I?ve gone a bit slack on the webdesign side of things and although things are ticking along I?ve not been able to put as much time and effort into things as I would like. I was meant to migrate all my sites from 1&1 hosting over to my new hosting, and although I?ve done this for some things, there are sites, like this blog, which I just haven?t got round to moving. In theory it shouldn?t be too much effort, but it ?could? take a while if I run into a few problems. I need to have a weekend on my own to sort this out, but if I do have any time I?ve more often enjoyed laying on the sofa nad watching TV. It is a rut.
One other thing is that I?ve spent quite a lot of time at my ?real job? working on a new website for the Students? Union. We currently pay a company £6,000 a year to provide us with a website and frankly that?s taking the piss. The contract was signed in the dot.com boom when everyone had to have a new website and for the past few years I?ve been counting down the time to when our 5 year contract ends (May 31st 2008). At work, although it?s not in my job description, I usually take charge of the computing side of things, and so I came up with an alternative plan of instead creating and running the website ourselves and then using the £6,000 p/a to invest in the site through either getting someone to maintain it (maybe a part-time job for a student) or using the money to promote the site or invest in new software etc.
One of the irks with our current website provider is that if we wanted anything else added then it would always cost extra e.g an online shop would cost £2,000 just to implement it, which meant that we never developed the site fully. It just ticked along and was a disgrace.
I?ve now created a site using the Joomla CMS, and have installed all I need for free. In fact the only thing we?re paying for at the moment is the hosting (around £8 a month) and the domain name (around £3 per year), and that?s all. I?ve done all the work myself, and hopefully it?ll be ready to roll in a few weeks. It?s not just been a case of building the site though, as I?ve had to write all the content too which is quite time consuming, but will mean that it not just a case of re-hashing the old site, but actually a new site with completely relevant information on it.
I am proud of it and it seems to be working fine, but until the site goes ?live? we?ll have to wait to see what the feedback is. The site will also need to be promoted to attract visitors back which will be hard, especially as it?ll be in the second half of the academic year when students are less succeptable to new things.
I?ll keep you updated on the site and maybe you?ll get to have a sneek preview! Excited eh?
Update: See the site here.
£6,000 a year! My goodness! That really is taking the biscuit!
Judging by your previous work I am more than sure that you?ll have produced a great website and content. I know the feeling with the content, though, it can be really time consuming when you?ve got to write it yourself. It will take an unimaginable amount of time seeing as you?re doing one for the company too?
I hope that it all goes well ? I look forward to hearing how things go with it. It sounds like quite an exciting project that you have on your hands.
I?m working on a new site for one of the products we work with and distribute as well. Whole new concept, all new content. It IS hard. Ours is due to go live (ish) by 12 March.
This is what it looks like now. This is an early mockup of the new one.
But Joomla?! We use it too, but not a day goes by that I don?t curse the bloody thing! I?m very interested to hear how you fare with this. Good luck though. Good to see you can get creative in the job.
I?m impressed. You?ve put a lot of thought and work into it. You also have a sound plan for its future. Good luck with it!