hinakos
Hi all,I thought there were plenty of existing threads on this but I couldnt manage to find any. Were looking for someone to build us a website for a new (small) villa complex.Ideally want an outfit based locally so if any breaks down we can go and knock on their door.We want an established company - who woud be accountable for their workmanship - rather than a backyard web builder who melts into the woodwork after the site is built and can never be found again if the site crashes etc.Does anyone have an idea of costs, how long it takes etc.?Obviously there are different kinds of quality and you get what you pay for so to speak.....but a rough idea would be great.The construction is only 85% complete, so cant use photos on the site yet - was thinking about using 3D images first and then replacing them with photos as the villas came online. The entire project is supposed to be handed over end of May (and looks like it will be), so we've kind of left this a bit late and need to move on it pretty fast.Anyone else have any experience with this?Thanks in advanceHinakos
Markit
We had the same issues with website and images that you are having - i.e. site needs to be done parallel with the build. Having done that I think you are really better off waiting for good pictures of the completed property rather than fake ones, however good they may be. People detect the fakes immediately and then believe nothing else they may hear or see and promptly leave, never to return. I understand that your little leggies can hardly keep still for excitement to get it up and running but "slowly, slowly catchee monkey" is for sure better. If you want a decent web company call Gunada (0812 397 4001) at Balibagus websites they haven't done anything for me personally because I do my own web stuff but they do good work for friends.
borborigmus
Be aware that 'replacing' sketches with actual photos isn't as straightforward a design exercise as you might think. Once actual photos of your furnished villa are available, their aspect ratio will rarely be the same as your boilerplate image place-holders, and this can drastically affect the layout of the web pages. Unless you make sure that the new photos will be cropped to exactly the same shape as the place-holders, you may be talking about a re-design at that point rather than a simple image replacement. Budget for that.Also, talk to your designer about whether your site creation includes optimisation for a variety of browsers, a mobile version, agreed fees for maintenance, additions and upgrades, domain name registration, hosting fees and creation of email addresses.Search engine optimisation, suitable keyword creation, submitting your site to various indexing services are also important, and are generally added extras. You might consider a site driven by a database, or editable by you by some sort of control panel interface so that you can make changes to pricing, availability and the like - otherwise you may incur charges from your designer/webmaster for every single change you want to make later.Finally, although you say you "need to move on it pretty fast", remember that even when a site has gone live, it will take quite a while for it to propagate through the internet enough to be found by your potential clients.A well thought-out brief to your designer will make the whole process more manageable and avoid unseemly arguments later ...Best wishes for the project!
no.idea
I would stay away from the local web site builders. I have had a few friends get web sites made locally and none have been happy with the outcome.I have a number of different web sites for my different business ventures in Bali. They are all hosted from Australia.Any changes I ask about are normally done with in a few hours. Others may take a day or two if the guy happens to be away from home.If you PM me I will happily give you a few of my website addresses. You can then judge for yourself.
hinakos
@ markit....thanks i will give them a call when next in town as sus them out. as far as projected images we were going to use, we dont really need images of what the places will look like i guess. I agree thats a bit of a tacky touch.....and one that most shady developers use to make thier developments look far far better than what they actually are (selling off plan etc). Thats not our intention, we just want to get the site up and running so were ahead of the game a little. We dont want to miss the first high season coz we didnt have a site up and running (although we should be more than fine with walk in / walk past traffic alone in reality). We just thought if we got people working on it now....we might have a hope of being ready in time.maybe we shouldnt try to use projected pics of the villa's then before we have actual villa photos.....just maybe have some generic bali scenery shots etc (piles of trash on 66 beach perhaps?)@borborigmus - good points you raise - but the cost of changing the projected images with the real ones wouldnt be that big of a cost i woudnt imagine.but we didnt know about this so it is useful info.a stack of useful points i will take with me when we go see the person we choose to work with. much appreciated.@ no.idea....pm on the way. I was also thinking that by keeping the site O/S it would be more secure, but the draw back would be it would be more expensive to set up and if it crashed or needed work response time would be longer if based o/s. I guess we need to weigh it all up.@canon....we'll keep it in mind. were split on whether to keep it simple or go all out. i have partners in the project so will pass this on to them too and see what they think. i've checked your blog site out and it looks rather sleek. I saw also in a post of yours you did villa photography etc (is that correct?).....we might look into that too if thats the case. I like to think i'm pretty handy with a camera but in reality i dont quite cut it and I only have a digital compact (albeit a good one) - so can't really play with the big boys. ********************I know of more than a few people who have villas and dont even have a website for their villa's, they just host them on flipkey, agoda etc. I think their reasons are that this way they keep under the radar (and i'm assuming therefore pay no tax?). They also have no signage to their villa's. There is absolutely no way we can keep under the radar where we are - and we already have the correct IMB / licences in progress (a little later than we wanted but nonetheless its happening). So were gonna do it by the book and pay our taxes.As such we might as well have our own web site and put up signage and get walk in guests too (knowing we are above board when the authorities come knocking - im sure the signage will only help lead them to us anyway). I cant see why we can't also put it on the likes of flipkey, agoda or whoever etc etc.We plan to have a villa manager for the first 18 months at least. I basically want to have nothing to do with the place - am hoping it just ticks over on its own and the villa manager looks after everything for us - web sites, bookings etc. (yes we will have our eyes glued on everything she does - but she'll be on the frontlines...not us).The only thing we want to do is be able to peek in at this website whenever we need to (as we all work away) and to be able to see how things are running.I still have no idea of costs etc.......what am i looking at? 4 mill? 8 mill? (done locally) more? less?And do have it made and hosted O/S? I'd imagine double?Are there ongoing costs (apart from alterations etc as borborigmus metions)? I mean do you have to pay a monthly hosting fee or anything like that?Thanks for the input everyone.
spicyayam
Following on from other people's advice, register your domain name yourself using a well known registration company, in your own or company's name. If you let your web designer do this, they might ask for some kind of fee to change it to your name later on down the track (think nominee for the internet!). I suggest hosting your site in the US simply because it is cheap and the market is so competitive, most companies are very reliable and offer good support. (Dreamhost. Hostgator, Bluehost and many others).I would suggest using a CMS or content management system for your site. This allows you to make changes fairly easily without always having to ask your designer. There are many available, but I like Joomla which is open source and free to use. If you want to receive deposits via Paypal and allow people to book online themselves, I can recommend using the component [URL="http://www.jomres.net/"]Jomres[/URL], which you install on top of Joomla. If you are not too technical then it could be a little overwhelming to set up yourself, but you can do everything by following the manual. Of course you can pay someone to do this all for you. You can have then have a calendar online so people can see your availability. It will cut down on the emails you have to reply to from people asking for availbility on specific dates.There are many other solutions available, but the nice thing about Jomres is that it is on your site and you are not giving up control to any other company. If people are coming directly to your site and booking, you are not paying any commissions, except of course to Paypal. submitting your site to various indexing services[/QUOTE]Actually not necessary now and the companies that offer these kinds of services are fairly scammy. Just one link from an established site is enough for the search engines to find and index your site. There are quite a few free accommodation and Bali directories, that I would suggest submitting your site to. Sure you can pay someone to do it, but I think it is important enough to do it yourself. Get your web developer to sign up for Google webmaster tools and Google analytics (both are free). This can provide valuable data for knowing how people are finding your site, which countries they are from, what they do on your site, etc, etc. Sign up for Google local (free) and you will also get listed (eventually) on Google maps. In Google local fill out every field available until you see the message 100% complete. Getting a little off track, but important for Google local search: be consistent of the format with your business, name address and telephone number, whenever you submit your business to a directory listing. So for example if your address is Jalan Bintang, use the one format all of the time, so don't use "Jl Bintang" in one place and "Bintang St" in another. Set up a Facebook page also and try to get the same URL as your domain like facebook.com/villaname Get all of your friends and colleagues to like the page and post interesting/useful stuff and photos.
borborigmus
[b]Costs[/b]I still have no idea of costs etc.......what am i looking at? 4 mill? 8 mill? (done locally) more? less?And do have it made and hosted O/S? I'd imagine double?Are there ongoing costs (apart from alterations etc as borborigmus metions)? I mean do you have to pay a monthly hosting fee or anything like that?[/QUOTE]Your costs will be split over a number of areas. Below is a rough guide; prices vary greatly:[B]Domain name[/B]: You need to register a Domain Name, preferably one that reflects your business and is easy to remember. A Dot com name is probably best, rather than a Dot biz, or a Dot com Dot au which might limit your market. Domain name registration is relatively cheap - $3-$10. You can get started with that immediately - can do online. Renew each year for around the same price.[B]Web Hosting[/B]: You pay a hosting company to keep your web content on their servers. Varies according to amount of storage and services you need - approx $75 - $100 per annum.[B]Email Hosting[/B]: About $12-$20 per annum.Once you have a Domain and it is hosted (which can be anywhere in the world) you basically have a web address for a web page with no content.Then you can get a web designer to take your content (i.e. all your written copy and images), put it all together so it works well, and upload it to your domain. This means any designer, anywhere in the world, can upload your final approved design to the web host which you have set up in the steps above.Web design charges vary enormously, depending on the number of pages and whether you want special interactive features. It's a competitive industry, so expect to pay anywhere from $300 to $3,000+. As for everything else, you get what you pay for. Also remember that a good designer may not be a skilled copy writer. You need to take responsibility for the body copy, or hire a writer/editor to do this and supply it to the web designer along with all the images.Finally, a web page alone is only part of the marketing mix - as mentioned by other posters, use social media in conjuction with your page, and leverage your exposure by submitting to the hundreds of existing 'villa for rent' sites that aggregate many properties ...Alternatively, you could use Dreamweaver and buy a quality web template to avoid starting from scratch - but remember that DW has a steep learning curve and you [B]must [/B]review and amend HTML code manually in order to clean it up and avoid glitches.Best wishes with your project.[Edit: Sorry about duplicate info from other posters. By the time I posted this, far more nimble fingers than mine had already replied in kind ...}
hinakos
A tonne of info to digest.It seems it would be an advantage to be able to sit down with someone and tell them exactly what you want (ie have it done locally in Bali - or possibly in Oz as im going back there in a few weeks also). But it seems like hosting in oz may not be the cheapest thing in the world.Then again it seems the expertise and workmanship may be a little higher in the west ( but also the cost).Thanks for the excellent responses and all the pointers.
BKT
Some good advice in this thread and some not so good[B]Domain[/B]Register your domain yourself and make sure you remember to renew it, it you have printed material with your website/email on it and someone nabs your domain name you're going to have get everything printed again.[B]Webhosting[/B]No more than $60 a year, just your basic hosting. Cannonman you're paying $200 for your hosting? thats crazy. I pay less than that for my reseller account and I have over 10 websites hosted on that.[B]Email[/B]Comes free with your hosting, not sure why people are saying you need to pay for it.Also with the replacing of your photos this is as straight forward as it gets. If a web designer says its difficult he's not a good web designer.Like Spicyayam suggested, use a CMS site, I prefer wordpress and so do the majority of people who build websites, including designers. The latest craze are responsive themes. If you check out my wifes website in my sig and drag your browser window into the shape of a mobile phone everything will adjust to size. Instant mobile version of your website with out any need for extra apps slowing down your website.I could go on but I need some sleep :tranquillity:
Justuklix
Reputable web building company located in Yogya with offices in Australia called Justuklix dot com
BKT
You also pay for bandwidth for sure? Depending on traffic, if you're paying $60 for ten sites they must have low traffic? Just going by what I pay for 30k web hits a month. No worries, am sure there are bargains out there.Cheers,mark.[/QUOTE]30,000 hits per month is nothing. That's only an average of only 41 page loads per hour, that's nothing. Are you on VPS hosting?, if so who recommended you get that? My resellers account costs more than $60 per year, I do have $60 hosting for another website though, In 2007 when it was popular it registered 3,000,000 hits for June and not once did my host provider complain about the CPU. Month,Unique visitors,Number of visits,PagesHits,BandwidthJan 2007,16,522,38,927,498,730,1,876,545,23.19 GBFeb 2007,17,437,39,284,494,347,2,022,822,24.02 GBMar 2007,19,358,42,104,515,196,2,161,170,26.01 GBApr 2007,17,920,41,056,580,136,2,148,092,24.92 GBMay 2007,19,434,46,034,583,865,2,156,989,26.49 GBJun 2007,20,273,48,629,640,816,3,034,259,31.82 GBJul 2007,21,089,53,025,745,143,4,192,571,38.20 GBAug 2007,23,032,58,388,833,019,4,749,129,41.95 GBSep 2007,18,464,49,838,563,762,2,995,850,27.98 GBOct 2007,20,025,52,999,623,470,3,049,447,30.18 GBNov 2007,19,374,49,483,476,880,2,365,332,21.83 GBDec 2007,20,842,50,576,454,766,2,214,572,21.51 GBTotal233,770,570,343,7,010,130,32,966,778, 338.08 GBBandwidth is a non factor these days as well, most of these cheap hosting accounts have unlimited band width. Like hostgator.com the website you recommended before has a plan for $4 per month, thats all you need. Anything else you're just wasting money
rogier ymker
[b]indosoft owned by lars lundholm a danish men is good 081239232035 ,roger[/b]Hi all,I thought there were plenty of existing threads on this but I couldnt manage to find any. Were looking for someone to build us a website for a new (small) villa complex.Ideally want an outfit based locally so if any breaks down we can go and knock on their door.We want an established company - who woud be accountable for their workmanship - rather than a backyard web builder who melts into the woodwork after the site is built and can never be found again if the site crashes etc.Does anyone have an idea of costs, how long it takes etc.?Obviously there are different kinds of quality and you get what you pay for so to speak.....but a rough idea would be great.The construction is only 85% complete, so cant use photos on the site yet - was thinking about using 3D images first and then replacing them with photos as the villas came online. The entire project is supposed to be handed over end of May (and looks like it will be), so we've kind of left this a bit late and need to move on it pretty fast.Anyone else have any experience with this?Thanks in advanceHinakos[/QUOTE]
Markit
Well Fuck MEEE! I'm off - with a recommendation like that what is holding the rest of you back??? Drop your present supplier and go to [h=2]lars lundholm a danish men[/h]
BKT
Mate, not interested in getting into a pissing contest with you. I am not a pro web builder so have nothing to protect, I also wouldn't dance around 6yr old stats for a website that is no longer popular? I was simply stating what I pay based on my experience and requirements. Cheers,Mark.[/QUOTE]Pissing contest? I'm just trying to help you out here mate. I've been designing websites for the last 10 years and it irks me when people over pay or are offered services they just don't need. I almost slapped a friend of mine the other day when I found out what he paid for his website. I'd agree that 6 year old stats aren't relevant, you get a lot more now for your dollar than you did 6 years ago
rogier ymker
[b]thanks[/b]Well Fuck MEEE! I'm off - with a recommendation like that what is holding the rest of you back??? Drop your present supplier and go to [h=2]lars lundholm a danish men[/h][/QUOTE]i am glad you agreeroger
Markit
Hell yeah Rogier (or Roger?)!A guy as open and helpful as you is just what we need here in Bali. Your friend ([B]lars lundholm a danish men[/B]) is a very lucky guy to have you as a buddy. I could use a friend like you too. Can you wash cars? Cook? Clean house? How about ironing?[INDENT][EMAIL="rogierymker@hotmail.com"] [/EMAIL] [/INDENT]
balipod-admin
@Markit Perhaps now you can understand why you needed to make a minimum number of posts to send messages
Markit
If that's as bad as it gets then I, for one, don't mind but if this is a democracy and the majority want to change back to 15 posts first then Tally Ho? If it's a dictatorship then - up to you? I'm unfazed by the single idiot post, actually found it/him quite fun...:O)
rogier ymker
all above but i hate ironing and i dont bent over
Markit
Welcome to Balipod you unbend-able ironing denier.
