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My Boyfriend and I are starting a Silk Screening Business. We just bought the equipment, we have all our designs, we are doing facebook, myspace all those types of marketing, but we need to build a website.
How do you even start building one. He wants to make a really nice one with nice graphics and cool features, but I don't even know step one.. we can't find any classes in our town, and the books we've book show basic stuff. But my question is.. where do i start? Photo Shop? Illustrator? How do I publish it?
Does anyone have advice?
There are a lot of free templates out there. How experienced are you in website development? If you don't have a strong background you may want to hire a website development company. Or you can always take the time to learn basic/advanced website development via www.w3schools.com , I'd also look into WordPress, which although based around a blogging software has very easy integration to create a custom website for free. Lastly, you can also build your website via www.merchantcircle.com, although this will not have all the same functionality as a custom website it does offer free blogging, newsletter, coupon and other services.
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you might want to consider hiring someone to build you a website. if you havent messed with it at all, it can be very difficult to just jump in and build a site. professional web designers are, well... just that professionals. they will be able to work with the style you want and make it look amazing. they know all the tricks of the trade and can whip up a web site in just a week or two.
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Freelance artist for hire. I do all sorts of things. website up soon.
A good place to start first, regardless of who will be doing the site would be a notepad/sketchpad.
Use it to work out what features you want or may want to add. This can determine which software or cart program(s) to use (at this stage I would avoid custom software due to the expense and the fact that ongoing means you are pretty much restricted to the same developer)
Then you need to look at your market. Retail, wholesale or both? (some software does not handle multiple pricing well) Estore or just a showcase? Blogging? News Feed? and many other things need to be taken in to consideration. Best done on paper first, even if you pay someone to create the site this will give them a clear understanding of where you want to go with it, and what your needs are.
There is plenty of great software out there that is relatively easy to customise and learn.
I am by trade a Web Designer and can advise you on what in whats not and certain styles to use depending on the mood you want to portray. I brilliant website to start off with for now though or research into is Ecommerce Software | Shopping Cart Software by ekmPowershop this website sets you up from the start with an ecommerce website you just pay a monthly charge of £20. But before you buy the product you can test it out it will generate a test website for you to play around with and get clued up on. only lasts for 3 hours but once it over you can start again. this is a good starting point on web development. Note it is not easy if you want a professional website i would advise hiring a Web developer.
Good Luck though Kate. Hit me back if you need anything. !
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