Truly at the end of my rope trying to get a website designed

Hi all,

I operate a small, home-based business and, barring work restrictions when I first moved to the UK, I've been doing this for 20 years.

I had never had a website. My clients came from my big Yellow Pages ad, flyers on student campuses and in the community, and word of mouth.

Now I am starting all over again and need a website. I thought I could do it myself (oh boy was I wrong!)  On advice of a friend, I was told to go to 123-reg.co.uk and purchase a domain and hosting services, which I did. I purchased a co.uk and a .com domain and began to design the site.

It was disastrous to say the least.  So this friend offered to do the site (I'd pay him of course). Well, we've met with him twice in the past 6 weeks and not one thing has been done to the site. Meanwhile I am paying a monthly fee for hosting.

He is going through a hard time and I am sympathetic, but I do need to get this site up and running. I contacted FOUR website design sites and not one person has responded with a quote. I find this unbelievable.  I contacted these sites 10-14 days ago.

The friend who was going to design the site never gave me a quote for his services, so I don't even know what something like this costs, but the prices on the few sites I saw that actually list them scared me.

SO! I am back to trying to find either a beginner who would be willing to do it for a much cheaper fee, or trying to design it myself again, on another site. I have no clue how to transfer the domain name, etc. to another hosting site if I even could do that.

I know ZILCH about web design, hosting, etc. etc. Is there anyone who could tell me a very easy site that I could use to design this myself (it is an e-commerce site, with only 1/2 dozen 'products'.)

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer some insight and/or advice.

I used Weebly to create my own site, and found it pretty easy to work with (the site's in my signature if you want to have a look).  I originally had hosting with BlueHost and did the site myself from a template, then switched to Go Daddy for hosting and Weebly for site design because it was easier to make a video gallery with Weebly.

I haven't had to deal with any problems, but they've been nice and helpful in all the emails setting stuff up.  Might be worth a look.

I've created a few websites using Wordpress. It's pretty easy, to be honest. To map your domain name, the easiest way is to contact the people you bought it from - they should have a support line and will be able to do it for you if you can't work it out yourself.

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Just checked and wordpress.com doesn't accommodate ecommerce, but wordpress.org does. Have a look at it and see if you think it's something you can manage!

Good luck!  

There are a few sites where you can accept bids for work like this, if you're still looking for someone. For example elance.com may be a good option. It seems like they are bursting at the seams with people who are skilled in IT stuff looking to pick up quick work. May be something to consider if you haven't done so already.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. There was more to this situation that just had me in tears with frustration, so  really appreciate all the suggestions. I will be looking into every one of them!

Weebly!  It's so easy and you can do it from an iphone!

As a Xara enthusiast, I've done three websites using proper software, although I have a full time job and work away from home a lot, but my laptop is always with me.

www.impalabedandbreakfast.com
www.conifersbedandbreakfast.co.uk
www.smartstitching.co.uk

I may be able to help you if you tell me what you want, pictures you want to use, text and logo/name. I can do something for you and send you the html files.
No charge.

Xara comes with free hosting with Magix.com, if you wanted to transfer your domain name here is how its done...http://www.magix-online.com/us/help-support-magix-domain-email/domain-transfer.3989.html

An ex-colleague of mine who was made redundant at same time as me has set up his own business doing web design.

Don't know if it would be in your price range but here is his webpage
http://www.richardwalkerwebdesign.co.uk/