Dumb idea?

[TLawrence]

I work at a newspaper and print shop company. Very small. Things are slow right now. I thought about running a idea of building websites. You guys think it would be a good idea since its not in the paper business.

 

[inky]

A lot of print shops write websites, I think it shows a lot of initiative, very commendable.

 

[Keith]

Yes, you should. You know why? Because web developers offer printing services! They make a bunch of money building a website (because their only overhead is a computer and their time) and then when their customer asks for business cards, they go to one of those cheap online trade shops and give them business cards with little to no markup. So guess what I like doing. Stealing web design work by undercharging and cheapening their industry! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Sorry, I'm a little disgruntled. And this bourbon tastes really good.

 

[dabob]

I do the pre press work for my company and offer web design services on the side . . . a nice little source of extra income . . . .

 

[TLawrence]

I do the pre press work for my company and offer web design services on the side . . . a nice little source of extra income . . . .

What programs do you use for creating webpages?

 

[dabob]

Muse . . . its very similar to InDesign . .. but you have limitations . . . but for nice basic sites its a slam dunk

 

[TLawrence]

Muse . . . its very similar to InDesign . .. but you have limitations . . . but for nice basic sites its a slam dunk

Is that a free program or you have to buy it?

 

[Joe]

Muse is included in the Creative Cloud Subscription. If you don't have that you have to buy it separately.

 

[oxburger]

Not a dumb idea, but could be a problem when trying to manage multiple clients with differing needs. Especially when getting into Ecommerce and online shopping, mobile apps, etc. If the software you choose to work with doesn't fit what the client needs, you will either have to adapt and learn another program or turn jobs away. I tried doing it with a WYSIWYG editor and found myself making extensive changes to websites because what they needed didn't work within the confines of the software.

 

[TLPSfremantle]

agree on all the above, the other thing i'd consider is that print clients have a defined finish to a job, be it printing or design. with web design it can be on going. do you offer continuous updates? tech support? whilst it's all cash, i found that it was taking way more time to manage those clients than i was spending on my own print clients. i'd consider how you package the product before you sign up to it.

 

[dabob]

In my experience . . I charge 25 bucks a month to cover the hosting - costs me about 6.00 and that includes minor changes - the original design for a "basic" page is 100 bucks and then it goes up - any thing more than a "minor" change is billable . . . so far I spend about 2 hours a year doing maintenance - I only bill them for hosting every 6 months and I have one customer that suggested I do it yearly . . . but then again they were all wither already friends or have become friends . .

 

[Alith7]

I would highly recommend checking out dreamhost.com for hosting. they have unlimited plans for super cheap, and if you're just doing basic sites (no mySQL, or complex scripts) the shared hosting is perfect. And you can host unlimited domains all under one account. If you are interested message me, and I can give you a referral code to get a nice discount off your first year of hosting.

https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting/shared/

 

[David Milisock]

Listen the only dumb idea is setting around going broke.