own using homestead.com but we couldn't possibly make it as nice as we had hoped.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Steve

For starters, the site will be a fitness site. It will have pretty much everything you can think of. Articles, forum, recommended readings, maybe exercise instruction vids, online training capabilities, calorie calcs, nutrition database.... list goes on. It's simply in the planning stages at the moment, but we have a lot of great ideas. It's just that we aren't sure exactly how to get them from ideas to the web.... I take it that's the developer's job.

Secondly, is it the web developer's job to get the site to come up in searches, or is that something else I have to consider... finding someone else for that?

Thirdly, marketing isn't too big a concern. I have quite a large following on the web and my partner is one of the head trainers in Philadelphia.

We tried going it on our own using homestead.com but we couldn't possibly make it as nice as we had hoped.

You'll want to talk with a developer about how to get your ideas into a website. Between the design for the site, the database, the forum software, webhosting, etc, if you're looking to do it right, I wouldn't expect to pay anything less than $5000. Just the new messageboard skin I had designed, with new buttons, the logo, etc will be around $2000.

Regarding marketing, word of mouth and your internet following is good, but it won't hold a candle with respect to the traffic you can get compared to marketing the site with the search engines. The catch 22 is, you want to have your developer setup the site so that it's optimal from a marketing perspective. A lot of times developers don't understand Search Engine Optimization.

Then there's the issue of having to have an administrator to run the messageboard and day to day stuff with the website. It's very hard to have someone on call to fix a problem. A lot of people partner up with a computer guru to help admin their site. I've spent a lot of time learning, and I still have a long ways to go regarding coding of the website, adding features, etc. I'm capable as an admin, but once in a while I need some help. There are always software updates to the messageboard because of security flaws that are exposed, etc, and so every couple months either I upgrade the website software myself, or pay someone to do it for me.

Hope this helps.

[Steve]

Yes, certainly helps! Thanks a bunch.

That was my other question.... say a web developer sets the site up exactly as we wish. That's great and all, but we will want to make changes to is pretty consistently. At least weekly with maybe an exercise of the week section, or recipe of the month.... different articles.... those kind of things.

Is that generally something the web developer will show you how to do or is that why you hire an admin? And is the admin different than the web developer.

Gosh I'm lost, LOL.

As smart as I am with fitness, I'm stupid with this kind of stuff.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Steve

Yes, certainly helps! Thanks a bunch.

That was my other question.... say a web developer sets the site up exactly as we wish. That's great and all, but we will want to make changes to is pretty consistently. At least weekly with maybe an exercise of the week section, or recipe of the month.... different articles.... those kind of things.

Is that generally something the web developer will show you how to do or is that why you hire an admin? And is the admin different than the web developer.

Gosh I'm lost, LOL.

As smart as I am with fitness, I'm stupid with this kind of stuff.

Developer- Builds the backbone (behind the scenes stuff for the site), sets up the functionality of the site, etc
Designer- Does logos, color schemes, site design, etc

The Developer and Designer can be the same person, can be part of a package (you hire a company that has a separate designer and developer), or you can hire them separately.

Adding articles/content is easy once you learn a little HTML, and your developer can help you out with easy tasks like that, but when you want to start adding new features, pages, etc, that's when it can get a little more complicated.

You're going to want someone that charges an hourly fee most likely that will tackle projects as you need them implement into the site. The administrator can be someone who oversees the site as a whole or sometimes even just a message board admin. I have a second administrator, who is the guy who helps me with the marketing of this site when I need it, or upgrading the software.


Maybe a phone call would best explain all this

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

Developer- Builds the backbone (behind the scenes stuff for the site), sets up the functionality of the site, etc
Designer- Does logos, color schemes, site design, etc

The Developer and Designer can be the same person, can be part of a package (you hire a company that has a separate designer and developer), or you can hire them separately.

Adding articles/content is easy once you learn a little HTML, and your developer can help you out with easy tasks like that, but when you want to start adding new features, pages, etc, that's when it can get a little more complicated.

You're going to want someone that charges an hourly fee most likely that will tackle projects as you need them implement into the site. The administrator can be someone who oversees the site as a whole or sometimes even just a message board admin. I have a second administrator, who is the guy who helps me with the marketing of this site when I need it, or upgrading the software.


Maybe a phone call would best explain all this

I feel too ignorant to even ask logical questions. LOL.

[Merle]

You can call me too, Steve.


I don't know squat about websites however.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Merle

You can call me too, Steve.


I don't know squat about websites however.

Hahaha.

Thanks Merle!

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Merle

You can call me too, Steve.


I don't know squat about websites however.

Merle right on queue!

[IsaYogi]

The absolute most important thing is marketing your site thru search engines. Cool graphics will feed your ego, but content is what drives the web and brings return visitors. My advice is to look at a company called SIte Build It The link takes you to a 30 min video tour that will educate you quite a bit. (Sorry I had to delete the link. This is a tough place to visit. PM me). I thought this would be best starting point for you but there are others. They are a truly great company, and the process takes some time but guides you through the whole process from keyword targeting to domain name selection. Once you get the site built and working, you can always go to a designer to make it prettier or fancier. But by going thru the SBI process first you will know what it important. If you PM me, I can direct you to some great resources on one of my websites, but I am unclear about link-posting rules here so don't want to push my luck. I already have one negative point for a brand name mention and I haven't even ben here a day yet.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by IsaYogi

I can direct you to some great resources on one of my websites, but I am unclear about link-posting rules here so don't want to push my luck. I already have one negative point for a brand name mention and I haven't even ben here a day yet.

Just as a heads up, we do have a few rules regarding links that can be posted, but they are to prevent spammers (which we get tons of trying to register here) from advertising all over the site.

The two rules we have on the site are: we ask that people don't post unsolicited advertsing for the purpose of promoting their products, and we have a computer filter in place that does not allow members to post links to other websites until they have made 10 posts on the messageboard. This discourages a lot of spammers from even registering.

Here are a few links that might clear things up.

New rule for all members! Minimum post requirements to post links on the site!

ATTENTION ANYONE LOOKING TO MARKET THEIR WEBSITE OR PRODUCT

[Steve]

So I'm still plugging away on creating my website. I decided to do it on my own using Homestead | Build, Make & Create Your Own Website – FREE! Website Hosting & Website Building Software

It's website design for dummies....

That said, I'm nearing the point where I want to add a forum and was very irritated to learn that homestead is not compatible with vbulletin forums... which is the only one I'd like to use.

So now it seems like my only option would be to go out and find another host for my forum unless someone here has some advice.

I don't know the first thing about finding an appropriate host! I'm frustrated to say the least.

[MikeB]

godaddy.com is fairly cheap and easy to use. If you need any help doing the uploading of the web pages and forum I can help.

[Steve]

I appreciate that.

I need a host that has sitebuilder built in since I don't know all that programming/web code stuff!

I've also heard moving the site I currently have from homestead to another host can be a bitch b/c they use some wacky proprietary coding or something like that.

I'm really fearing the fact that I might have to change hosts and lose content. I've got a lot of time invested into this project.

[MikeB]

I can help as much as possible, I highly suggest moving away from a place that helps build the code and instead start using Dreamweaver which is pretty user friendly. The bad thing about being cheap and not hiring a developer is that it costs your time and you have to build the knowledge (as best as possible) to do an OK job on a site when a pro could do it much better and faster but of course for a fee. If you want the name of a guy who's cool and not too expensive let me know.

[Steve]

To be honest, it wasn't about costs. I'm just the type of guy who doens't know exactly what he wants until he gets his hands dirty. Sure, I could have went to a developer and said things like, "I like these colors," "I want to say this," "I want this sort of logo," etc etc.

But quite honestly, I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't even know what I wanted to say, what colors I wanted, how I wanted it to look, or any of that.

I also didn't know programming.

So I picked something that would make it easy without knowing programming but would allow me to get my hands dirty.

And quite honestly, I'm in love with what it turned out to be. It's built completely out of my passion and from my heart, which may sound corny, but it means a lot to me.

But these roadblocks are worrisome now.

Sure, a designer could have done it more efficiently, I'm sure. But it wouldn't be the same from my perspective if that makes any sense. I was planning on handing it off to a developer to 'clean it up' once I had the basic outline complete.

Why is dreamweaver good? Do you have to know web coding (or whatever it's called) to use it?

I was recommended hostgator on another site and was told the transition of moving my stuff from homestead would be pretty simple. But who knows.

[MikeB]

I use dreamweaver on my sites, it's a simple drag drop program or a super advanced one, depending on how you want to use it. I'm an OK developer but not great. I did all the coding on this site - AZSuperpsort.com when I had free time to do stuff on it. I have other sites but I have spent zero time on them. I would offer to help myself but most times I'm slammed and I don't want to hold you up if you get in a hurry.

[dontgiveup]

Check out HostGator for hosting.