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Starting a Web Design business using RW..... yes or no?
super_claret
Posts: 103Members
Hi
I was thinking of offering a web design service for small businesses but am concerned that the clients may ask me to do something that RW is incapable of doing. As a relative newcomer to web design, I find RW great for designing small sites but have never been asked for instance to design a site with a shopping facility, although I have dabbled with RapidCart 3 with some success!
I'd be grateful to hear other users feedback, especially advice on what rates to charge and how they price individual jobs, is it based on how many pages in a site etc? Also. whether they have come across limitations with RW, if so, have they moved to Dreamweaver or other solutions?
Sorry for all the questions but I don't really know how to get started offering my services, so any help would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Mark
I was thinking of offering a web design service for small businesses but am concerned that the clients may ask me to do something that RW is incapable of doing. As a relative newcomer to web design, I find RW great for designing small sites but have never been asked for instance to design a site with a shopping facility, although I have dabbled with RapidCart 3 with some success!
I'd be grateful to hear other users feedback, especially advice on what rates to charge and how they price individual jobs, is it based on how many pages in a site etc? Also. whether they have come across limitations with RW, if so, have they moved to Dreamweaver or other solutions?
Sorry for all the questions but I don't really know how to get started offering my services, so any help would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Mark
Comments
Since most/all of your clients will not be RW users be prepared to provide support for an indefinite time in the future for the sites you develop. If you'd rather develop a site and hand it over for the client to maintain, a CMS would be a better option. That's why I'm currently retooling to do development in WordPress and Drupal ... it's not how I prefer doing business, but there are plenty here who like to make a living by supporting their clients in perpetuity.
Regarding pricing, I'll quote myself from an earlier thread:
The High-Tech Coach
Hmmm, it would seem that my idea of charging the client a monthly fee for making amendments to the site is not going to work. I was hoping that the client would be happy for me to do the updates etc but it looks like most people are wanting to do their own.
Is there a way to do this with a RW site? I know there are various CMS options available but would any of them work with something like RapidCart 3 for example?
Many thanks
Mark
I use RW as part of my web design services, on small sites (max 10 pages) where the client doesn't need to update their own content. RW in my experience is fine for relatively static sites that are infrequently updated. When the site does need updating with new pages/content, that's where your additional billing is applied. RW is a joy for these projects.
For sites with more pages and where the client needs access, Wordpress all the way. There are WP blank themes, much like Blocks Box, for creating bespoke designs. I personally don't like site maintenance so am happy for clients to handle their own updates.
On sites that go beyond the remit of WP, I design in Photoshop/Coda/CSS Edit/Textmate and work with front and backend developers to create the site. Totally different discipline that always involves a significantly larger budget and timescale than the RW/WP methods.
This tiered approach works for me, depending on the spec of the site and brief. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all app/workflow for webdesign as clients will always throw you a curveball that you need to adapt to.
Unless the client is a Mac user and is willing/able to take over the RW project file to make updates, I'm afraid the RW e-commerce solutions wouldn't work for your scenario. For clients who wants to manage their own inventory the best options are either to use a standalone e-commerce product (e.g., Shopify), or one of the e-commerce solutions that are available for a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.
As far as I know, WP e-Commerce is the gold standard for WordPress e-commerce sites and would probably be the route I'd take if it were my client:
http://getshopped.org/
You could do the site in RW, and integrate a WP site for the e-Commerce part using Nilrog's WP-Blog plugin for RW, but frankly, I'd do the whole site in WordPress. There's nothing you can do in RW that you can't do in WordPress with the right plugins and theme.
Vasily
The High-Tech Coach
One thing I'm struggling with is the domain name and how to transfer that to my own hosting service. For example, when I have finished the design with a Wordpress theme, I would then want to upload the files to my domain to say for example, www.abcd.com, how would I do this?
Many thanks
Mark
There are a number of WP plugins for backing up and restoring sites; here's a good one:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/
Here are instructions for manually moving a WP site from one server to another, if you'd prefer going that route::
http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress
Vasily
The High-Tech Coach
I'll take a look at those.
I've since signed up with Lynda.com and am viewing the Wordpress 3 essential training, but my initial reaction is it's going to be another steep learning curve. It beg's the question - should I just learn HTML, CSS & Dreamweaver?
Mark
If you decide to learn Dreamweaver, you're facing a learning curve of Himalayan proportions that dwarfs what you'd need to learn to become a WordPress 3 designer.
To do anything at all significant in web design/development, you need to have a decent level of comfort with HTML and CSS as a minimum. You'll also need to eventually acquire some minimal familiarity with JavaScript and PHP, and be comfortable working with SQL queries to get/put data to a MySQL database. That applies whether you're dealing with WordPress 3, with DreamWeaver, or (for that matter) with RapidWeaver. You can only go so far with the plug-and-play plugin/theme approach offered by out-of-the-box RapidWeaver ... and you need to have at least a little familiarity with all these things so you can tell when you're being offered a project that's outside your skill level. Far too often, I've seen people here trying to develop complex web sites in RapidWeaver that really should have been done in a real CMS, or done by integrating a third-party PHP script into a RW site. You need to know enough to know what you don't know.
Unless you've decided to make a career of web design and plan to work for someone else, I'd steer you clear of DreamWeaver. In my opinion, it's a tool that's better suited to the corporate environment rather than for the entrepreneur developing sites for small businesses. Again in my opinion, DreamWeaver is overkill for most entrepreneurial website designers, though it can be a resume enhancer in certain circles.
Vasily
The High-Tech Coach
thanks
Dave
Just in case you are left wondering if RW or RMS will provide some of Vasily's options in the future, check out this post.
Will at least confirm your intentions with third-party options and purchase, along with biz ROI.
http://www.realmacsoftware.com/forums/index.php/forums/viewthread/50850/
if you need a serious cheap CMS solution for your client, as opposed to RW and third-party options, then take the time to learn WP. You can test sites locally and even serve them up yourself using the free Mamp and WP downloads.
Grab a free WP theme and experiment locally, then shift it to your host server.
If you prefer the RW aspect for original design, you can always link pages to the WP CMS content wether it be local or server side.
I constantly wonder why RMS has never developed its own CMS solution for RW users. After all its an integral part of current website development.
If RW users want to go into business designing websites, they have a problem from day one because there is no product CMS solution and admin for their clients.
So guess we are left wondering with static design and development.
Note - this forum never ceases to amaze me with the plethora of information made available by admin and users alike.
Here you have likes of Vasily wearing his biz cap and providing free mentoring to users which could be considered as consultancy service - love it.
Photon
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you - Matthew 6:33
For certain clients who are looking for e-commerce solutions, a Cartloom/Pagelime solution would work (I *think* you can manage inventory via the Cartloom site without using the RW plugin though the Cartloom site isn't clear about this). At least it would work until the client asks to be able to change things beyond blocks of text, images, etc. It's a "light" CMS solution, and the developer needs to be prepared to say no to requests for functionality that the light solution doesn't support ... and that means being able to recognize its limitations.
What a full-blown CMS solution will offer the developer is the ability to define the level of customization available to the client, while providing a level of protection against the client hopelessly messing up the site through defining roles and permissioning. A full-blown CMS system will also allow you to create custom content types ... for example, I've created a book review type for a WordPress site using the Pods CMS plugin that includes display of a link to the book's Amazon page (all the client enters is the book ASIN), visitor star ratings for books, and easy editing of a review for the client via a form. You couldn't do that sort of complex funcitonality for the client with a "light" solution like Cartloom/Pagelime or Cartloom/WebYep.
Vasily
The High-Tech Coach
I have read through this thread and would like to follow up with the topic. I too have started to offer web design and development for small businesses using RapidWeaver. Things have been great so far to the point where I have managed to land a large account. It's a hospital website and will comprise of more than 20 pages but the size is due to the many units and centers the hospital has and the size is based on the content.
There is nothing that the website will offer at this time that requires anything I can not produce using RapidWeaver. However, they will need in the future a secure section whereby users can log in to upload and view their lab results, fill out forms etc. To add to this I will have to provide an Arabic mirror site as soon as the English one is complete. I am planning to hire a developer/ programmer anyways but my question is simply, would RapidWeaver be able to handle such a website?
Thanks.
Hi and welcome to the forums
This sounds like a job for either the WeaverFM or WeaverBox plugins:
http://www.barchard.net/
Either of these plugins can be used to create a password-protected part on a RapidWeaver website, and enable users to safely and securely login, complete a form and upload files without requiring any special software or plugins. Might be worth downloading the free demo versions for both of these RapidWeaver plugins, and have a play around with them, to see which is most suitable. Definitely this would be cheaper and easier, compared to hiring a PHP or ASP programmer.
There are several options for creating multilingual websites in RapidWeaver. If you search for the term 'multilingual' in these forums, you will likely be able to pull up some interesting topics. Likewise others may chime in and put forward a few solutions for you. I believe there are stacks available which can achieve multilingual setups, and ways of splitting a website between domains, to achieve different versions.
Themes: ThemeFlood
Stacks: Stacks4Stacks
My Blog: WillWoodgate.com
Twitter: willwoodgate
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I just wanted to give some input on this......
I started to do website design for small businesses using RW 18 months ago. I think their is a large amount of small businesses that want a professional looking website but don't want to pay DreamWeaver prices.
I think that its a niche market overlooked. In my first year I have done 25 websites. Mostly word of mouth.
I explain upfront and discuss about the differences in expensive (DW) website design. They always want to go with me because of cost (I charge $600 for a standard website (10 pages).
I also charge a monthly fee for maintenance and hosting. They also have the option of using their own server and lastly, I explain if they want to take it over I can give them lessons on RW (stating they need a Mac up front).
Again.. explaining up front (showing my example site) and discussing their options. It has been working for me.
www.jfkeefewebsites.com
Take care....
RW users who use it not just for themselves but as a business, part time or what have you, should know it can and is being done......
Like any successful business.. don't lie.. it catches up to you... I even recommend webs designers if what they want is out of my league....and those people recommend me to their friends because of the honesty....
Thanks....!
I agree with all this. I'm getting work the same way. Honesty, price, quickness.
http://jivedigdesign.com
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you - Matthew 6:33
Thanks. Same to you.
This mentality has kept my recording studio busy as well. That and SEO to be top rank in google for my keywords doesn't hurt
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you - Matthew 6:33