New Website

First off I already know and understand that nobody is going to take me step by step in building a website, but I'm hoping I can be pointed on the right path. I don't have any money to invest, but being out of work, have some time I could invest. I would like to know what site would be the best to get a free website, or one for cheap. The site would have to allow me to add several different pages, and include password prompts, ect.
There will be a main page, or information page about the site. (this will actually be more then one page, but is seperate from the website being purchased by the client for their use).
There would be a link on the main page to allow the client to purchase the usage of the site, as well as set up the passwords required.
Then the website itself will have several different areas of focus.

In other words it's not just a small website or blog type of thing. It will end up being a huge, thought out website geared to help people manage their business's.

Any and all help is much appreciated.

As someone who also has aspirations to start a similar web project I can relate to you a lot. Rather than focus on the technical skills in this post, I will attempt to describe a big “Ah ha” moment I had regarding the commitment to a web business. I was quick to learn (as most fast-lane members will tell you) that google ads you see claiming “Fast, easy website: make $2000/mo now” are almost always no better than shallow quick-rich books.

I can recommend reading essays by Paul Graham on tech startups. Graham is founder of YCombinator – a Silicon Valley VC providing seed funding to mostly college student/younger startups looking for $10-50k investments. In addition to the money, YC provides advice and guidance to keep the startups on the right track. His essays are the best resource (outside YC) for his advice.

A condition of YC is that all founders are required to relocate to Silicon Valley for the three month period that the “season” operates. To paraphrase Graham: “We often get people asking us whether they can participate from another location because [insert inconvenient reason for moving]. A reluctance to move tells us that person has little understanding of the sacrifice required to start a successful startup - moving for three months is probably one of the easiest hurdles our founders need to get past.“

As you begin read more and get a sense of the YC program, you begin to realise: here are some of the smartest and most highly motivated college students (most who have been dabbling in multiple programming languages for years) and despite all working 40-50+ hrs/ week on their startups – probably 50% (by Graham’s generous estimate) will become successful, profitable companies.

I don’t say this to dishearten you, if anything I hope it produces the opposite response. My old thinking: “that with my limited/nonexistent programming experience, I could pretty easily work hard for a month and develop a successful website that I could earn me a passive income”, has now been replaced by a more realistic view that this is a project likely to require a lot of learning and a significant amount of time. I believe it is because they understand this, that many experienced web professionals recommend outsourcing programming to experts – free/purchased web templates can only get you so far without programming experience.

I feel that understanding the commitment to this kind of project promotes greater action in answering the most important questions before getting started. With an appreciation of the sacrifice required suddenly these answers seem much more important: What does my business do? Who are my customers? What do they want? Who are my competition? Would I pay for it if I were them?

Once again, I hope this post doesn’t come across negatively – I feel that squelching the illusion that an online business is a “no pain, cash cow” will mean that when I do start a project of this nature my chances of success will be greatly improved.

jportz, Thank you for the response. I haven't had an easy go at anything so far, and if I start this it will actually be my second business. My first business is sitting idle due to the lack of finances and help to run it. (cabinet shop) I failed at that business the first time due to lack of knowledge, money, and will. I personally hit a "Great Depression" that lasted several months.
In those months my business slacked, and I closed it. Had I not curled up in a ball on my bed when my wife left me I would still be going strong. Now I am at the bottom again literally. There is no money, no way to get educated, no help. Just an idea that in my mind, is amazing, and could turn my life around for good. This is an idea that I did search for, and had 0 results, so the competition does not exist. I almost feel as though I'm starting Ebay before all the other "sell on" sites sprouted up.

I was thinking about something I may be able to do and I ask that everyone tell me what they think. Because I don't have knowledge of how to make this thing, what happens if I start a blog, lets say on blogger, and basically design all the pages, add the pictures, videos, etc that I want etc. I'd set this blog to private so nobody could see it. As soon as all the information is on it, and I have my layout I could just have a web developer copy it and add the password bars, etc to make it a website. Is that do able?

Again thanks for the advice. I know it will be a tough road, and I hope that I can continue on it without giving up. I also wish you luck on your endeavor.

I'd be a little worried about that. If no one is doing it, it might just be because no one needs it. But you can prove me wrong. - The only way to find out is to EXECUTE and TRY IT!

Anyways, just a tip from my first web start up experience. I was fortunate enough to know the basic HTML and I had some half decent graphic skills. I didn't know how to create a classifieds site (simplespot.ca) and the database and doo-dah behind it. So I literally drew every single page out and gave it to the web developer to turn into a site. It came out just as I wanted.

Another thing, don't be so uptight about sharing your idea. I'm not saying go around on entrepreneur forums and telling them what your idea is. I mean like sharing it with friends/family or whoever your potential market might be. See what kind of feedback they give. What I've realized is, Ideas are meaningless without execution. Only 1% of the population has what it takes to execute. But what the other 99% can do is provide feedback since they're the ones who are going to be making the 1% rich (by buying/using their stuff of course).

I wish you the best of luck man, let us know how it goes!

I also have some concerns about this. To paraphrase VC, Guy Kawasaki in “The Art of the Start”, he is extremely skeptical if anyone ever pitches that there is “no competition” to their idea – in his experience it’s usually a sign that the pitcher needs to have a closer look at the market they’re trying to enter.

If you’re site is website selling information, just because there mightn’t be another website offering the same service, your competition is the books on the subject, training classes available, seminar speakers etc and even sometimes free youtube/ehow “how to” videos. The same principle applies with a service – are there offline equivalents of this services available?

For the sake of your mindset you should not set out to answer “Is there any competition?” but to ask “How many competitors are there?”- finding competition should be expected. It isn’t the end of the world when you do, instead it gives you a great starting point to look at your competition and determine what they are lacking. What could you do better? Why will people use my website over their product/service? This attitude also re-enforces what juntao65 said above: that idea is 1% and marketing and implementation is 99%.

In the rare case that there is definitely no direct completion ask yourself what similar products and services exist? Ebay might have been the first online marketplace (although it probably wasn’t), but it still would have had to consider traditional stores as the largest competitor for customers.

Hope this helps.

Dear kolwdwrkr

Sounds like you have been thru some tough times.

Creating a website is easy. Getting traffic is another story.

If you can write compelling content and provide solutions you can generate traffic.

If you have no money. You can start a blog for free.

Most business' require some capital.

I have been working with "site build it" and have been pleased with the results.

SiteSell.com, E-business Success. Simple. Real.

Massive success to you

Thanks for the responses guys, and I appreciate the fact that this site stays positive. About the "no competition" statement I made. You are all right, there are services that provide what I want to provide on my site. So in essence there is a lot of competition. The problem is that you have to search for it and everything is seperate. Being in the business and industry has helped me considerably with this idea because I've had to search for things I needed too.
So what I would like to do is gather information that a cabinet shop would seek and compress it into one site, as well as a ton of other features I truly believe are needed by the small shop. I don't want to be an information "prude" but I feel like with the economy in the state it's in that there are a lot of people more capable than I am that may take the idea and run with it. That would be devestating to me because I have already been through the ringer on one business, I don't want to go through it on another. My first business is salvageable, but I would need to acquire funds to save it. Until then, the license remains valid, as well as my fictitious business name.

I don't understand why there isn't a way to get a bail out like the other companies. My business employed people too that I had to let go. But nobody seems to care. I'm not alone. The government bails out banks and the auto industry. But what about the woodworking industry? These people are building the banks you are working in, and yet if they go out of business it's no problem. Personally, I think they should make it so that if they bail out a bank, the bank has to bail out a small business. Make it a chain reaction. You can bail out all the major industries all day long, but if the small business's fail the economy will fail. Who do you think purchases from the "big" business's? That's why they are big to begin with.
Everyday a small shop closes, and a small amount of money could have saved them. In my case $150,000 would bring me current and pay for marketing. But lets forget about the 150k, and give 50 billion to an industry that will just outsource overseas anyhow. Sounds logical to me. When I talk about the small shop, I don't mean just woodworking. I mean auto mechanic shops, small ma and pa shops, gift shops, etc.

The website I want to come out with doesn't have to make me rich. I don't need to be a millionair. I just want to be debt free and live without worrying about missing a payment. If I had a small house in Colorado and my truck paid for I'd be tickled. It would cost less then $300k to make my dream a reality. I think that my website would also help shops save money simply by saving them time. And that is what costs the most. This site would be geared to be a management system. You can do anything from setting up meetings with employees, to using an existing contract template for your clients. You would have training videos for everything from sexual harrassment and shop safety, to the actual process of producing what it is the company makes. (in this case cabinets). It would have a "main page" for the business owner that he can make his own (like myspace), as well as ad a portfolio.

There are a lot of shops that don't have a web page because it's to difficult to make. So this would make it easy for them. They could also change account settings, have resouces for local materials, there would be sponsors for equipment and accessories, and on and on. He would be able to basically manage his business from one site. I would also make it so that there would be a chat room for his business. This chat room would accessible with a password he would give his employees. I want to do this because it would eliminate the need for installers having to return to the shop at any given time, as well as eliminate the morning meetings. We all know that 30 minute meeting turn into 45 easily.

So thats it in a nutshell. There is a lot more to it, but you get the jist. I didn't want to do that, but it seems as though more people are willing to help if they know what they are helping with.

It's interesting to hear about your situation. My brother made custom window shutters for years and closed up about 2 years ago, he had the same issues as you did and that was in a good economy. Hunter Douglas/Home Depot/Lowes always underbid him and he wouldn't lower quality or materials or source it from China to compete.

Anyway, thats beside the point. My recommendation as a non-web but IT guy is to use Wordpress. Get a host that has a single-click install program (Dreamhost does) and find a template, I recommend one of the Revolution templates due to ease of use (now StudioPress Themes). You will have to do some customizing but it will start you off with a incredible looking site.

As a matter of fact, if you want, I can host it for you and get you set up on my account for now and get Wordpress (or whatever) installed if you would like, I have unlimited bandwidth. Just let me know.

GL!

Does WordPress allow you to add features like passwords and such. My website has to have a main page, which will explain what it is I am selling. Then it will have to have a page to purchase and set up a password. Then it will have to automatically send an e-mail to the buyer with a receipt and password verification.
The pages after you buy it are as follows:
log in page
Main profile page. This page is the master control page for the purchaser. He can change passwords, do work orders, emails, etc. He can also set up a portfolio.
He should be able to give his clients an address for them to look at his site and portfolio.
Employee information pages would include how to videos, chat, etc.

There is a lot to it because it's basically made so that the business owner can "opporate" his business from this site, communicate with employees, etc. It eliminates the need for meetings, gives them a website, gives them templates to a variety of forms, etc.

In other words it's going to be a bitch to set up by myself. So knowing the right site to use will definitely be key. Maybe I'm biting off more then I can chew with this one, but I think if I can make it work it can be great. It will also lead to additional features and expand beyond the woodworking community. I know, I'm crazy. I could just hang my head and stick with a day job and struggle ;-)

it sounds to me like you are trying to setup a shopping cart feature. If you search here in the forum you will find lots of useful information about e-commerce software. OSCommerce can be installed for free, for example, but needs changes to make it work decently. Others run on joomla (virtuemart, for example) and are easier to configure but also require some work.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks andviv! The shopping cart feature is one of the things I will need. That would at least allow them to purchase what I am selling.
So now we figured out how to get from my store to the owners new page. Now I need to go from the owners new page to the employees page. So I need a password feature that will allow them access to the educational material. I also need to set up a chat line between the employee pages and the "Boss's Page". That way they can set up online meetings. Any suggestions on these two features?

To make the site itself, has anyone used Go Daddy? And is the OSCommerce features usable there? I am still considering SBI.

By the way. In the short amount of time I have been here at this site it has been nothing but inspiration, positive attitudes, and best wishes. I wish I found this site a long time ago. Thank you all for your support. It's much appreciated.