Web Design Software-Opinions Wanted

[BigMac]

I have the worlds worst website and I want to change that. I have had enough of waiting for my web guy to get his act together. Friend of the family or not, this site sucks.

I have no expeience in web design, but I want to update my own website.
My needs are good menues and navigation, web store, easy to self update.
I have an idea of how I want it to look and what type of navigation I want to use.

Should I pay someone to build it for me? If someone else builds it I still need to be able to regularly update it. I'm not opposed to paying for larger changes and updates.
Should I build it myself? What software would you use? Please keep in mind Im not a web designer..

Thanks!

[msound]

I would suggest using a blog (wordpress/joomla) provider on the back end. Most hosts will have a way to install one easily and if yours doesn't then its sill not very hard. This will be the quickest way to get what you want. There are plenty of plugins for stores/therms available for both. A blog will give you the ability to quickly create new content or update existing content. There is also a lot of help available on the web if you get stuck. I use Joomla on my websites because it was the easiest way to get a good looking site up without having to learn the new languages.

Any software will have a huge learning curve to get you what you need. Dreamweaver and FrontPage are the 2 big site builders. I have used both and prefer Dreamweaver. Even with this you will have a hard time building a modern site without any web design experience.

As a side note good web design is not easy and therefore not cheap (you get what you pay for).

Full disclosure: I am not a web designer.

[Barbarossa]

Notepad ?

https://www.webmonkey.com

If you can cut and paste, you can make a basic website real easy.

How bad is your website? Link?

[BigMac]

https://www.annies-guns.com

It is awful, but better than what was in there before..

[yellowsulphur]

I used Joomla back in the day, but would recommend Drupal now.

[Deadbolt]

Wordpress or Drupal. Either one has an easy to integrate shopping system and more than likely your webhost has a click through process to get either established.

[HapaMan]

I am a UI Web Developer. For a simple site, Wordpress should suffice. Personally, I like Joomla, but that might be overkill for you.

[TradeGuns]

I don't think you could get a proper answer without disclosing your budget.

I think a couple people here missed the "web store" requirement.

Drupal (http://drupal.org/) is a strong choice, but I wouldn't recommend trying to set it up for ecommerce if you were not going to hire a specialist in Drupal to help make sure it is setup and configured correctly.

You may want to go with a hybrid solution in using a 3rd party managed service for your store component (something like http://webshopmanager.com/) , and then Drupal for your content. One of your menu items could link off to the store. The store could be hosted on a subdomain... i.e. shop.example.com.

If the store is the main focus of your site and you didn't want a managed service, then Magento (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) would be a great contendor.

Looking for a good web development solution is very risky business without knowing the industry, technologies, and what people who have sites like you want paid.

You're doing right by asking for advice, but be careful what advice you take too. Most business sites have their own set of unique requirements and the web software that works great for one user may not be a great fit for you.

Then speaking of business requirements, do your best to flush out all the detail possible in how you want your site to work before you hire someone. What happens a lot is that you will have one thing in mind, and you will get quoted on exactly what you say.... but the details in your head that you didn't communicate will not be included in that quote, and you will end up with a site more than double of what was originally quoted.

Another consequence of not flushing out exactly what you want before the site gets started is changes. It's a lot cheaper to work through the details before the development starts vs paying developers and designers to make changes to functionality that is already in place.

Good design & development isn't cheap, so if the budget is less than a few thousand, I would recommend installing Drupal and getting a feel for it to see if it's something you would feel comfortable building your site in. A book or online tutorials can go a long way. There are many sites that sell pre-made templates that you can easily upload your logo into for a respectable result. As mentioned before, then look into a 3rd party service for commerce and just link to it from the site you manage your content on. It can be done in Drupal, but you're dealing with customer data and money on your website now and this really should be setup by a pro.

If the budget is higher than a few thousand, be very selective. Look at portfolios, talk to references, and make sure they are very clear with every detail you are going to have developed. I've had clients come to me with a mess to show for $10k+ they put into a project. Read the contracts too! You could end up with tricky wording that auto-accepts work after x days from when it was developed (not project complete, when that section of code was written) if you do not raise any dispute.

Being selective and going with a reputable company won't be cheap, but it will be cheaper than paying for some amateur who doesn't know what they are getting into that can't follow through on their commitments... or worse, a shady company taking advantage of you.

I think I ended up with more of a word of caution here than anything else. ... That is the nature of the business. Good luck!

[bpetro]

I'd be happy to discuss your project with you. TradeGuns is correct; I really can't give you good advice without fleshing out a lot more details. My firm has 17 years of experience and has built hundreds of websites. We may be able to do some/all of your project in trade. Please drop me a line or give me a call. I'm a lifetime NRA member as well.

[BigMac]

Thank you all for your replys. I played with coffee cup just long enough to learn why good web guys get paid.

I think I'm going to seek out some help.
Seeing as I've been so successful the way I've been doing it.

[Deadbolt]

with all due respect sir, the website you have in your OP is the sort of comedy us day jobbers needed on a monday thank you for a chuckle. Its sort of like Batman knowing there is still crime to fight. In this case, I am Batman and your website is a villain

[Demonfart]

What TradeGuns said is right on the mark.

You are going to want someone to not only help you realize your vision but you need to go with a Content Management System that you understand enough to update on your own and that needs to be clearly communicated with whomever you get to assist.

Also the golden rule: check the portfolio. If you don't LOVE every single example than the designer isn't right for you. Remember this is your brand and livelihood, you don't want to rely on iteration in these circumstances and that's what I see happen too often when the wrong designer is matched to a client. Deposits and clear deadlines will save you trouble and money as well.

[stilly]

Thank you all for your replys. I played with coffee cup just long enough to learn why good web guys get paid.

I think I'm going to seek out some help.
Seeing as I've been so successful the way I've been doing it.

I do not mean to take work away from anyone but before you pay, check out "Net Objects Fusion". It can be a very simple to use site and you can make a decent one with just a little patience...

[dchang0]

I used Joomla back in the day, but would recommend Drupal now.

Amen to that, Drupal is far better to work with than Joomla and Wordpress. Graphic/web designers typically prefer Wordpress > Joomla > Drupal, but web programmers prefer Drupal > Joomla > Wordpress.

And since most of what really impacts you on a day-to-day basis, the site owner, is coding and not design, it's smarter to choose the CMS that is easier to code for, even if you aren't doing the coding yourself.