Whats that techy site called?

[Systreg]

Quick question, what's that techy site called where you can place an order for a website to be made, and all different programmers/designers then place a bid to make the site for you?

 

[atlas]

Lots of them around - some are vWorker.com, eLance.com, oDesk.

 

[Systreg]

eLance.com

That's the one I was thinking off, just couldn't remember it, cheers.

[edit]

Hmmm, ok, I'd like to post a job on there to get an idea of price, but I don't really understand the techy details stuff they are asking me to input details on, ffs

 

[Edwin]

Unfortunately, if you can't "spec" a website at all, it's going to be hard for any web developer to work to build it. Perhaps you could try hiring a VA (virtual assistant) first, and get him/her to work with you to try and define what it is you want developed, and then get them to help you to write it in a way that is eLance-friendly...

 

[davedevelopment]

Try making some wireframes, that should be a good start. I use Balsamiq Mockups, which is paid, but there are some free ones, check out Pencil and some more free ones here: http://speckyboy.com/2010/01/11/10-completely-free-wireframe-and-mockup-applications/

 

[Systreg]

Unfortunately, if you can't "spec" a website at all, it's going to be hard for any web developer to work to build it.

I was hoping it was going to be a simple case of giving a url to another site, and tell them I want a site that does all the same stuff that the example site does etc

Try making some wireframes

Had a look at that Balsamiq site, looks way to complicated for me, maybe I'll have another look at it later, not awake yet as just got out of a bed a short while ago.

 

[Systreg]

Just went through all the sign up process and wrote my job add on elance, and at the bottom of the registration screen, you have to pay $10 to register, I know it's only $10, but I don't agree with paying fees for joining any site, so wont be using them now.

[edit]

Why is the internet so bloody complicated, all I want is a site where I can post and ask for a site to be made that looks like a mix of 2 other site examples I would give, without having to give details of what the site needs to be made with, and choose from hundreds of different programming skills that the average person has never heard of.

 

[davedevelopment]

...choose from hundreds of different programming skills that the average person has never heard of.

If you didn't specify those kind of requirements on elance.com, you'd get one of two things, no offers or thousands of them I reckon. If you want, PM me and I'll give you some pointers from the Software side of things.

 

[Systreg]

If you want, PM me and I'll give you some pointers from the Software side of things.

Thanks Dave but it would be time wasted on me mate, I don't know what the workings of software is, stuff like that I just blank completely.

I had a PM saying someone on an elance type site wanted £300 just to set up basic WP for someone, what a rip off, also had another PM asking what I was looking for and they would have a look and give me a price.

I replied saying it's probably not worth it after reading about the £300 wanted for WP set up, anyway, showed them the 2 bike sites I wanted a site to look like and have the functionality of, and said my budget on elance would have been $500 - $1000, but as someone wanted £300 just for a basic WP, then my budget would be nowhere near enough.

I blame people on forums for saying it's east making sites with all the 1 click install stuff, if that's the case, why is everything so expensive to make

 

[seanc]

and you'll get a lot of replys from indians that cant design for toffee.

i use scriptlance.com and another, i forget.. peoplebythehour.com or somthing.



maybe post your requirements on here and see what the response is?

 

[illtemper]

Try http://www.freelancer.co.uk/

 

[bougatsa]

Should be able to get a Wordpress Theme developed for around £100

...if you ask for it the right way

I've had quite a few sites developed over at eLance and definitely would recommend it. HUGE marketplace with the most developers bidding.

If it's Wordpress you want to use and the main aspect of the job is making it look like other sites then just spec the site very very simply. Title it something like this

SIMPLE WORDPRESS THEME

The bids will drop dramatically! In your description you can mention the 2 sites you want to emulate

PM me if you want to see a template spec

 

[Systreg]

Thought I would give Joomla a try to see if it's any better than WP, so installed it and though it looked easier as control panel seemed a lot clearer, but it was only version 1.0 and there aren't many free themes for that and it's no longer supported by Joomla, so I was getting the hump with that as it's all Joomla 1.5 now, so went to uninstall it and spotted 1.5 version right next to the old Joomla version I had installed, no idea how I didn't see that before, so that was another wasted day of messing about and looking for old themes for 1.0.

So, I installed 1.5 yesterday, but after messing about with it all night again trying to get a nice theme, and then trying to figure the damn thing out, it's just as bad as WP, I went to make a new post, but no, it wont allow that, says you needs to set something else first, what a fkin palaver, so now that's uninstalled as well, why can't someone make something where you don't have to set multiple different things before you can make a simple damn post, bloody ridiculous. How hard is it to have some system like on a forum where I type where I'm typing now, hit submit and my post appears on the site?

I'm now in the mood where I honestly can't be bothered to make any more sites even in html or carry on with sites I've recently made, really pulling my hair out, was literally shouting my head off at the computer earlier, upsetting family and scaring the cats, not good, I'm really not suited to making sites

 

[jwm]

How hard is it to have some system like on a forum where I type where I'm typing now, hit submit and my post appears on the site?

To be honest Kev, that is exactly what you do with wordpress. Not sure why you had issues with it before. Although I did see you were trying to make chnages to layout etc.

I would suggest installing WP on a domain you aren't worried about and then just play around with adding a new post or a new page etc. Add an image into a post etc

Don't worry about formatting, just use the template it comes with. Once you get the hang of it then you can eiher start trying to format it yourself or pay someone to do it for you.

Not sure if you have seen this thread, http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/website-reviews/79970-laptopcomputers-review.html, that is a wordpress site. Russ admits to being completely non techy (as am I !!) so got a website developer to build the layout for him. Some useful info in there plus a mention of what look like a decent developer

 

[Systreg]

To be honest Kev, that is exactly what you do with wordpress. Not sure why you had issues with it before.

It's just that none of it makes any sense to me, so many things to do on there to get the slightest thing working, same with Joomla, after having only ever used basic html, it's just far too technical for me, I never know where I am with it or what I'm supposed to be doing in whatever part of the control panel, and by the time I've done several other things to get something working, I can't remember each section of the setup I went to to replicate what I did before.

There may of course be things I am not doing correctly in the settings parts of the control panel, because I don't know what a lot of the actual settings mean, so I'm just ticking or unticking loads of boxes without actually knowing what they all mean, just guessing a lot of the time in the hope something works.

Another thing I don't understand is, in html, if I want an "about us" page, it's simple, I make a link to that page and then make a page with the same url, but in WP/Joomla, I don't understand it as I'm not making the actual page and not sure how to get something on a page or how to make a link to it, it's very complicated, long winded and frustrating.

I would suggest installing WP on a domain you aren't worried about and then just play around with adding a new post or a new page etc. Add an image into a post etc

Yes, but then that leaves another problem, even if I could figure out how to use it, I then have a test site that i can't use, as I would want it on another domain, so would have to delete it and start from scratch again on the non test domain name.

Not sure if you have seen this thread, http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/website-reviews/79970-laptopcomputers-review.html, that is a wordpress site. Russ admits to being completely non techy (as am I !!).....

Yes, saw that topic, great looking site, but even if someone set it up for me, I will still be completely lost as to how to actually use it as I'm baffled by the internal working of postings, categories, sections, subsections and all else.

[edit]

I did actually use WP once more, not to use Wp itself, just so I could try and get a WP plugin for use as a classifieds page, which I could link to from the narrowboats site and back to it, but it looks a mess really DELETED SO IT DOESNT INDEX but even on the narrowboats for sale page, the icons are all over the place add text etc, crap.

 

[Edwin]

Use Wordpress.com and then pay to have the ads removed and be able to use your own domain name with them. Problem solved.

 

[Systreg]

Use Wordpress.com and then pay to have the ads removed and be able to use your own domain name with them. Problem solved.

@ Edwin, I'm not sure how using that site is going to solve my problem, it's still WP and they're blogs.

Just had a look at that site, and it says "over 100 gorgeous themes", have you seen what they look like, seen the 5 examples on that page, and they all look like standard blogs, and I hate blogs, they all look the same, I don't want a blog

I was going through this site yesterday: http://www.freejoomlatemplatez.com/index.php?start=1416 Got up to page 178 of those themes before I'd had enough this morning, and of the 1400 I've looked at so far, only download 4 of them that I would possibly like to use, so having a meagre choice of the 100 themes on that WP site link wont get me anything I like.

 

[GreyWing]

Kev,

Get bloody Joomla back installed asap, Once you know how to use it, it's all very simple.

If you need any advice then give me a shout, avoid.co.uk quickloans.co.uk boselection.co.uk all running joomla and up and working in less than 3 hours.

What template is it you wanted to use, I have loads on here that you can have. I have loads of apps that make things much easier to use on joomla.

I tried Wordpress the other day, couldn't makwe heads nor tales of it.

 

[Tricky1]

@ Edwin, I'm not sure how using that site is going to solve my problem, it's still WP and they're blogs.
they all look like standard blogs, and I hate blogs, they all look the same, I don't want a blog

Kev, if you start with a basic WP theme you can turn it into anything you want if you know your html/css which I know you have a grasp off, your site doesn't have to look anything like a blog.

I'm happy to put WP on an unused domain of mine with a basic template so you play around with it and I'll help you as much as you want.

I think if I went through it with you for half an hour you will see the light

 

[Systreg]

Once you know how to use it, it's all very simple.

Stop telling lies, it's not easy, it's only easy if you're 15 and have been using computer since you were 7 lol

What template is it you wanted to use

This theme is one I just stuck back on to show you:

DELETED SO IT DOESN'T INDEX

There was another one I like, but some of the control panel instructions are in German language (donwloaded from a .de site), so even harder to understand than something that I don't know how to use even in English haha

I tried with that above theme earlier today, you can edit the posts that are already there on the page, but that leaves the date as what it originally was in 2007. So I went through deleting loads of stuff and then the site was bare, but with all the headings above the links titled, Resources, Key Concepts etc still showing, thought I had deleted all those but not sure as they were still all there and couldn't see any way to delete or edit them after that, that's when I got the hump and deleted it all again.

Kev, if you start with a basic WP theme you can turn it into anything you want if you know your html/css which I know you have a grasp off

Although I know a bit of html, I don't know a lot, I know what the general tags and stuff are, and as far as css goes, if I want to change the colour of something on a html page, I have to go through the css file changing one colour code at a time to find out what changes colour on the page when I refresh it, and if it's one of those long css files with many hundreds or thousands of lines, it takes some time

I'm happy to put WP on an unused domain of mine with a basic template so you play around with it and I'll help you as much as you want.

I think if I went through it with you for half an hour you will see the light

Possibly, but would still find it hard to do via messenger as I can feel myself getting wound up already just thinking about it, and in my mind I'm hitting the uninstall button already. I'm not looking for help in actually working on a site as such, just feeling the need to vent a bit out of sheer frustration.

I've been told that you can actually download a Joomla theme and work on it on your computer without having to upload it to a host, then upload it once you have it looking the way you want it.

I just went to see how that works, I have the zip file in my folders section on the computer, clicked it and then get another folder, open that and there are files including an index.html file, I opened it that using Opera browser, but it just shows a blank page, how do I work on a site on my computer, that would be handy to know?

Plus with being able to try working it out on my computer, I won't have the messed up test site being indexed, which would be a pain.