Website Design

[twix38]

Thinking of getting a website up and running for business in Pattaya.

Want a good quality one, but no website experience, knowledge or contacts and wish to know what to check for.

So, any help with the following would be much appreciated....

tech specifications

requirements

useful ideas

Website Company recommendations (Pattaya)

do's/Do nots

Other

Many thanks in advance to anyone able to offer help/ideas

Edited June 14, 2011 by twix38

[WilliaminBKK]

Can you provide some specifics what you want the site to do ? If it is just information site you can use many free site builder wix.

[Phil Conners]

I would recommend you not to get into using any of the free website builders. They lock you into using their platform and server and you will not be able to move your website elsewhere should you ever need to do that for any reason.

Anyway designing a website for a business without prior experience is probably not a good idea. A home made website is usually pretty obvious and not a great selling point, and the cost of having one made by an experienced company isn't that high when you compare to other forms of advertisements. Typically the cost of a website is about the same as a one page ad in one issue of a free tourist magazine.

There are several established companies in Pattaya. I would suggest using Google to search for for something like "webdesign pattaya", and then check out each company's website. They should have a portfolio page showing samples of their work. Visit the 2-3 you like most and see for yourself how professional they are.

If you insist in making your own website your best way to accomplish something reasonably would in my opinion be to use something like WordPress. There are thousands of free and commercial skins (templates) available that would be a good starting point.

[saengsureeya]

Web-hosting is IMHO similar to "take care of someone else's marketing expressions".

Leaving this in the hands of "professionals" is asking for trouble.

I know of 2 examples, where a Thai host built a website and offered to host it.

After a few months, the host vanished leaving the website up-and-running, but for changes a password is needed and of course.........no one to be found.

Another example, where the host asks ridiculous prices for changes or updates.

I'm not a real web-host or web-builder, but I managed to built my own website, create emails along with it and if I did have more time and patience it would look a lot better, BUT everything is in my hands and supervision.

For only $ 123 per year I have a website, URL, up to 10 e-mail-addresses and no headaches (well no headaches I can blame others for )

Edited June 15, 2011 by saengsureeya

[twix38]

Thanks guys,

It's an estate agents - yup yet another one ;-)

I am not involved in any way other than wishing to offer any advice I can.

It will be a professional (I hope) company who get paid to do it.

Hoping for someone who has general experience of needing a website done for them and who, what, potential problems, what to look out for, what to check/ensure etc.

TIA

Edited June 15, 2011 by twix38

[saengsureeya]

Thanks guys,

It's an estate agents - yup yet another one ;-)

I am not involved in any way other than wishing to offer any advice I can.

It will be a professional (I hope) company who get paid to do it.

Hoping for someone who has general experience of needing a website done for them and who, what, potential problems, what to look out for, what to check/ensure etc.

TIA

As said, I'm not an expert, but if you use a host for your real-estate website, it might be a good idea to hire someone who will take care of this in-house. Real estate websites show sales/rental offers and change on a daily base. The person involved could also take care of other marketing expressions lime brochures, catalogues, etc.

[KRS1]

Building a website is the easy part, getting found is what you need to concentrate on.

[phuket Mike]

IMHO getting a web design company to build a bespoke Real Estate site is no small task. Then there is the issue of support, changes etc. There are many off the shelf web Real Estate systems available, that are full of features and have good support both from the author and user community.

I would look at Joomla as the content management system and one of the many Real Extensions available, just Google Joomla Real Estate. There are some very good companies both in Pattaya and BKK that support Joomla and customize it to your requirements. Most ISP's offer automated Joomla installation, it is then just a matter of adding the desired extension. This would reduce development time and cost.

As there are already many Real Estate sites in Thailand the biggest cost is SEO/SEM and vitally important to the business. Any system you choose must have a clear well laid out structure, with each property having a unique URL, so that it will be indexed by Google e.g. property-thailand.com/new-3bed-house-in-pattaya.html as opposed to property-thailand.com/show-property.php?pid=56765, although Google does follow dynamic URL's (the second example) it attaches more relevant to static ones especially with keywords.

I would also recommend the domain name has at least one primary keyword in it, i.e. property-thailand.com, pattaya-condos.com, this will improve the importance of your links in Google Search Engine results.

You may also wish to look at Facebook and Twitter integration, I regularly view Thai Properties displayed in my Facebook feed, but never go to any sites. Property details can easily be fed directly to Facebook with RSS, so every time a new listing is added to the site it is also listed on your Facebook Fan Page.

Good Luck.

[SGD]

Either you pay and have it done professionally, which includes ongoing management and upgrades, or you look a complete clown to your prospective clients as they struggle and then give up on your website.

Factor costs into your business plan and do not underestimate.

Make sure that all content is under your copyright and websites are paid from your company / by you. You do not want to end up losing control just as you start to make money.

[silentnine]

Try eclipse design, www.webdesignthailand.net. They set up a real estate site for friend of mine, small agent on lk-metro for 15,000, they are pretty computer literate there but seem to manage adding properties to their site ok .

They also do client assist sites where they help you do it yourself and show you what to do .. So you end up getting lessons out of it to

also you could consider buying the guy a beer and he may host it be happy to advise you what CMS software to use and just help you set it up as opposed to doing it all . that will save you $

They have their server somewhere in the USA but they work from here so nice and easy to talk to

Starts at 2000bt for a year's hosting off them seems ok

my advice though..

Never have your domain name (registrar) with the company you host with or with the company who design or controls your site for you.

and you need to decide a budget. if you want a full custom built site you can expect to pay a great deal. There are many out of the box real estate solutions that

are built around a content management system that you cna manage yourself.

beware of the design company's who want to do updates for you, it will cost you a fortune post-setup, so you must ensure you either have staff who can do regular updates or that the website has a nice easy control/management interface

costs yous will have are these

domain name - paid yearly directly to a company like godaddy not over $9.99 per year. Normally cheaper

web hosting - paid once per year

web design - a one off charge by a design form for either building you a custom site (expensive) or for customising and existing content management system (cheaper option) ,

your biggest hurdle on the design is the pretty graphics to make you look individual . and then you have to consider SEO stuff. Companies will charge you mega bucks for this and with the number of agents in town it's would be hard to get your monies worth so consider seeking advice on doing it yourself, its not rocket science

Edited June 16, 2011 by silentnine

[Phil Conners]

Try eclipse design, www.webdesignthailand.net. They set up a real estate site for friend of mine, small agent on lk-metro for 15,000, they are pretty computer literate there but seem to manage adding properties to their site ok .

They also do client assist sites where they help you do it yourself and show you what to do .. So you end up getting lessons out of it to

also you could consider buying the guy a beer and he may host it be happy to advise you what CMS software to use and just help you set it up as opposed to doing it all . that will save you $

They have their server somewhere in the USA but they work from here so nice and easy to talk to

Starts at 2000bt for a year's hosting off them seems ok

One thing that would worry me with this particular company is the lack of any business address details. All I can find is an email contact form. It suggest to me that it may be someone working on his own, without work permit or company structure. He may make nice websites but individuals like that tend to be here today and gone tomorrow, either because they got caught or because they decided to move on, leaving you behind with an unsupported website in the best case, or losing all control with your website in the worst case. I know of several cases where this has happened.

[wxpwzrd]

Try eclipse design, www.webdesignthailand.net.

One thing that would worry me with this particular company is the lack of any business address details. All I can find is an email contact form. It suggest to me that it may be someone working on his own, without work permit or company structure. He may make nice websites but individuals like that tend to be here today and gone tomorrow, either because they got caught or because they decided to move on, leaving you behind with an unsupported website in the best case, or losing all control with your website in the worst case. I know of several cases where this has happened.

Oh it is probably someone working on his own... 'Everyone' is a web professional...

But his contact info is easily accessible on WHOIS... At least what is published.