Small Company Website - Expectations? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pm
content: Hi Gents,Background: I'm going to start my own small one-man company. The main tasks are kits, circuit design and pcb layout. Everything is related to the maker movement.My question is "What do you expect from a company website?"Is there something you would say it is a must have?Would you say it is better to use some bullshit bingo words to look bigger?Or is it better to be honest and look small and limited?What is agood websitefor a small company?Any comment would be highly appreciated.Thank you!hammy

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 11:26:36 pm
content: Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmYes.Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmNope.Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmThis. But a lot of frustration with small company (and some big ones) sites comes from the lack of real information. No contact us for pricing BS, please. Give at least order of magnitude estimates.Also, no new design style where everything shift around when you scroll. They just show that you have noting to say, because the real distilled amount of information on those sites is typically less than one paragraph.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 11:48:50 pm
content: Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmNo!Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmAbsolutely, but be professional and keep it simple. There is no need to be arrogant like these guys:http://dirtypcbs.comFocus on your customer (personalised) service, give clear turnaround times, pricing and requirements/restrictions. Make sure your contact details are easily located (not hidden under some obscure "About Us" page).No need for "mission statements" or any of that bollocks either. No one with half a brain reads them other than for a laugh or as you said, in the case of "bullshit bingo". Small sites can still look good,check out some of these examples for inspiration:http://www.awwwards.com/websites/minimal/

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 11:55:22 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on February 16, 2016, 11:48:50 pmMost of those sites are examples of what not to do if you actually have something to say. I visited a few and all of them have stuff moving from left, right, top and bottom as you scroll.EDIT: And just a random example of a perfect small business site -https://oshpark.com/

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:08:58 am
content: It seems to be maniacal trend these days to use Wordpress as the site platform. I can only speak for myself that if you too use it, i will not be your customer. The other thing that turns me right away is the Carusel scrolling useless images such as smiling customers and taking 4/5 of the screen real estate. I am yet to see a site that displays useful information in the carusel. Give me the meat right when the home page loads so i do not need to scroll 5 pages down. And yes as the other user said i have no interest in reading your company's mission statement.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:20:14 am
content: Don't rely on JavaScript. It's primary use these days seems to be for delivering advertising and many people block it by default. If you have to use it, source from your top level domain or somewhere clearly affiliated with your site.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:20:32 am
content: Quote from: Bud on February 17, 2016, 12:08:58 amJust like airline CEOs giving long passionate speeches before flights. The only reason people put up with that crap is because they are held hostage in a metal tube with wings.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:22:02 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on February 16, 2016, 11:55:22 pmAgreed! Good example there!

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 01:46:13 am
content: Quote from: rdl on February 17, 2016, 12:20:14 amVery definitely. I keep Javascript off (using NoScript) for security reasons and also for performance reasons. Consequently I'm acutely aware of those sites that seem to load Javascript from a dozen different places. I will have much more confidence in a site that loads all resources (not just Javascript) from its own domain.If you must use Javascript, have a non-Javascript version of the site that actually works. Do not under any circumstances use Javascript for basic site rendering. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who just moves on if they find that a site doesn't even display basic content if Javascript is turned off.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 02:10:33 am
content: KISS1. What do you do (and not do), with examples if appropriate2. How much do you charge3. Contact details (email address, contact form...)If you have products to sell, add:4. What products, how much (and how much and where you will ship them*), any associated data5. A button to buy themUnless you have a massive load of products, a single page listing your products is just fine.* If you are not going to ship internationally, MAKE THAT CLEAR ON THE PRODUCT PAGE.

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 06:00:48 am
content: Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmHammy,The biggest question is one you must answer: What do you expect the site to do for YOU?It is your company, so it is your strategy on how you position your resources to accomplish your goal. Developing a website is a resource expenditure. For the $xxx.xx that you may spend, what do you expect in return?Example:- I want this website to tell my customer about my products- I want this website to take orders- I want this website for customer feedback- I want....After getting that done, you can decide success criteria. With the purpose and success criteria nailed down, it would be an easier target to hit.My 2 cents worth...Best wishes and may you succeed beyond your expectations.Rick

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:09:46 am
content: Hi GentsA lot of good advices!No JS, small and simple, no BS, contact address easily located, clear prices and terms ...No Wordpress and no ultra stylish design ...What do you want do see before you buy a kit, or you pick up the phone for a layout job? Is it necessary to show some examples of my work on my website? Or reference companies I worked for?Or is this also BS and you rely only on mouth-to-mouth marketing?Thank you! This helps me a lot!Cheershammy

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:18:40 am
content: Quote from: hammy on February 17, 2016, 08:09:46 amI think examples speak louder than references (who can be bothered even contacting referees?).

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 09:08:27 am
content: Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmThere is no real benefit todeliberatelysounding small really.Nothing wrong with "we" instead if "I".Just make sure all the info is right there on one page. Schematics as PDF's etc.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 09:19:56 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on February 17, 2016, 09:08:27 amAgreed. "We" is fine."Engineering Team"is not. ;-)

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 09:20:06 am
content: Quote from: hammy on February 16, 2016, 11:05:48 pmWhy constrain yourself that way at the outset? It's far from obvious to me that people who refer to themselves as "makers" are responsible for much in the way of discretionary R&D spending. But I digress.I've been in your position, as a one-man design company looking for a bit of extra publicity. Fortunately word-of-mouth has kept me busy enough that I never actually had to publish a web site - but I did spend some time writing material for it just in case. Here are a few thoughts...- Don't under-sell yourself. You're not one random nerd with a scope trying to scratch out a living by pushing buttons; you're a professional consultant. That doesn't mean you're a big company, it means customers are assured of your personal attention to see their project through from start to finish.- It's quite likely that a new customer won't have hired someone to design bespoke electronics for them before. Make sure your site clearly explains what the process involves, and how you'll be able to help and support them throughout.- The only good reason not to have photos of your work on the site is that you don't have any, or there was something wrong with every job you ever did... at least in the mind of a visitor. That may not be true, of course; most of my jobs are confidential, but I have a few boards I can show off. Also...- High quality photography = high quality engineering, and vice versa. If you don't have a decent camera and some experience in product photography, consider finding someone who does. Half a day of a professional photographer's time could be a very worthwhile investment in marketing.- I personally wouldn't include pricing on the site. It's fine if you're selling off-the-shelf items, but nothing in R&D is off-the-shelf in terms of requirements, time or complexity. Instead, encourage people to contact you to discuss their needs, but don't start quoting figures until you have a clear understanding of what they need.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 03:35:22 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on February 17, 2016, 09:20:06 amThere is everything to be said for educating your customers and potential customers. Even if I don't buy something from a company the first time around, they will be my first port of call next time around if they taught me something, provided useful data, made useful recommendations etcetera.QuoteI'd go so far as to say that unless you definitely know for a fact that you know how to produce a good 'pack shot' use a professional photographer. When I worked at PC Magazine we had a staff photographer and in house studio just to take photos of all the PCs, boards and accessories because product photography is a specialist skill and using freelance professional photographers didn't always get the right result. Here in London there are photographers who do nothing but product photography and make a very good living at it. There are people you can send a product round to on a bike and for a fixed fee get back a set of photos the same day. See if you can find similar where you are. It's not expensive* and you'll be using the same photographers that national and international advertisers do.*When I was 'in the know' rates for a set of 'pack shots' where around a day's median salary (100-150 GBP) and would get you a reel or two of 6x6cm transparencies. By comparison, a freelance photographer for the day would have cost you 500 GBP.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 04:48:27 pm
content: As a former Web usability professional, here are some tips, in no particular order:1. Don't think about what you think is good for you. Think about your site visitors: What does a customer want when they go to your site? What about a prospective customer? Or an upset one with some kind of problem? A happy visitor makes a happy customer. Don't waste their time with stupid marketing wank and stock photos, or landing pages, or anything else that stands in the way of a visitor accomplishing their goal. Any hurdles make them go away.2. KISS.3. Make it fast and reliable. (WordPress is easy to get up and running quickly, but the quality of the plug-ins required to give it a lot of common functionality is all over the place, and may hold you back.)4. Don't make people jump through hoops: Put up prices. Don't require complex registration processes. All key info should be easy to find.5. Invest heavily in the structure of the site. It's really worth it to spend time thinking about what the menu items should be, what's inside them, and what the wording is. (Pro tip: if you have menus with "&" in the name, you should think longer.)6. Test the site with real people, early and often. Give them real world tasks to accomplish and see where they have trouble. Things you thought would be hard will prove unproblematic, and things you never thought in a million years could be confusing will be the things you see people struggle with over and over.7. Keep the website updated! You'd think this was obvious, but small businesses often struggle to keep their sites current. It gives the impression that you're a small guy if your site hasn't been updated in forever.

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:17:24 pm
content: This is really a good forum with a lot of kind people. Thank you for your helpful advice.

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2016, 06:48:41 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on February 17, 2016, 01:46:13 amOh please, it's 2016... Show me one decent site not using JS.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2016, 08:02:29 am
content: PHOTOS! A photo is worth 10000 words! If I go to a website to find information about something that sounds interesting, you have to work REALLY REALLY HARD to hold my attention with gray paragraphs of breathless prose.And people who show postage-stamp size thumbnail photos almost get LESS respect than people with no photos at all. It shows they actually have photos but aren't smart enough to put up something useful. That reflects badly on their ability to design and produce a product I could be interested in.And if I click on a photo to see a "larger" image, only to find the SAME (or SMALLER!) image, I'm gone in a couple more clicks. That's just monumentally dumb or hopelessly lazy.AndSPECS! Features. Options. Inputs and outputs. Sizes! Power requirements!Someone previously mentionedhttps://oshpark.com/as an example of a good small-business website, and I mostly agree. But few things are as frustrating as seeing literally hundreds of "shared" PC board designs that you can easily order. But the overwhelming majority of them have NO USEFUL INFORMATION about what they are. Not even a URL to somewhere else. What good is that? A few boards are simple enough that you can work out what they are and what components are required. But MOST of them are just random patterns without some supporting documentation. ARRRRGH!

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2016, 05:12:54 pm
content: Quote from: ivaylo on February 18, 2016, 06:48:41 amThat's what I call the "Eat shit" argument. Think of it as an advertising slogan: "Eat shit, 700 billion flies can't be wrong". Ubiquity does not imply quality or utility.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2016, 05:31:29 pm
content: True, but you're still kinda wrong. JS is now one of the core Web technologies which has legitimate and essential uses to provide a good user experience (for example, real-time form validation, which is infinitely more user friendly than the old form POST method, or AJAX to autosave your work). The alternative is Flash, which is infinitely worse. You simply cannot provide a truly top notch user experience with HTML and CSS alone, for anything but the most basic, read-only websites.The problem is that so many sites also employ JS in ways I can only characterize as disrespectful and abusive of their users, both from privacy and performance standpoints. And that is why I use Ghostery to eliminate nearly all JS trackers, ads, etc, while leaving proprietary local JS alone. It makes a world of difference, while still not breaking many sites, as disabling JS wholesale does.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2016, 10:17:32 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on February 18, 2016, 05:31:29 pmPerhaps you should actually read what I and rdi said. No one said don't use it all. The words were "don't rely" and "If you must use Javascript, have a non-Javascript version of the site that actually works. Do not under any circumstances use Javascript for basic site rendering." A significant number of sites I encounter (one or two a week) won't render at all without letting them run arbitrary Javascript from multiple different sources.

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 07:22:58 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on February 18, 2016, 10:17:32 pmErm... no, the words also were:Quotewhich is just ignorant. What sites are you frequenting? The OP is trusting you to enhance his business. How do both of you post in eevblog with JS disabled (not impossible but does show dedication)?

author: Philfreeze
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 08:29:52 am
content: I can't stop laughing about the "don't use JS" statement.Everyone uses JS because it can run on the clients side and not like php on the server side. This makes your severs cheaper and the loading times faster (doesn't have to load as much data from a server; nowaday every client is fast enough to do some JS work, not everything has to be done by the server). JS also supports async loading which is the nicest thing you can have. Don't always reload an entire webpage. Just reload the stuff that changes. This makes it much faster.While I have to agree that the JS syntax isn't very nice there is a fix for that called coffee script.Additionaly, save dev time by using jQuery or AngularJS, the browser has to load the packages only once and then it caches them.Someone said they don't trust website which load jQuery etc. from external sources. I say bullshit, load it from google, microsoft or your own server. (I usually load it from google).About the animation thing. I don't like sites filled with animation but a nice parallax scrolling effect looks really nice.The golden rule for animation is: If the user notices them, they are too extrem/ too long. Means, don't use big and long animations. Use small and short animations instead. They make the experience on a site smoother which is good.Guidelines I use:Make your design consistentuse a flat designthink about your color choice beforehand and use them consistentDon't use small fontsUse only one fontUse 4-5 different font styles maximumstructure your site logicallyDon't make your site too dark or too light (only use true white and black for text, never for design elements)Make smooth and short animationsKeep your text shortGive all needed information to the visiter (don't hide information)Make it scale well with screen sizes.Don't show less information on a mobile site but do make oneUse a holy grail layout if possibleIf your site is long, use a floating navigation so the user doesn't have to scroll up all the timeuse https if possibleThat's about it I would say.Some pretty good examples:http://www.pighixxx.com/https://briggo.com/P.S.https://oshpark.com/shared_projectsThis is not a very good example. Pictures aren't properly scaled, too much text caused by a lack of structure (Why show the components for everyone? just hide them until the user wants to know more about this specific project), they should use buttons instead of bare linksP.P.S.if you want to argue with me about a statement I made. I am ready ;-)

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 11:35:38 am
content: If I have to choose between A) seeing content and being deluged with useless garbage or B) no content and nothing else either, guess which I choose?Funny how NoScript tends to be one of the most popular Firefox extensions.Good luck with your web page.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 02:51:32 pm
content: Quote from: ivaylo on February 19, 2016, 07:22:58 amNow you're quoting the wrong person and using fighting words like "ignorant", which is a pretty clear sign that the thread has got thoroughly derailed onto the wrong topic. Hence after this I'm not engaging on the subject any more or it'll just push the thread more off track.The OPs question lead to a couple of people saying "Don't rely on Javascript, a lot of people have it turned off or severely restricted and may not like you if you do" or words to that effect. It's up to the OP to decide if that's the kind of customer he's wants to cater to - i.e. Me.QuoteTwo extensions were mentioned: NoScript and Ghostery. Both aremuchmore sophisticated than just plain turning Javascript off.Both are also very widely used which suggests that not just RDI and myself are concerned about letting other people run arbitrary code on our desktops unchecked. That is, there are a lot of people out there who take our position, are likely to share our reactions to a website that is,in our opinion, overloaded with Javascript. This is valuable information for someone designing a website who wants to appeal to the widest possible audience. While we might be taking aboutopinionsit is afactthat some peopleholdthose opinions.You might find a website that just plain doesn't render anything useful unless you let it run Javascript on your machine to be fine. That's OK, that's your opinion. But the rational reaction is to say "Fine, a bunch of Javascript doesn't bother me, but I hear that it might bother some people", the rational reaction is not to deride the opinions of those who differ with you.You wouldn't be complaining if we were saying "don't have XYZ on your website, it puts a lot of people off" if XYZ wasn't something that rings your bells. My guess is, that for whatever reason, you've got something invested in this emotionally.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 04:04:09 pm
content: I really wish Dave would let us turn off the meta-redirect which makes pages at EEVblog constantly reload.I wrote a long post about the basics of keeping web pages simple and searchable but decided not to post it - unless people want it, it may be easier to just encourage people to download a text mode browser like "lynx" a version compiled for their platform - and see what a site looks like to it. It helps a great deal. People should never use Javascript or Flash for a sites basic functionality. They should be enhancements which are used sparingly if at all.Not at all if a site can use open standards based alternatives. Which now exist for almost everything.Also use Google webmaster tools to see how Google indexes it page by page and why.Inappropriate use of Javascript and Flash is a pet peeve of mine so I get emotional... I cant begin to overemphasize the importance of knowing basic HTML, the problem which causes inappropriate use of JS and other spider and user frustrating barriers to content usability is lack of the basic knowledge of what is supposed to be there, caused by dependence on cruft-producing applications that often cannot produce decent web pages even with somebody who knows them well. Other software will produce a decent web page in the hands of somebody who knows how to use them but invariably its four or five times or more larger than it needs to be with all of that being junk code.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 04:42:57 pm
content: NoScript has what is known as a "whitelist", which is how I use it. It also has several options to "Temporarily allow top level domains by default". Either way, any sites you use frequently can be made to work while preventing the browser from going off to various places (where you never asked it to go) to fetch advertising.Some sites such as Google and Wikipedia actually work fine without JavaScript. Others, usually big businesses, will display nothing but a blank page. Clear evidence of inept web developers being employed I think. From what I've seen, the worst abusers of third party JavaScript are radio, television and print media sites.

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 06:10:06 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on February 19, 2016, 04:04:09 pm+1This... Yet, I wouldn't begin my advise to someone asking "how do I build the best site for my business?" by "never, ever use JS, because some sleazy companies abuse it"... Every technology could be abused, even plain HTML.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 07:39:42 pm
content: Quote from: ivaylo on February 19, 2016, 06:10:06 pmIndeed. Fortunately, in this thread no one has advised doing that.

author: Bob F.
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 09:02:18 pm
content: Whatever you do, in the name of your favourite deity, please do not do anything remotely resembling this:http://www.qt.io/

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 09:57:54 pm
content: Quote from: Bob F. on February 19, 2016, 09:02:18 pmDon't worry, I'm too old for such an one-page-design.At the moment I'm working on a static-page design wit a top navigation bar (created with rapidweaver).Cookies only for the shop, not for other pages. And a minimum of JS.I want a static website for security reasons and KISS. (No need to install an urgent wordpress-exploit-fix in the middle of the night.)Yes, I know, there are a lot of talented website designer out there. But the budget is tight, I want to bootstrap the whole company over the next years.A lot of good tips made me think about photos and documentation of kits.And yes, as a matter of principle, the default is https for the whole site.Thank you!hammyP.S. As far as I'm ready with the first design I present the link. I hope I don't go down in flames ...

author: JuKu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 11:42:31 pm
content: Wordpress is just a tool. You can do bad sites with it, but, imo, you can also do perfectly usable sites with it. And the the good (or bad, depending on your viewpoint) is that it is simple enough: A one person company can do better sites with it than most of the (any?) other tool. A small company cannot necessarily hire a professional web designer.For example, there probably are a of things wrong on my site (link in my sig) because I built it myself. However, because I built it myself and I can add and update the information as I wish, I believe it is more informative and complete than it would be otherwise. And I don't see how the tool itself makes it bad. Just like you can write beautiful code in assembler and horrible code in any language, Wordpress is just a tool. What matters is the result.

author: Philfreeze
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 01:12:06 pm
content: Quote from: Bob F. on February 19, 2016, 09:02:18 pmWhy?Positive things about the website:The design is consistent and modern.The paragraphs are short.The animations are a bit too long for my taste (feels just a bit too slow/slugish) but still pretty good.You get the needed information (what is qt) as the first thing you see "Qt is the leading independent technology for cross-platform development" + "Create connected devices, UIs and applications that run anywhere on any device, on any operating system at any time."Negative things:The video on the home page is pretty annoying, a picture would be better if you ask me.Some examples with pictures and text instead of videos would be nice.I would say it is not that bad.Quote from: hammy on February 19, 2016, 09:57:54 pmIt isn't a one page layout. It has more than one site (qt.io, qt.io/download, qt.io/qt-for-device-creation, etc.)

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 01:16:16 pm
content: Quote from: Philfreeze on February 22, 2016, 01:12:06 pmIsn't this layout style called "one page design"? I'm sorry ...How is it called? Is there a design guy around?

author: Philfreeze
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 01:57:01 pm
content: Quote from: hammy on February 22, 2016, 01:16:16 pmProvided I learned it correctly you only have a one page design if you can zoom all the way out and you can see absolutely everything.Example:http://www.onewebsite.ch/onepage-webdesign.html#showcaseEverything is on the same page and by clicking a navigation element you only scroll down to the element but it never switches the site.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 05:46:33 pm
content: Quote from: Philfreeze on February 22, 2016, 01:12:06 pmqt.com is not "one page", since it has multiple pages. (Each thing after the domain is apage.) Asiteis a logical/content grouping of pages, with no specific technical requirement. Usually, a website comprises a whole domain, but especially for personal websites that are hosted without a personal domain, then the website is a directory within the domain (e.g. the old angelfire.com/websitenamehere kinds of things).*In German speaking countries,siteandpageare frequently confused because English "site" (De: Webauftritt)soundslike German "Seite" (En: page). (My last job was at a web/usability agency in Zurich.)Quote from: hammy on February 22, 2016, 01:16:16 pmqt.io is a typical modern "responsive" website, complete with the "hamburger" menu that hides all the essential navigation. Good for mobile usability, bad for desktop. (And bad for mobile data consumption, because most responsive designs load tons and tons of resources and only later decide whether to hide the ones not used at a given display size.)*With JavaScript, it's possible to rewrite the URL shown in the browser, so that sections within a true one-page design still appear to have distinct URLs, where the domain.com/pagename actually maps to a tab, carousel slide, etc.

author: Philfreeze
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 11:01:14 am
content: @tookiThanks for clarifying.P.S.I just realized how ridiculous this is. Two Swiss guys and one German communicate in Engish because we are using an English forum xD

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 06:04:33 pm
content: Quote from: Philfreeze on February 23, 2016, 11:01:14 amWell, it's probably easier than one of you speaking French, one Italian and one Hochdeutsch. Mind you, I know some Germans who would rather have teeth pulled then be forced to listen to Schweizerdeutsch.

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 08:11:56 pm
content: Quote from: Philfreeze on February 23, 2016, 11:01:14 amThis is "globalisation".

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 08:55:03 pm
content: Seems to me the OP did not ask how to post a web site but never the less, got a lot of advice. So let me add my 2 cents:Joomla with Hikashop as the shopping cart. If you use the same template as the demo, it seems that the cost for everything is about $50. Good support from Hikashop, I have been asking them questions for years and I am not even a customer. Hikishop is based in France, and the template company, Joomlashine, is based in Vietnam (I forgot the name of the template). I think Joomla got it start in Australia. Quit a world effort.Stay away as much as possible from plugins because you have to maintain your site and this will eat up your time. You have to update everything you have often because there are 1,000s of people trying to hack every site in the world every day.I had a WP fyi site that was not much, and it got attacked 1,000s a time a day, once 5,000 times in 3 minutes.So if you have a site, you will have to maintain it (think time). If it gets hacked, Google may warn people that it is a dangerous site and hurt your business.