business website help

[jeffjowers]

so i want to start my own personal training website and run the business online. i would like to figure out a way to set it up to where people pay for session uses or time limits that they can access the site, along with paying to access items.

my idea is a main website directed from a .com address, then opens to the pages with what you get, the help, and some other info, then can click to get the training in different levels such as silver, gold and platinum members making different things offered all with a one payment sort of thing, also giving them one time access to videos of exercises, pictures, and some other info.. then also another version where there access is more, and they get time such as 2 sessions or 10 kind of thing, and pay for all of them at once and then have a membership access to private things such as videos and chat options. running payment through pay pal probably and having them be able to pay with credit cards. how would i go about doing these different things. im sure this does not make sense, because i know im forgetting information. if anybody understands what im trying to do, or questions please help. i have a macbook, so id like to do it using iweb, and run it off a .mac account with links coming from .com's

thanks for the help. and ill try and rewrite and edit this to make more sense.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

IMHO you need a web designer/developer, if you don't have any experience building or developing web content it would be a waste of time, money and effort.

What you are talking about building is a very good idea and could work online but you will need a lot of infrastructure for the site to function correctly and get the business it will need to survive.

Also it wont just be setting up a web site you will also have to brand what you're doing the right way, create logos, create content for the site it seems to me this would be a very large project and need some serious professional input.

 

[ChrisA]

i have a macbook, so id like to do it using iweb, and run it off a .mac account

The basic answer is "no way". You are talking abut some serious development. .mac will not support anything like what yur descibe. You are way out of it's intended purpose.

The people (yes plural of person, meaning more than one) you'd need to hire each make enough money to pay the house payment, the cars and eat and will want medical insurance and so on. It will take months an you will be paying saleries of some middle class software developmeters and graphic artists and office space. Think "six figure budget" at least.
Also if you are asking this you are not qualified to manage such a large effort, you will need a project leader too. You need to be talking with your banker about funding this new start up.

Maybe you can scale down your plans by a factor of 1,000 or 10,000 and get set up for only a few grand out of pocket. The key is to realize that your business is not much different than the thousands of others and leverage a generic "web store" design. Don't re-invent it. Design your business model to live within the confines of the generic store.
What you can do is rent a pre-built web store. Lots of places offer web store fronts as a service. eBay and Yahoo are two big ones but there are better ones. Then all you do is write the articles and maybe produce to videos and whatever else it takes to attract viistors to your site and make use of the generic store infrastructure.

You will need a hosting service more robust than .mac don't worry about what software to use, the designers you hire will use whatever they use. Likely the Adobe suite.

 

[jeffjowers]

this is very similiar to my idea


http://absbyjoey.com/

based on this i would like to go a little beyond what he has done and, by each plan they get a 1 time access key, a 2 time access key, week access key month access key or like a year type access key. kind of like a password to access other content such as the videos and what not extra that my site would have that others would.

would the basic layout of the one i showed above be obtainable through .mac and iweb?

 

[ezekielrage_99]

this is very similiar to my idea


http://absbyjoey.com/

based on this i would like to go a little beyond what he has done and, by each plan they get a 1 time access key, a 2 time access key, week access key month access key or like a year type access key. kind of like a password to access other content such as the videos and what not extra that my site would have that others would.

would the basic layout of the one i showed above be obtainable through .mac and iweb?

There would be no way you could do that with a .mac account and iWeb it's just that simple.

Hire a good designer who can use the right software in give you the proper advise.

 

[jeffjowers]

how much does that usually run to get a good web designer to get it all set up?

 

[bootedbear]

how much does that usually run to get a good web designer to get it all set up?

You'll need more than just a web designer to set all that up. You'll also need a good developer. Or someone (rare) who is good at both.

 

[CanadaRAM]

how much does that usually run to get a good web designer to get it all set up?

Be prepared to pay an experienced person $1,000 - $3,000 (that's 2 - 5 days of work - it may be more depending on the complexity of what you want it to do) to work out the outline of what you need and write a detailed scope statement for the project. THEN you can start getting bids for what the programming and design will cost, which will easily be in the tens of thousands or more.

What you are asking is like: "I want a house. I don't know how big it will be, or what it will be made of, or what's going inside of it. Tell me how much will it cost me?"

In that scenario, you hire an architect to consult with you what you want, and draw up some plans. Then you can start costing it out.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Web development isn't cheap, but if you a setting up an online business a cheap web site wont get you the desired result.

I have set up designs for large organisation and small organisation and the web sites that have succeeded are the ones that have been set up with a realistic goal and were willing to pay for what they needed and what it's work.

Also without a business plan it would be very hard to gauge how much what you're suggesting would cost.

 

[jeffjowers]

yea i understand all that. the hard part is figuring out if spending all that money would end up coming back in clients. i know my idea and what not is good and would be beneficial, but i dont know if it would be cost effective in the long run to run an online business also. i know that it would need alot of room, for video files, and pictures, then pretty complicated especially because of the access and password thing. on top of that how to figure out, marketing and getting the clientel to the site.

 

[ricke46]

Post your project on elance.com or a similar site and see what kind of bids you get. You might be able to save some money that way. On another note, I used a russian based development firm to build my site. They did it for a VERY good price. I can forward you their information if you want.

 

[Malfoy]

I'd be interested in the russian development firm. Can you PM me some info about them?

 

[ChrisA]

In that scenario, you hire an architect to consult with you what you want, and draw up some plans. Then you can start costing it out.

"architect" That's the word.

That pretty much goes along with what I said. "You need to hire a project leader. " Using the house analogy this guy is the general contractor or architect who actually knows how to build houses. But of course he does not know what you need. But his job is to listen to you and tell you what is cheap and easy and what is going to cost big $$$$. You had a few hugely expensive items listed. The architect's job is to warn you. For example I built a house a while back and was talking with the architect early on. I said I wanted a certain kind of roof. He said "OK But..." that because of the weight i'd need to handle the horizontal shear (eathquake loads) and it would add $30,000 of extra structure all the way down to the foundation. We did some other minor changes and got another $10K of structure removed. I think I paid him $5,000 for his advice and he saved my $40K.

So,.... Pay a business consultant, some guy with an MBA to write a three year business plan for you. You will need this to get a bank loan anyways. Then pay a software designer to do a high level design of your site.. Be warned: It is not reasonable to expect to make a profect inside of 6 months. Maybe even for the first year. This should be spelled out in the business plan.

The problem here is that the OP wanted to set this up for the price of a .mac account and do it himself at no cost using iWeb. I think this is still possible if you can accept about three orders of magnitude reduction in quality. It is not hard to build static web pages in iWeb. You can post article about the business and photos and describe the services offered. Then you can direct customers to ebay. There you have an ebay store where they can click "Buy It Now" and pay yo with Pay Pal, credit card ot whatever. This is not nearly as slick as we'd like but the cost to set of os only a few hundred dolors.

Of course the biggest problem is how to get people to look at the web site. How would they even know it was there?

 

[jeffjowers]

my main source would be utilizing all the social networks, along with having others spread the word, local business card hand out, and also client recommendation. i guess that i could do it with iweb/.mac and use ebay maybe as a front....for a period to build the business up to enough traffic/revenue to then go about getting a real site made for it. any other help would be great. ohh i would also use fitness sites, and fitness business such as supplement companys as affiliates, and also doing click links on other sites.