New to websites - Order forms

Hello DPers.

So I am currently on my way to launch my new company, which will be a type of freelancer business with a national audience, since my country highly lacks priceworthy freelancers for small business and private people.

Now, I am good at conducting business and the testrun I did with my idea showed me results waaaay above my expectations. The issue however, is websites and design. I am completely unfamiliar with it other than regular WP and Blogger so I have absolutely no idea where a complete websitenewbie should begin to be able to get a decent site up with information on our work. Right now I am kind of looking at hosting it with Bluehost since they are supposedly good.

Now to the second issue, for some of our work I'd like for my customers to be able to do quick orders without first contacting us over mail and getting the paypal/bank numbers. I've in the past seen websites with order forms where you select your service, fill in your order info and personal info and then you get taken to Paypal for a safe and quick payment. After that the company recieves the instructions on mail. I am after something like that. However, with my experience I haven't gotten a clue on how it works. So any pointers would be nice!

 

Short answer. Hire a professional; give them detailed requirements for what you need; ans stay out of the way while they do their work.

As for the second question that sounds like you need some kind of payment gateway. That is another reason you need to hire a professional. There are few thinf more obtuse than a novice trying to do a site that includes financial transactions. especially when they indicate that their knowledge is limited to something with a history of security problems like Wordpress.

 

Ouch, kind of what I expected then. However with a limited budget wont it be hard to find a decent designer? Most of the ones I have run into usually take a 400-500USD for just a simple website. With transaction gateway added to that I am assuming I will end up at 600-700.

But yeah I am realising that unless I scrap the transaction part it'll probably be hard. Editing a website to my requirements isn't that hard if it's just basic info so I am considering getting started with that and then look into the transaction part on a later date once the customers start rolling in.

 

First off you don't need web designer, you need a web developer. all a designer will give you is a load of crap with a pretty face. Second, anyone building web site for 400-500, is a phoney wannabe calling themselves a web developer, or a bottom feeding marginally qualified developer who can only get work with lowball prices. I you intend to have a serious, reliable and secure business site then you better up the budget, because you need to be thinking more in the range of $2500 for a basic site developed by someone who will be around and available when you need maintenance or an upgrade; and YOU WILL NEED MAINTENANCE; there is np such thing as the final version of any web site until the site dies or is abandoned.