website design job, is wordpress acceptable?

14 years ago

Depending on your client's requirements WordPress would be a very good solution.

I'm doing a bunch of sites for customers at the moment where they want ease of updating, integrated blog, calendar etc - and WordPress is the perfect answer.

They're as happy as Larry.

Cheers,

Martin.

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lithium

14 years ago

Originally Posted by reillymary56

Hello all,

I have been asked to create a website for a small business and I was wondering if wordpress is considered to be an acceptable solution these days.

The last time I created a site for someone was years ago and it was using joomla, the time before that I had to write the cms in coldfusion and it took a long time.

With wordpress I would really only have to design the theme, the backend would look after itself. What I am wondering is, in the world of web designers, would a paying client pay for a wordpress powered website, or would they feel a bit cheated?

I am not fully up to speed with wordpress themes but I have started researching the process and from what I have read so far I shouldn't have any problems with the php or css.

I know a lot of people on here use wordpress, I have started to as well, I am just looking for a few opinions.

I know web designers are notoriously private about how much they charge but would anyone have an idea of the going rate in the UK? Would probably be talking about 8 static pages, each their own category, with multiple sub pages off each of these. I imagine they would then use posts to keep the site updated with all the relevant information.

There has also been talk of some seo.

I will do all the photoshop and illustrator work also.

Thanks

I design almost exclusively in wordpress...Although my clients do not usually need very advanced functionality I have not come across a situation I could not cover with wordpress.

I also find that wordpress backend is easy for clients to learn if you are eventually handing the site over for them to manage.

Wordpress is also very good for seo!

Thanks

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inspiro

14 years ago

Wordpress is very versatile and powerful -- you can also customize it to the point that it no longer looks like a blog. Your client would be paying for the custom design and integration into Wordpress, which goes for a lot these days.

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bgmacaw 14 years ago

Two questions to ask.

Is there an advantage to using WordPress?

Are the specs compatible with WordPress?

I'm currently doing contract work on a WP project for a corporate client where they were sold WP as the 'solution' by the advertising/graphic arts company I working with. However, the actual correct answer would have been a semi-static PHP or ASP.NET site. They only have about 10 pages, they won't be updating content themselves and have requirements that virtually require coding a separate full page (header, body, sidebar, footer) for each one. Doing the site in WordPress is like hammering a nail with a power saw.
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Julien Duc

14 years ago

Just make sure you tell your client(s) about WordPress first. Too many think that it's just a blog platform (like Blogger or Tumblr), but it's actually much more than that. WordPress is a very powerful tool and makes it easy for everyone (designers, programmers and end users), so your client(s) and you should definitely consider this solution. But then it depends on their requirements too...

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Linux

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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reillymary56 14 years ago

Thanks for all the information.

What I think I am going to do is put together a theme and just copy and paste their current website content into it, that should give them a good enough idea of what is possible.

As regards to designing the theme.

On the rare occasion when someone asks me to create a website for them, I normally create the mock-up in photoshop, then convert that to html and css. I don't do css/html often enough to be quick at it but I can normally get it looking right.

What is the best process for designing a theme in wordpress? Is there a basic theme I should start with and manipulate it? Or is it like joomla where I would create the pages using css/html and then just paste the wordpress php code into it?

would it be worth buying a book to get my head around this quicker? I was looking on amazon and they have a few but this one is specific to wordpress themes:

WordPress 2.8 Theme Design: Amazon.co.uk: T...
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RichardHK

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Linux

If you have the CSS skills then you should be able to make a default theme look like a regular website but it will have the CMS that you could charge extra for. ...

Interesting point Linux.

Are all WP themes based on tables? Or can you get/buy no-table CSS themes?

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elementel 14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardHK

Interesting point Linux.

Are all WP themes based on tables? Or can you get/buy no-table CSS themes?

Wordpress is purely driven by php and css. The only tables I have found in wordpress are ones created by my clients in posts or pages (sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes because they don't know any other way

hope that helps.
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Aare

14 years ago

if u can give the best design and useability along with it, i believe ur client will be happy. there's so many free proffesional wordpress blog which is not look a like with a blog.

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Dan Williams 14 years ago

Using wordpress now and I still can't get how to copy/paste from a word doc ? Am I missing something?
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- reillymary56 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Dan Williams
  
  Using wordpress now and I still can't get how to copy/paste from a word doc ? Am I missing something?
  
  I don't know about wordpress but I have found with some of the editors that I have used on other content management systems that it is best to copy from word to a text editor, like notepad, then copy from there to the editor that you are using in the cms.
  
  Word adds a lot of special characters and formating that you don't need.
  
  Don't know if this will work for you or not.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  colinph970 14 years ago
  
  reillymary56 -
  cut and paste word text straight into the page or post ensuring that you are not in html view.
  
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hiphil

14 years ago

Originally Posted by reillymary56

I know web designers are notoriously private about how much they charge but would anyone have an idea of the going rate in the UK?

Thanks

I checked out eBay.co.uk for web designers.

It looks like other designers are asking in the region of £250 - £350 for (Buy Now) web design.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
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Zen2health 14 years ago

Originally Posted by hiphil

I checked out eBay.co.uk for web designers.

It looks like other designers are asking in the region of £250 - £350 for (Buy Now) web design.

Hope this helps.

I would imagine at those prices they would be working from a list of templates. it sounds like OP is going to design a custom theme starting with PSD, that probably cost more.
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ministerof

14 years ago

Wordpress seems to be taking over everything !!

It is used as a blog, but the add ons they have , they can make a fully functional website with those add ons.

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baichang

14 years ago

our client would be paying for the custom design and integration into Wordpress.I checked out eBay.co.uk for web designers.
It is used as a blog.

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halfbakedrew

14 years ago

what tools does everyone use to make a wp theme?

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bugbuguk

14 years ago

It depends on what functionality your client needs .. just a basic brochue site should be fine , but if it starts getting complex it might not be the right option

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halfbakedrew

14 years ago

well i got artisteer 2 and it works great so far still learning how to use it to the fullest but im sure ill learn it fast..

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Mike Adams

14 years ago

@reillymary56 I usually don't tell them what platform I use, because THEY DON'T KNOW THE REAL DIFFERENCE. If they give me any grief, I say... "name one reason to use Joomla or any other platform" and they tell you things like... Uhh because someone said it better, I read an article that wordpress is only for blogs or other uneducated responses like that. They try to make it more complicated and try to make themselves feel sophisticated so they don't get "screwed"

If they did know the structural difference, they would be able to design it themselves. 99% of small clients that you get will be satisfied with wordpress because of ease of updating. Just use what your comfortable with. You can use WordPress › Really Static WordPress Plugins to make it seam "hand coded".

Keep in mind that large (Social Media News and Web Tips ? Mashable ? The Social Media Guide) and small site use wordpress because you can edit the framework to make it do nearly anything.

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Paul Gordelo

14 years ago

Designing a website in Wordpress is best. I can design any minisite website in wordpress. large website can also be created but in that case we should go to joomla.

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netoctane

14 years ago

I think a few years ago, using WP for your main biz site was a big no no.

Now it's a different story. For starters, WP gets indexed immediately, there are so many modules available and with sharp design you won't even notice it's a WP blog.

In the past - people wanted something fancy but had no way to update the content on their own. It was a pain for the web guy to have to update for the business owner.

WP ease of use gives business owners the flexibility to express themselves.

Less is more.

WP is most definitely the way to go.

Thanks

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elementel

14 years ago

For complex and more dynamic sites I actually prefer Drupal over Wordpress but there's not a day that goes by I don't find myself working in a wordpress installation. And there's nothing cheap about it. If you want you can always hire someone to rebrand all the existing dashboard stuff so that there's nothing about wordpress in it.

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Kysersoze

14 years ago

Wordpress rocks! I sell sites and use Wordpress exclusively. I do however make sure to include that information within my sales thread and also on my sales site. Most people that I deal with dont even know what Wordpress is and the ones who do know about it love how easy it is to navigate and use so they have no issue with it.

Thanks

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website design job, is wordpress acceptable?

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