Websites

[Peter]

I'm thinking of investing a website. What do you people that have one pay for it in terms of setup and running costs?

What do you think makes a good site for a tree service company?

 

I find that tree websites all look quite similar, I suppose there is only so much you can say about a tree care company!

 

I think the main emphasis of my site will be as a point of reference for clients to see the kind of work I do, find out how its done, and hopefully to educate about good tree care.

[Steve Bullman]

i think the more pictures the better.....putting educational information on is good...will help target the sort of customers you want ie. people who care about their trees and not just price shoppers

probably 90% of people wont read most of what you have to say though.

[Buzz]

Mine is done through a young semi-professional lad, cost about 100.00 a year and very little to set up.

 

Have a look at my website and contact him through that if you want.

[Buzz]

http://www.authenticarboriculture.co.uk

[Treefitter]

Try "www.oneandone.co.uk" for hosting and 'serif page plus' for web design. We did ours on a self learn basis. You make some good mistakes but got there in the end. Keep your pictures small in kbites so they load quickly. You could try oneandone's own design package. It's all available on their website.

[Marc]

My fiancee is doing web design and has already started to build mine as part of her project, a simple website along the lines of most of the sites i've seen is quite simple and quick to set-up.

 

I'm trying to pack a lot of stuff into my site, which is the most time consuming and hardest part to organise and get right, I hope to have videos, and extensive galleries, whilst trying to keep the written stuff short and sweet.

 

It'll probably take me many months to get the content right. Although we built the site layout in a weekend.

[wills-mill]

My fiancee is doing web design and has already started to build mine as part of her project, a simple website along the lines of most of the sites i've seen is quite simple and quick to set-up.

 

I'm trying to pack a lot of stuff into my site, which is the most time consuming and hardest part to organise and get right, I hope to have videos, and extensive galleries, whilst trying to keep the written stuff short and sweet.

 

It'll probably take me many months to get the content right. Although we built the site layout in a weekend.

 

I wonder if it's easier to have a link to a Flickr account or some vids on Youtube. I know it's not as slick as embedding them, but then again we're not advertising our skills as website developers, just tree folk.

Also, I think there's nothing worse than finding a "Page under construction" If someone has bothered to put that up, they could have thrown a description, photo or two and contact details together in about 15mins more.

[Yorkshireman]

I wonder if it's easier to have a link to a Flickr account or some vids on Youtube. I know it's not as slick as embedding them, .

 

 

 

STRAIGHT OVER MY HEAD

[wills-mill]

Sorry mate

 

 

Flickr is a photo archive website, where you can store and manage your photos for free.

 

Youtube does the same for videos.

 

Keeping this information away from your company website keeps your site smaller- therefore much easier and cheaper to set up and look after. Updating the information on these other sites is nice and quick and efficient, and also means that people may find your services through those sites.

 

The other thing to think about is using an eBay account. If you want to sell logs, chip, sawn timber, sculpture, furniture or equipment it is going to reach LOADS more people on eBay, and the financial and security side is ready set up if you want payment over the 'net. There's no point re-inventing the wheel and trying to sort out credit card or other payment systems for a small website.