Hi, i'm sick and tired of waiting for my current web designers to implement the changes i have asked from them,

and i had the same problems with my previous designers. I'm now 4 years into a project and spent over £50,000 trying

to get this off the ground and it's now do or die. I do actually have a working website but i need to make more changes to it and it's only attracting around 300 visitors per day so i only receiving 1 order per day on average. This is not acceptable.

 

My question is : i have some knowledge of HTML, dreamweaver, shall i start learning myself ?

 

What about SEO, graphic design, database programming, PPC campaigns ? Do i learn these also ?

 

I don't have more money to put into this project but i do have time, any professional advice would be great, and also

where do i start ? it's a minefield.

 

 

Thanks

 

Paul

With limited knowledge of HTML and using a wysiwyg editor, you're likely to do more harm than good! Can you not change your web designers?

Agree with shubox. Your best bet and probably quickest way of resolving your issues would be to source another web designer who can work with what you've got.

 

Whilst I have no idea what your market place is, a ratio of 300 visitors to 1 order does sound very low.

you have to look at it like this, if this is your laptop site why are the 300 people that go to the site not choosing to shop on your site? Are your prices lower than competition such as pcworld, currys, savastore, comet, amazon? Do you offer good insentives to buy from you rather than one of these other online stores. The problem with online shopping is that there are so many shops out there, but if you are only making one sale out of 300 visitors I would say that there is something wrong somewhere...it could be the design, it could be the price, it could be the way the site is navigated around, it could be that your designers aren't updating your site. The reason to ask this question is because why would 300 people go on a site that sells laptops if they are not looking at laptops...and why don't they come back to you when they have decided which laptop they want?

 

As for doing it yourself, you would need a lot of knowledge to do the entire site yourself, if it is just to add new products then surely an e-commerce site would have a backend to upload the to the site. I am sorry to hear the two design companies that you have used are no good at what they do, but to do something such as an ecommerce site you will need a lot more than being able to use dreamweaver and a little knowledge in html...it would take a hell of a lot of work to get to a standard where you won't just mess up the site, but if you are up for the challenge then good luck, but don't expect to be able to fix this within a couple of months as I have said you have a lot to learn if you decide to do it yourself

Totally random suggestion. Try running a competition for a beginning web design/developing company. Post on a few forums that you would like to give a new website company the opportunity to build your website and add your website to their professional portfolio to get further clients. Hey and even add an advert on your website for thei company?

 

You can state all the things you want the site to do, and ask them to put a demo site up on a free server like geocities or any other free server space. And then you can have a look at what they've done.

 

This way I'm hoping you'll be able to actually see whether the company does it's job properly.

 

Perhaps also if you happen to pay a new company money to do the website, don't pay them until you're satisfied. If go to enough companies one company is bound to agree to those terms. You sign a contract stating that only on completion will the full amount be paid out.

 

It is a bummer though that you've paid that much. I would personally also rather learn to do it myself! Actually that IS why I do it myself

 

If you really have the patience to master it use this as a refference: http://www.w3schools.com/

Totally random suggestion. Try running a competition for a beginning web design/developing company.

 

*bites tongue hard*

I think a competition is a bad route. You need a new reliable web designer who understands your problems and knows usability like the back of their hand.

I think a competition is a bad route. You need a new reliable web designer who understands your problems and knows usability like the back of their hand.

 

 

I agree a competition is a really bad idea, and will lead to more wasted time. This is because the majority of people who will do this type of spec work won't have the experience needed in building and maintaining a full e-commerce site, so it would more than likely lead to another designer added to the list of those you find useless.

plus it's rather self defeating for the web design community and undermines it as a profession....

ahem.

Ok... bad idea!

 

Well...

 

*retreats silently*

 

Ah well, good luck Paul, seems like you'll have to just keep spending money to make money.

Ah well, good luck Paul, seems like you'll have to just keep spending money to make money.

 

This simply wont do. The man is posting to a web design forum. Are there no web designers here who can help him?

 

I could help, but not immediately as I am working with three clients at the moment.

@PDM - can you post a bit more information about the site - what it's aims are, what it does etc. At the moment no-one really knows what we're dealing with.

4 years is a long time to procrastinate. Why haven't you moved on or sourced reliable PROFESSIONAL designers who can complete your budget on time and within budget?

 

Also remember a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. eCommerce sites are technical and best left to professionals.

 

And also know that the tools don't makeuth the man, Dreamweaver is merely an editor...left to design/code "for you" isn't wise. It's not what you know but how you implement what you know.

Well if its an offer you're looking for, myself and my coding partner currently have some free time so if you'd like discuss this further with me, you can reach me on REMOVED EMAIL ADDRESS

Edited December 3, 201312 yr by MolotovRuss

hi,

 

you have to promot your web company with SEO on the net. so u will find more traffic.

 

and its better if u learn. though u can change ur designers.

 

here is the perfect solution for your query.

 

There are two types of seo

 

on page and

off page

 

on page seo - you concern with keywords, discription , titles whereas

 

off page seo - you will do link building , artilcle submission , blogging , social bookmarking, press releases and lot more.............

Not sure if you have or not buy why not stick a post up here I'm sure there is someone willing to help you out

I would definately reccomend that you find another design company, ditch these jokers before they waste even more of your money. I would also let them no exactly how you feel and how appaling their service has been.

PDM, can you please let us have the URL so we can have a look? Might be able to give you some quick pointers.