OT - Web designers in the house?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just wondering, not even sure if this will turn into anything of interest for anybody who stands to benefit from it, but ...

Do we have any "professional" web site designers here at FOFC?

I've got a friend who is semi-interested in having something done professionally, so far I've recommended against it for several reasons:

1) Cost of professional design vs the realistic benefits he'd gain
2) He's 0-for-2 with freelance designers, a pair of whom have given him little that was worth a damn while charging at least the going rate for as much as possible.
3) Some professional design doesn't lend itself to end-user updating of pages, which he has a minimal (say 1 particular page that updates 2-3 times a week) but central to the purpose of the website need to have happen.

So, with that stuff in mind, I'm wondering if we've got anybody who has experience doing small freelance projects like this would probably be (if it happens at all).

I could do a basic site for him, and would do it just as a favor to a friend,
but I'm not sure when I could get around to with enough time to focus on it consistently until it was completed (we've gone that route on at least 3 eventually aborted occasions already).

And if your aren't a web designer but have experience with a similar project in scope (let's say a maximum of 10 total pages, all linking out from/back to the main index page), I'd be interested in your insights about expected cost, problems to avoid, etc.

[cthomer5000]

Seems like it might be fairly easy to find some college student who:

has the skill to do it
has the time to do it
will cost much less than a true pro

I had a friend who did this throughout school in lieu of working a "real" job for spending money.

[Cringer]

Is he completely unwilling to try to learn to do it himself? The website for the Imperial Football League was my first ever site, and I am pretty happy with it actually. I am still learning things all the time, thats true, but I have fun doing the site and am pretty proud of my work. It also gives me satisfaction knowing I did it myself........

[Cringer]

Dola-

Let me add the expenses....domain name and hosting company - about $55/year for me

...Frontpage (although i started with the free AceHTML, which i thought was ok) - $100

and a lot of time reading up on stuff and trying stuff....

[JonInMiddleGA]

Is he completely unwilling to try to learn to do it himself? The website for the Imperial Football League was my first ever site, and I am pretty happy with it actually. I am still learning things all the time, thats true, but I have fun doing the site and am pretty proud of my work. It also gives me satisfaction knowing I did it myself........

Cringer, as hard it may be to believe, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of people who have less than zero interest in taking a DIY approach to web design.
And my good buddy is one of them.

I've tried for several years to get him to do that very thing, but if anything, he's even more resistant to the idea than he was originally. Like I said, bordering on technophobic or something.

I've suggested FrontPage, even suggested Netscape's Composer (which is what I use 99.9% of the time) and that's about as WYSIWYG as they come -- no dice.

[RendeR]

I do contract web development, and I'm very sorry to hear the trouble he's had with other people.

I have a few question:

How many total pages are we looking at? 1-5? 5-10? more than 10?

What sort of content does it entail? anything that is updated daily? weekly? more-less?

Does he have photos and images already in electronic format that he wants to use?

Does he have a site in place now that I could look at?


There is a lot that goes into designing a decent page, and depending on what he wants and needs the cost can be a lot more or sometimes a lot less than people think.

I've been doing this stuff for almost 10 years now, it really comes down to what is really needed, vs what people say they THINK they need. I'm a huge proponent of KISS web sites, keep it simple stupid.

You can check out my website and some others here:

http://www.majecc.net
http://mlf.majecc.net (pages for FOF league stuff)
http://hfl.majecc.net (another league site)

there are also samples of work I did years ago that is still in use on the portfolio page of my website.

If you/he wants to know more, email me or PM me here.

Ren

[jamesUMD]

is it straight html, asp, javascript, or what? I used to be a web developer before I started @ T Rowe Price. If I still had my website I could link you to some of my work but the only thing that I had used it for was my fantasy football league. That should be getting up somewhere within the next week or so. email me with a list of things he is looking for. I still have photoshop and dreamweaver mx on my cpu to do the site. I just don't have server space at the moment but one of my friends is looking into it for me.

[email protected]

[Cringer]

Cringer, as hard it may be to believe, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of people who have less than zero interest in taking a DIY approach to web design.
And my good buddy is one of them.


Sorry if I came off like an ass, wasn't my intention....... :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sorry if I came off like an ass, wasn't my intention....... :)

Mine neither, I hope I didn't come off that way with my reply.

I was just reacting/responding from the standpoint of "we all (me included) occasionally forget that the rest of the world isn't as net-oriented as those of us who spend a lot of our time online".

For me, it's worked out pretty well. Quite a few things that I've learned with Excel, HTML, and tricks/tips of the 'net in general have been very useful in my professional life. Heck, virtually everything I know about Excel & HTML comes from doing it first for some gaming purpose ... and then discovering that it was either needed or at least helpful in my work.

That's one of the ways I've convinced my wife that CM/FOF/FBCB/ and numerous dice-and-chart games aren't such a bad hobby after all :D

[Cringer]

Mine neither, I hope I didn't come off that way with my reply.

I was just reacting/responding from the standpoint of "we all (me included) occasionally forget that the rest of the world isn't as net-oriented as those of us who spend a lot of our time online".

For me, it's worked out pretty well. Quite a few things that I've learned with Excel, HTML, and tricks/tips of the 'net in general have been very useful in my professional life. Heck, virtually everything I know about Excel & HTML comes from doing it first for some gaming purpose ... and then discovering that it was either needed or at least helpful in my work.

That's one of the ways I've convinced my wife that CM/FOF/FBCB/ and numerous dice-and-chart games aren't such a bad hobby after all :D

Cool, lets hug..... ;)

Joking aside, I wish this all came in useful at my work, no much connection between web/gaming and trucking, besides it keeping me up when I should be trying to sleep..........
:D