Website design noob, well not done it for 10 years!

**Mario87** · 6th October 2010

Right, basically I am wanting to start my own business as I desribed in the job section. For those that have not seen the other thread it will be focussed on tuning cars (as in remapping them). As already highlighted in the other thread I need to go on the hunt for public liability insurance, however, even so, I am still an Authorised NIStune Distributor (as of yesterday!) and I can advertise, sell, and install their products onto customers ECU's, so need to get a website made up.

Company name is HT Developments (Herman Tuning Developments, but will remain just HT Developments or HTD on non-legal docs, etc), and have purchased the domain htdevelopments.co.uk

Problem is, the last time I made a website was in 2000 and I don't have a scooby as to where to start or what to do these days. I have access to the full Adobe Master Collection CS4 Suite (ie, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, etc, etc).

Basically this is what I am now an authorised distributor for, and also have my tuners licence for the software which will allow me to map any compatible car. However, I don't want it to be purely focussed on Nissans, because I also specialise in Evo's (seeing as I have one myself).

Any info, advice, etc welcome. Just want to get the ball rolling with this really, because I'm assuming it will take a good while to get it all made up, etc.

**stixson** · 8th October 2010

http://www.w3schools.com is a great place to start for a reminder about web design.
If you do not want to design a site, have a look around at some sites where you can purchase them for a small price. Some even come with e-commerce stuff included. I do not know much about these systems as i hand code my own, but i am sure there are some talented people on here who can help you in that direction.
Also, take a look at free css templates (google search) and download them. Open them in dreamweaver and see how they all fit together. You will soon get the hang of it again. When i learned web design around 2000, we never used css, it was all PSD template driven, but now i cannot live without it.
Main languages for websites (my opinion) ASP and PHP. With javascript thrown in afterwards.

Good Luck

**Rick Sanchez** · 11th October 2010

As your a small business I advise you have a site designed for you that way you can concentrate on promotion of your services and actually doing the work to bring the money.

This is my opinion though, as a owner of a web design firm I am slightly bias but I always stay on well designed websites longer.

**Mario87** · 11th October 2010

Cheers for the info guys, been speaking to one of my mates who does quite a lot of this stuff, and has done websites for local companies. Seen his work, and it's excellent! He has said he will help design one for me, but I will be helping out where I can. Like I said, not done it in 10 years, so VERY rusty.

Will have a look at w3schools.com when I get a free moment.

**RedBicycle** · 5th January 2011

If you get a chance to look at W3schools concentrate on the HTML and CSS tutorials if you want to make changes to your website in the future.

CSS has changed how websites look the past 10 years, in a good way.

**Over Carl** · 5th January 2011

I agree with hilljd00. I remember around 10 years ago getting outstanding marks on uni assignments for making webpages, I even used to do most of my mate's courseworks in return for payment in kind. Since then it's all changed, and from what I remember then, flash wasn't the easiest of learning curves.

Bearing in mind you could probably spend a week pissing around just getting your head round flash, then css, I reckon you are best off getting your mate to do as much as possible, then just sort the edits yourself in the future.

**pctuner1984** · 5th January 2011

I used to do all my pages in HTML tables lol only just got my head round just enough css to get me by. Glad in one respect standards have been brought in means that most websites will display in 99% of browsers correctly without it looking shit

**Jamlow** · 5th January 2011

I'm sure there are a couple of free e commerce sites available in php you can use which are just content management systems and don't require much knowledge to set up.

I'm not sure how far you want to take your learning but w3scools is definitely a great place to start.

Good luck!!!