Computer idiot needs advice, tips, tricks for building a website and sales page.

Hi,

In truth I'm an average computer user, but definitely not advanced and I don't know html and don't want to have to learn it.

That said, I want to develop a very sophisticated looking Website styled like a magazine, with tons of articles, and the whole thing centered around a sales page for a future product launch I have in mind.

My budget is tight tight tight, and I'm figuring that I might be able to do this thing on the cheap, even the commercial part of it because I know there's just so much free stuff and resources available on the net these days.

The project is in it's infancy stages, so at this point I'm just trying to get a grip on what might be the best way to proceed, aside from registering the business and the domain(s).

How would you recommend going about this ie: which web creation software and hosting service should I use? What's the best email data base capture and auto reply software and what do I use to track all the interaction and customer behavior for maximal benefit and ROI for future advertising dollars spent ie: on Google, banner ads, etc.

I want something that's not only educational and entertaining, but something that also taps really well into social networking portals like Facebook and Twitter (of course).

Can this be done by one's self, or will I have to hire a web development company to do it?

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance.

Best Regards,

Rob
aka NAM

If you think it's going to make money, make a craigslist ad, bust out a NDA and comb through the sand for an investor to help pay for the development. You might just find someone with some cash laying around, willing to try out a .com.

Other than that... have fun doing it yourself. You will inevitably delay all profits of any sorts if you take this route. As well, probably end up spending money going directions in which you never needed to. I'd hire someone...

take what I say with a grain of salt...

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


What's an NDA?

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

What's an NDA?

I have no idea what your proposing, so it might not be applicable. But... protecting yourself and intellectual property is important.

en.wikipedia.org...

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties. It is a contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement. An NDA creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets. As such, an NDA protects nonpublic business information.

NDAs are commonly signed when two companies, individuals, or other entities (such as partnerships, societies, etc.) are considering doing business and need to understand the processes used in each other's business for the purpose of evaluating the potential business relationship. NDAs can be "mutual", meaning both parties are restricted in their use of the materials provided, or they can restrict the use of material by a single party.

Use Joomla! its free:

www.joomla.org...

You can make any type of site for it, just install Joomla and you can have a site up and running in about 10 minutes

I have a Joomla! site I do extensions for Joomla : networkconnected.co.uk... the template I used for it was this: Free Template

You can get cheap decent hosting from Rochen www.rochenhost.com... $8.95 a month

BTW if you want to play around with Joomla!

Here is the front end (the actual site)

Front end (site)

Here is the backend (admin controls for the site)

Admin of site

This is the official demo of Joomla! and remember its free!

Oh and if you want the social networking side of things install jomsocial for Joomla!:

www.jomsocial.com...

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Wow. It took me many years to get to the point where I am now in developing websites, graphic design, web programming and sql.

You need to be part graphic designer part computer programmer in order to do some of this stuff right.
There really is alot to learn.

I suggest you pay someone to develop your website for you.
And learn as you go.
Maybe in a year or two you can learn enough to take over from your developer.
But if you're not computer savvy you're in for a rough time.

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

Gotcha, yes I've thought of that. You have to attract the investor without selling the farm in the process, especially if they are extremely shrewd, which they tend to be since it's their prescious money involved. I'm not sure I want to get involved with anyone like that as if would go against the ethos of the company, part of which is going to involve a donation of 25% of all proceeds to clean water in the third world, via the placement of special water filters called the "Slingshot" the filters are made by the same guy who designed the Segway Moter Scooter, Dean Kamen and I'm also going to establish a NFP for that purpose, along with a trust account, and a legal doc to prove that the money's actually going into that. It's both a very ecologically friendly and humanitarian thing to, and an awesome marketing technique to overcome all obstacles to making the sale. Later on I also plan to create a method by which about one out of ten of my customers will be able to generate revenue streams from an affiliate resellers program.

My thinking is "build it and they will come".

reply to post by grey580

Are there not tools by now that would make this a possibility for an average computer user, without having to go through what you did?

I was thinking that the first iteration could be just a content creation process, to play with the add copy, gather in content and graphics etc and build out a ton of info around the sales page.

Something from which to pour everything into the final, corporate version of the same site (under the same domain).

Best to work with someone though with the expertise.

So I'll go with free stuff then to create the dummy site and start the content creation process, which can be polished up later.

reply to post by roughycannon

That's cool.

What about for collecting email addresses and then doing mass emailings with nice looking content, like an ezine?

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Already built into joomla

joomla25.cloudaccess.net...

See the login form on the bottom left? users create an account they get sent an activation email and register an account, there is mass mail function in the backend of Joomla to mail all your users with one click, all built into Joomla outta the box

reply to post by roughycannon


Again, very helpful roughycannon! Thanks.

Question: Could a joomla site be converted into another format or framework later on, or at that point is it - start all over from scratch?

reply to post by roughycannon

Thanks for your help.

Question: Could I use a product like Adobe Marketing Cloud with a Joomla site?

www.adobe.com...

Point is that I want to "begin with the end in mind" and I like the idea of a centralized control panel from which add campaigns can be run and analyzed in real time, allowing for tweaks to be made to measure advertising and add copy effectiveness.

They have a nice suite of software Adobe does for the type of analysis I'd like to have access to once the site and sales page is up and running.

P.S. I will not forget any efforts to help me out, although I realize it's in the egalitarian nature of the net for afficiondos to step in to help us newbies out from time to time.

Regards,

Rob

Web Hosting is all over the place and most of the scripts are free. I have been in the business for many years so I have an idea of what you might be asking.

The following are my suggestions to get started with your own website for a blog and sales page.

1. Find a web host for about $7/month.
2. Get a domain name and register it for less than $10/year.
3. Use a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. These are the most popular CMS scripts.
4. I personally suggest that you use WordPress, the most popular. You will be able to find plenty of documentation and modules to do whatever you need.
5. Learn fundamental programs like HTML, CSS, and some photoshop or a similar program.


In summary, find a host, get a domain for about $10/yr, set up your CMS, learn the programs, and pay about $7/month.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by roughycannon

 

Again, very helpful roughycannon! Thanks.

Question: Could a joomla site be converted into another format or framework later on, or at that point is it - start all over from scratch?

The real question is why would you want to convert it?

The united nations use Joomla! for one of their sites:

Link

Even McDonalds lol:

Link

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

Gotcha, yes I've thought of that. You have to attract the investor without selling the farm in the process, especially if they are extremely shrewd, which they tend to be since it's their prescious money involved. I'm not sure I want to get involved with anyone like that as if would go against the ethos of the company, part of which is going to involve a donation of 25% of all proceeds to clean water in the third world, via the placement of special water filters called the "Slingshot" the filters are made by the same guy who designed the Segway Moter Scooter, Dean Kamen and I'm also going to establish a NFP for that purpose, along with a trust account, and a legal doc to prove that the money's actually going into that. It's both a very ecologically friendly and humanitarian thing to, and an awesome marketing technique to overcome all obstacles to making the sale. Later on I also plan to create a method by which about one out of ten of my customers will be able to generate revenue streams from an affiliate resellers program.

My thinking is "build it and they will come".

In the end of the day, it's all in the language of the agreement. Write a realistic proposal that gives you room for compromise. If you're planning on going the NFP, I would first search for ones in your area that you may be able to work with. I'm not sure as to being a subsidiary or not, but from what I remember from my learnings' was that it may be more beneficial building a network with already established means.

It might even be possible for you to eventually partner up with:

www.who.int...

I'd swing for the fences... but it's all relative to what you can rationalize as a means. good luck.

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

Re: the NFP, that's just a matter of registration, and a trust account/fund, and a couple of pdf's to prove it on the site, but the main company is for profit. It's really just an absolutely brilliant marketing idea, AND, it's nice to help others in mutuality, but to be honest, it's actually rather self serving. Then again I like the idea of a man pouring out clean water from a jug representing the new age..

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by roughycannon

 

Thanks for your help.

Question: Could I use a product like Adobe Marketing Cloud with a Joomla site?

www.adobe.com...

Point is that I want to "begin with the end in mind" and I like the idea of a centralized control panel from which add campaigns can be run and analyzed in real time, allowing for tweaks to be made to measure advertising and add copy effectiveness.

They have a nice suite of software Adobe does for the type of analysis I'd like to have access to once the site and sales page is up and running.

P.S. I will not forget any efforts to help me out, although I realize it's in the egalitarian nature of the net for afficiondos to step in to help us newbies out from time to time.

Regards,

Rob

edit on 28-11-2012 by NewAgeMan because: (no reason given)

Yes it would work with any type of website but from looking through it a lot of the stuff can be done for free with google products like google analytics

www.google.co.uk...

Originally posted by earthalien50
Web Hosting is all over the place and most of the scripts are free. I have been in the business for many years so I have an idea of what you might be asking.

The following are my suggestions to get started with your own website for a blog and sales page.

1. Find a web host for about $7/month.
2. Get a domain name and register it for less than $10/year.
3. Use a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. These are the most popular CMS scripts.
4. I personally suggest that you use WordPress, the most popular. You will be able to find plenty of documentation and modules to do whatever you need.
5. Learn fundamental programs like HTML, CSS, and some photoshop or a similar program.


In summary, find a host, get a domain for about $10/yr, set up your CMS, learn the programs, and pay about $7/month.

Perfect. This is what I had in mind but I needed it spelled right out.

So, which is COOLER?

WordPress, Joomla or Drupal?

However's the coolest AND, the most functional, that's the CMS I'm going to run with.

And if I want to move the site to another host and web developer, the basic html can be moved from that CMS, right? I could pack it all up and move it somewhere else, couldn't I? Or once I've chosen, am I locked into that system forever?