Website advice for a new business
Discussion
I’m in the process of setting up a small online business. It’s more a side project for now but I can see many other potential income streams coming from it should the core idea be a success.
However i’m struggling to identify the right website option having looked at wix, wordpress, godaddy etc. I work in IT but have no knowledge of how to code etc.
Essentially i’m looking for something akin to a talent/modelling agency where users can find the people they need using various search and filter criteria as you would a product led shop, but the product is people. I’ve thought about using a shop template but then they invariably come with basket/add to cart type functions which would just clutter the site nor have any functional use thus look pretty shoddy.
Long term i’d also like the talent to be able to upload themselves and manage their info.
I also want users to be able to provide reviews of said talent.
So its almost like a mix of a estate agency website + shop.
What I want sounds like I need a proper website building but at this stage it doesnt justify the cost, should it have legs im more than happy to rebuild for my specific requirements.
Any tips on what might work?
However i’m struggling to identify the right website option having looked at wix, wordpress, godaddy etc. I work in IT but have no knowledge of how to code etc.
Essentially i’m looking for something akin to a talent/modelling agency where users can find the people they need using various search and filter criteria as you would a product led shop, but the product is people. I’ve thought about using a shop template but then they invariably come with basket/add to cart type functions which would just clutter the site nor have any functional use thus look pretty shoddy.
Long term i’d also like the talent to be able to upload themselves and manage their info.
I also want users to be able to provide reviews of said talent.
So its almost like a mix of a estate agency website + shop.
What I want sounds like I need a proper website building but at this stage it doesnt justify the cost, should it have legs im more than happy to rebuild for my specific requirements.
Any tips on what might work?
Yea Wordpress would be best for this - there's a theme called "MyListing Theme" which could do what you're after.
With "Elementor" as well it's easy to design and create sites in Wordpress these days, but be mindful of not adding too many / random plugins and keep them updated regularly
With "Elementor" as well it's easy to design and create sites in Wordpress these days, but be mindful of not adding too many / random plugins and keep them updated regularly
Yes Wordpress with a little custom coding will do the job admirably. I designed a website based on Wordpress that is very similar to this where you don’t have a product or buy it now etc buttons as such but, It offers information on an entity. In you case it will be a person and their experience/education/specialisations etc. If you want some pointers just fire away
Cheers
Sam
Cheers
Sam
Really appreciate the tips so far.
Yeah i’d done some high level research on providers, had a quick delve into wix but didn’t seem to quite hit the spot although looks extremely easy if you just wanted to set up a quick shop etc!
Will go down into the wordpress rabbit hole then haha… will be watching some beginners guides/tutorials on youtube before I just jump in to get a feel for it.
Yeah i’d done some high level research on providers, had a quick delve into wix but didn’t seem to quite hit the spot although looks extremely easy if you just wanted to set up a quick shop etc!
Will go down into the wordpress rabbit hole then haha… will be watching some beginners guides/tutorials on youtube before I just jump in to get a feel for it.
be cautious, if wordpress is not the final technology, think carefully about how you will transition if you eventually find it has legs and needs something bespoke…
wordpress is very popular because you don't need technical skills to get it up and running so it can be a very quick and cheap solution, but long term it is unlikely to be a happy solution, the more you push it to do something outside blogging and simple content production, the more complex and fragile it becomes… it is not a robust bespoke business solution…
if you have confidence that the business will take off it may be better to do initial stages in a technology which will expand and grow with you, otherwise be prepared to restart when you do make the decision that you are in for the long term…
what you should avoid is a quick cheap solution for now and then continually tweaking it so you continue to go down the route of an increasingly customised wordpress installation, making it harder and harder to ever change, but equally hard to keep it working!
wordpress is very popular because you don't need technical skills to get it up and running so it can be a very quick and cheap solution, but long term it is unlikely to be a happy solution, the more you push it to do something outside blogging and simple content production, the more complex and fragile it becomes… it is not a robust bespoke business solution…
if you have confidence that the business will take off it may be better to do initial stages in a technology which will expand and grow with you, otherwise be prepared to restart when you do make the decision that you are in for the long term…
what you should avoid is a quick cheap solution for now and then continually tweaking it so you continue to go down the route of an increasingly customised wordpress installation, making it harder and harder to ever change, but equally hard to keep it working!
akirk said:
be cautious, if wordpress is not the final technology, think carefully about how you will transition if you eventually find it has legs and needs something bespoke…
wordpress is very popular because you don't need technical skills to get it up and running so it can be a very quick and cheap solution, but long term it is unlikely to be a happy solution, the more you push it to do something outside blogging and simple content production, the more complex and fragile it becomes… it is not a robust bespoke business solution…
if you have confidence that the business will take off it may be better to do initial stages in a technology which will expand and grow with you, otherwise be prepared to restart when you do make the decision that you are in for the long term…
what you should avoid is a quick cheap solution for now and then continually tweaking it so you continue to go down the route of an increasingly customised wordpress installation, making it harder and harder to ever change, but equally hard to keep it working!
Yep fully appreciate that. At this point I guess its try get an MMP see if it has legs, after which then i’m more than happy to pay for a build of some kind, however having seen how much internal IT dev costs at my work it scares me how much it may now cost for a decent website by a 3rd party haha.wordpress is very popular because you don't need technical skills to get it up and running so it can be a very quick and cheap solution, but long term it is unlikely to be a happy solution, the more you push it to do something outside blogging and simple content production, the more complex and fragile it becomes… it is not a robust bespoke business solution…
if you have confidence that the business will take off it may be better to do initial stages in a technology which will expand and grow with you, otherwise be prepared to restart when you do make the decision that you are in for the long term…
what you should avoid is a quick cheap solution for now and then continually tweaking it so you continue to go down the route of an increasingly customised wordpress installation, making it harder and harder to ever change, but equally hard to keep it working!
So at the moment wordpress seems to fit, a bespoke would definitely give me everything I need but at this stage a ~£100 start up and my time makes more sense than ~£10k (or even more, I have no idea). I don’t have coding skills to bridge the gap and build it myself either.
Out of interest, what technologies could be the way to build it in? I’ve always wanted to learn to code but at this point just not sure I want to go down that route.
If you are building a business don’t get distracted by learning to code!
What technologies - varies but Wordpress is built on php / MySQL / JavaScript etc and they are the core technologies that power much of the internet, asp etc tends to be more corporate… there are now many ways of deploying that using frameworks and everyone will have their favourite but a lot is still done in those code technologies
What technologies - varies but Wordpress is built on php / MySQL / JavaScript etc and they are the core technologies that power much of the internet, asp etc tends to be more corporate… there are now many ways of deploying that using frameworks and everyone will have their favourite but a lot is still done in those code technologies
WordPress + Divi from elegant themes
Its a great base for getting started and has some pretty decent pre made layouts out of the box. It also plays well with most plugins, weve run it on 100s of mirco sites and use to protoype the more complex sites as a live wireframe.
hosting I would recommend 20i, I've had 250+ sites running on their reseller hosting over the past four years with no hassle.
Its a great base for getting started and has some pretty decent pre made layouts out of the box. It also plays well with most plugins, weve run it on 100s of mirco sites and use to protoype the more complex sites as a live wireframe.
hosting I would recommend 20i, I've had 250+ sites running on their reseller hosting over the past four years with no hassle.
If you want to drop me a email. I would happily spend a little time chatting about your project.
I greatly respect akirk. He is a knowledgable guy but he is not keen on Wordpress website creations and prefers Shopify and I respect and understand his views. I have current experience in both platforms but in honesty sway more towards Wordpress as my go to solution
Coding Wordpress can be learnt fairly quickly. Coding Wordpress for stability and functionality takes much longer to grasp. Using trusted plugins ensures a stable well functioning website.
I greatly respect akirk. He is a knowledgable guy but he is not keen on Wordpress website creations and prefers Shopify and I respect and understand his views. I have current experience in both platforms but in honesty sway more towards Wordpress as my go to solution
Coding Wordpress can be learnt fairly quickly. Coding Wordpress for stability and functionality takes much longer to grasp. Using trusted plugins ensures a stable well functioning website.
Redarress said:
If you want to drop me a email. I would happily spend a little time chatting about your project.
I greatly respect akirk. He is a knowledgable guy but he is not keen on Wordpress website creations and prefers Shopify and I respect and understand his views. I have current experience in both platforms but in honesty sway more towards Wordpress as my go to solution
Coding Wordpress can be learnt fairly quickly. Coding Wordpress for stability and functionality takes much longer to grasp. Using trusted plugins ensures a stable well functioning website.
thank you for the kind words…I greatly respect akirk. He is a knowledgable guy but he is not keen on Wordpress website creations and prefers Shopify and I respect and understand his views. I have current experience in both platforms but in honesty sway more towards Wordpress as my go to solution
Coding Wordpress can be learnt fairly quickly. Coding Wordpress for stability and functionality takes much longer to grasp. Using trusted plugins ensures a stable well functioning website.
not sure that I see shopify and wordpress as comparable, and certainly shopify wouldnt be right for this, but there is a lot of support for wordpress on PH sometimes (not Redarress!) from those who dangerously only know a little. It has its uses, but I am yet to see a commercially run stable wordpress website and we spend a lot of time rescuing clients from badly constructed sites in wordpress…
the caution here is more that if the final solution may need to be bespoke, going down a wordpress tunnel could end up costing more, but a brief mvp approach, sure it can work for that
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