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Also, is it necessary to hire a web designer for this?

The website would have a data base of real estate listings. There would be a fair amount of graphics and I would like to use Flash if possible because it looks really good. I realize that my question is a little clueless; I’m not a techie. I appreciate your patience and advice!

You can count on that kind of site costing a quite a bit of money to do the right way. When it comes to things like this, you can have two out of these three: Done cheap, Completed quickly, High quality.

A high quality site that is done quickly will cost an arm and a leg. A cheap high quality one may be in development for the next two years, and a cheap, quick one will fall apart and make your visitors go to your competitor.

Hiring a designer is a necessity. As well as hiring a developer. The two are very different, but you can usually find a firm that employs both.

Think of it as building a house…web designer –> interior designer. web developer –> architect

Neither could do the other’s job, and you wouldn’t want them to try.

On average though, a comprehensive database-interactive site can cost between 8k and 10k USD. That is really the low end, though. It can be very expensive to get a site going.

Oh and I’d recommend avoiding flash, it is an accessibility nightmare…meaning that if your visitors don’t have it, they don’t see your content. Look to the big-time sites and see how much Flash they use…sites like Google and Yahoo. YouTube gets away with it solely because there is no alternative…the rest though…anyone who can avoid it will.

what website, magazine, paper, etc? thank you!

yellowbook.com of course,

I’m 16yrs old and I have been designing web pages for 9 years and I want to start a company and make some money can someone right down all the steps of how to start one?

Wow, you have been designing webpages since you were 7??? That’s interesting. Well, take some of the websites that you’ve designed, make a portfolio, build your own business website, advsertise and voila! you own a web design company. You may also find it advantageous to incorporate. Business will come when you treat clients well and do good work.

I want to start an E-Commerce online trading website and would like to choose a good hosting and web design co to start with, saw ProStores and Ipowerweb, not sure whether these are the best and cheapest, and any one tried before, what’s the experience?

For hosting I use:
http://secure.hostgator.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=jbrink

I tried a lot and they have all the features I need.

I have heard a lot of bad feedback about prostores and I think it’s a bit high if they are charging a monthly fee AND a percent of your sales.

Lots of web hosting companies come with ecommerce programs that can be installed with 1 click and managed through a web browser.

Good Luck!
http://secure.hostgator.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=jbrink

I am guessing that companies such as Google and Yahoo! have their own internet web development divisions, but what about other companies? Websites like gap.com and a slew of other companies which have very impressive websites - who did the web design for these?

There are actuallly 3 main areas of business: Web Designing, Web Developing, and Web Maintaining.

Depending on the business requirement, if they also operates their business through the internet (eg. sells products online), then most MNCs or big companies will have an in-house team to oversees their company website cos’ business needs to be running 24 hours 7 days.

If it is only for informational purposes, most companies, regardless if it is big or small, will prefer to outsource that to a design firm. Package usually comes with the 3 main areas, prices differ depending on the level of design and technical involved. Sometimes, web maintainance will come under another company. There are some local firms who will hire just a web designer to design and maintain their website.

Search engines like Goggle and Yahoo are based in US, including their teams. Local offices work via their in-house structure for daily updating.

You can actually see which company is maintaining an organisation’s website at the bottom of the web page.

I am looking for an inexpensive website designer in the phoenix area (phoenix, tempe, chandler, mesa, scottsdale, etc). Can anybody personally refer me to a good one?

I know a company that does web design and I think the prices are affordable especially for small businesses. I don’t think the company is located in Phoenix but the prices are reasonable. Check them out or send them an email.

http://www.ecom-catalyst.com

Hi, I am a web developer, of course I know some rather helpful plud-ins, but would like to know more. Thank you.

Hi, I should advice you to learn about the following Firefox plug ins.
1. Flash Switcher - it enables you to choose between different versions of flash so you can be sure your code is compatible with all existing versions of Flash.
2. Firebug

Firebug allows you to edit CSS and HTML and any browser side code from within the browser. It’s a great tool to figure out why your web pages are loading slowly, what JavaScript code is slowing things down, and editing pages within the browser environment.

3. Live HTTP Headers

Live HTTP headers plug-in shows you the dialog that happens between the web server and your browser. It helps to figure out why things aren’t redirecting or why search engines aren’t properly indexing your content.

4. FireShot

Have you ever wanted to send screenshots to clients or take an image off a page and use it in a mockup? FireShot lets you take screenshots of entire pages, selected areas, or the current window and export it to an imaging program. It is great for client meetings, quick mockups and portfolio pages.

5. Tamper Data

This plug-in lets you modify GET and POST parameters on any page. Use it to test form processing code, diagnose bugs and test for security issues. Its only issue is that it won’t work in tandem with Google’s web accelerator.

6. Load Time Analyzer

Load Time Analyzer enables you to see how long your web page takes to load for different speeds. It is especially useful for web development specialists whose audience may still be using dialup.

7. MeasureIt

Do you need to create a new graphic but don’t know what size or perhaps do you need to know the exact dimensions of a piece of web page? MeasureIt adds a ruler which lets you measure vertically and horizontally.

8. ColorZilla

It lets you get the RGB colors of any element on a pageusing a drop tool similarly to Photoshop. Great when you need to design new graphics on an existing project.

9. Link Checker

Line Checker is used for checking which links aren’t loading properly or go 404 from any given page.

10. Web Developer

Its features include: view the CSS property or parent class of any element on a page with a simple click, find broken images, view any form field and much more. You can clear cookies, run a DOM editor, and use all other functions from one simple menu. Once you start using it in web development, you will never figure out how you lived without it!

I’ve been searching for weeks for a super easy site builder. I have a host and domain already but have not found any site builder (I have no experience with html and all functions of web design). But I need someone to help me get a site builder or show me techniques to get a website thats easy to build.

****It must let me add videos, polls, blogs and etc.****

Please web designers help me out with this……if possible email me personally about what to do.

Thanks

Please try GooglePages. They tell you what to do, as long as you try to understand well all the instructions, I guess you can do it yourself.

For mini- sites, you may try Multiply. No need for web designers. They have an array of skins/ design, etc. and you can post your polls, revies, videos, blogs… all for free.

Were is the best place to being looking for a programmer ? I cant find anyone on the freelance sites, is there any other way I can find one? Thanks

Well there’s lots of options.

Craigslist is a nice free one. Just post the available project or job opening you have.

I got a few sites developed from companies I found on this website. You post your project and many companies will bid on the project.
http://www.elance.com

Also a google search for Programming [Insert your City / State] will bring up local programming companies, which is always a good route.

I’m also in the middle of working on a large project with a company out of Indiana, let me know if you would like to contact them. I’ve been impressed with their results and professionalism so far.

Be careful of outsourcing though. Although it’s cheaper, the language barrier can become a huge stress on timelines and productivity.

My email is available through my profile. Good Luck.!

I design websites for musicians. I have a DEMO site that showcases all the features in my musician websites. One of the features is an integrated site-wide MP3 player. Can I use music registered under a Creative Commons license on this integrated MP3 player? This would be for DEMO purposes. I won’t be selling the music just using it to demo how the player works. I will be selling my web design services and packages. Please advice me. Thanks.

It depends on the specific terms of the Creative Commons license — the terms vary, and some allow what you are asking about, and some do not.