Websites?

[Jim T]

I notice a lot of you knife makers have your own website. Eventually, I?d like to put one up myself. A couple of questions for you?.

Did you get someone to create your website or did you design it yourself?

For those of you did make your own website, is there a certain design program you could recommend?

I?m not at all literate when it comes to HTML or programming code and I?d rather not learn. I?ve heard Wordpress.org is pretty user-friendly, but I have no idea whether or not that?s true.

Any feedback or advice?

Jim T

[Ray Rogers]

Being able to maintain your own website is pretty much essential. If you can handle it yourself then you can have that knife that you just finished posted for sale on your website in 5 minutes. Any awards or testimonials or Gallery pages, etc that you want to set up can be done right now. If you have to pay some one else then it cost money and it can take a lot more time and maybe it won't be just how you'd like it.

I do have a considerable background as a computer programmer but I had never seen HTML code at the time I decided I needed a website. So, I paid a guy to make me a skeleton website - nothing there but a front page with some menu choices on it and some other pages with a few pictures of my knives and some descriptions. That's all. And, most important of all, I insisted that he write the code by hand - no MS Framework, no Wordpress or any other of those bloated so called development systems.

I had tried Framework and found it totally useless. It takes far more effort to learn how to use a system like that than it does to learn how to copy and paste a few HTML commands. If you look at my website you'll see a simple straight forward design that looks the way I want it to on any monitor or any computer. There are no pop-up menus or persistent frames sliding around or list boxes or ultra fancy graphics that you get when you hire a 'professional' to make your website. The problem with professional website builders, IMO, is that they feel obligated to use every trick they ever learned, all at one time, on every page of every website they build. That makes the website overly large, overly complex, and virtually impossible for you to change (especially if they used some type of web design software you don't know how to use) if you should ever decide you want to try. Even if you don't want to ever do the work yourself it can still be a huge problem for you when you need to change your support team. They can go out of business, maybe they had to get a real job, maybe they graduated from high school and no longer have time for you...whatever. Sooner or later you may have to switch horses and when you do the new guy is very possibly going to be buried in a huge pile of code generated by some system he doesn't use so now he suggests you need to re-write your website. Or, you find someone who DOES use that same system and he knows you're over a barrel...get ready to feel the love!

So, even though you may think you can't handle it you might want to consider getting a skeleton website done in hand written code (because it is microscopically small compared to a 'generated' website's code) and learning to modify it with Notepad so that it does whatever you want it to do. It really isn't hard and, if you can do it, you'll save a ton of money and your website will be able to change as your situation and needs require almost instantly AT NO COST TO YOU at all. Go look at my website to see what I'm talking about. It isn't fancy, it doesn't have all the most recent bells and whistles but it has sold every knife I've made over the last 12 years and isn't that the point?

[AUBE]

I use Macromedia Dreamweaver. It can do pretty much anything you could ever want to do with a website. It took me maybe a week to learn with no prior experience. There are forums to support it and many tutorials. You can either use html in it or a click and drag style (which I use, I don't know code). It can be daunting at first however.

I've actually thought about starting a small business designing websites/shopping carts for knifemakers since I have access to some inexpensive, talented local webdesigners but I think Ray is right that a maker is better off learning it themselves. Even if you get a basic site made you will probably want to do updates and most people would charge per update.

I also agree keeping it simple is better. Not only can it load faster, but some stuff that you add can actual create points of vulnerability where hackers can get in....and they are out there, we got hit by one 2yrs ago. Simple can also help you with search engine results. Text will show up in search engines, fancy Java menus won't.

I recommend using CSS (cascading style sheets). These make the basic theme of each page the same so if you want to change the background color, font size, etc one quick change will change it for every page on your website...saves a bunch of time.

[jdale]

It isn't the greatest web site ever but i made a functional free one at weebly.com. its a simple drag and drop program, with a good number of options.

[Ray Rogers]

Sites like Weebly seem like good choices at first because they are usually simple and usually free. At first. In the beginning, I used a website like that to provide my Guestbook. It was simple, it was free, and it worked well enough for the people who wanted to sign my Guestbook. Inevitably though, the spammers also signed my Guestbook...lots of them. Naturally, I could edit the Guestbook using the provider's tools and clean up the mess but it was horribly, horribly slow. And then, they went out of business - apparently offering services for free doesn't pay well. All the records of all the people who had signed my Guestbook were now gone *poof*.

So, I searched the web and found some free Guestbook code that I could put on my website and I had total control. I admit, this is not a trivial thing and maybe you wouldn't be interested or able to do something like that yourself. But, my point is, those free website places usually have disadvantages like pasting advertisements on your web pages, they can decide at any time to start charging for their services, or they can just disappear. I suppose whether or not you choose to try to run your knife business that way depends on how serious you feel you need to be about your website as part of your business. As a hobby, maybe no big deal but if it's business and your clients suddenly see your web presence disappear what will they be thinking about your reliability?

If it's part of your business find a way to have full control over it....

[dallas1]

i use webs it has a guest book but i don't recommend using a guest book it just opens you up to nut jobs posting bad stuff on your site.

[rockhound]

You could also try GoDaddy.
They will host your site for $3 per month and pretty easy software from what I've heard.
http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting-new2.aspx

[Ray Rogers]

Dallas,

That free web based guest book I used DID open me up to all kinds of spammers, my point exactly. But then, I got my own guest book code and put it on my own website. Spammers tried to get to that too but it was easy for me to remove whatever they put in. Over time, I modified the code in my Guestbook to prevent certain types of things and now very, very few spammers get through and those that do are rarely on the book for more than a day. Guestbooks can be a problem, anything that allows the public to input data into your website is potentially a problem but if YOU (not some contractor) have control of your website then spammers are much less of a problem.

Rockhound,

Have you tried GoDaddy's website building process or know of anyone who did? I haven't, but it might be a reasonable way to get a simple website especially for those who aren't comfortable with any type of coding. I still think handling your own coding has a lot of advantages for those who can do it but, even in it's simplest form, there are some who wouldn't want to try it ...

[dallas1]

Ray i agree running the web site your self is the only way to go. Like said before you can upload what ever you want when you want. Relying on some one else is a pain in the butt.

[rockhound]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

Rockhound,

Have you tried GoDaddy's website building process or know of anyone who did? I haven't, but it might be a reasonable way to get a simple website especially for those who aren't comfortable with any type of coding..

Hi Ray,
I have not tried GoDaddy but they are reputable (Danica... va-va-vooooom). A good friend of mine started a site for himself and another one for his young daughter. He said that it was very easy... but he didn't set them up for "sales". I've never tried to set up a website but will probably try the Daddy when I do. Looks feature-rich and my friend said that their design software was really easy navigate.

[Ray Rogers]

I trust GoDaddy well enough. I have some email accounts and one of my domains is registered through them but I never tried their website builder. I will say that when I have tried to do account maintenance on my domain and emails it can be very slow as they tend to bombard you with 'opportunities' to acquire new services. If you don't have a very high speed connection (I don't) this can get to be a significant burden....

[AUBE]

Even with a high speed connection Godaddy tends to be very slow. I've had several domains and a monthly hosting service through them for about 5yrs and the individual sites load very fast but for some reason their main site, godaddy.com, loads very slow. In 5yrs I;ve only had 2 problems...a day when most of their hosted sites were down off and on, and another time they upgraded their software without giving notice and it made our shopping cart not function. Other than that they've been fine.

I have never tried their website building software but I did try their shopping cart software and found it lacking. They may have changed it by now, its been about 3yrs since I tried it, but there are other options out there...some of which are even free, like Zencart, which is what we use for our shopping cart. Of course shopping carts aren't essential, especially if you are only making a few pieces a month.