Newbie...society website

[Type_R]

Hi All

I would be grateful if I could have some ideas regarding what tools I need to develop and design a website please.

The medical society has approx 100 members and at its most basic level the site needs to have this functionality:

1. display information including latest research/newsletters

2. maintain a database of members with some admin users with access to a members portal

3. have a payment system that allows visitors to join as members and sign up via direct debit

4. Have the ability to book visitors/members for events and meetings and pay

5. Email lists that allows mail to be sent to all members easily

the first question is, is it possible for a relative newbie to undertake this task?

I have limited experience of Wordpress with the current website which was designed at great cost by Minty Cloud (who don’t update the plugins and don’t allow installation of modules).

I have looked at some threads on here. My thoughts are (correct me if I’m wrong)...

- I need to host using a company like Krystal
- The domain is already registered
- Will need an email provider
- Use page builder software such as Divi (or anything else anyone can recommend).

In terms of cost we have been quoted £10k by a company which doesn’t include payment options on the site. I am free to spent up to £2k to make this happen..does that sound feasible?

Any help much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I would be grateful if I could have some ideas regarding what tools I need to develop and design a website please.

The medical society has approx 100 members and at its most basic level the site needs to have this functionality:

A template and notepad++ should do the trick.

In terms of cost we have been quoted £10k by a company which doesn’t include payment options on the site. I am free to spent up to £2k to make this happen..does that sound feasible?

I would say no not if it's just an information site. Wouldn't even pay 2k for one.

 

[balanceballs]

A template and notepad++ should do the trick.

I would say no not if it's just an information site. Wouldn't even pay 2k for one.

Are you suggesting he roll his own authentication and payment solutions with Notepad++? While he's clearly done a bit of research, it's not in his best interests to be trying to do this stuff by himself, at least not with quite a lot more experience and knowledge. Even if using well-established solutions like Shopify there's a lot to consider.

I think £10k might be a bit much but honestly I wouldn't expect a lot of change from £5k for this sort of thing. Assuming you want it done properly by a reputable company, not just some "web designer" who registered their name and created a page with Wix and says they can create a working solution for you.

Remember it's going to need:

Signup/Registration
Secure areas for members
Event management
E-Commerce
Mailing lists

This is quite a lot to consider and get right. I'd just be cautious at this stage and perhaps get some other quotes from different places. Make sure you actually need all of the above, too.

I've made similar mistakes in the past and ended up just paying a company to do it for me. I am a developer myself but not really web development anymore - just haven't got the time to learn what I need to know right now.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I had to re-read @balanceballs i agree with you.

 

[balanceballs]

I had to re-read @balanceballs i agree with you.

Yeah, it's more than it reads at first glance. Just don't want the guy in a world of pain when he's in too far and has to call in a company to fix it. Better to get it right first time

 

[NutterzUK]

Answering these two questions may help - in my heads I see them separating 2k from 10k and aren't clear from your original message:

- What are your timescales looking like?
- What's the cost of downtime - is resiliency important? How much data are you prepared to lose in the event of a failure, and how quickly does it need to be back up?

 

[Type_R]

Thanks everyone. Will look in getting it developed by a company.

 

[ChroniC]

To have the payment system as part of the website plus a member portal is why your being asked to pay so much. However I think you could break this down into cheaper methods...
The logins could easily be controlled with a member portal plugin for WordPress or have a developer make it. It wouldn't be hard and really shouldn't cost more than 1k to have developed along with the whole website.
The payment section instead of integrating it into the site, do it manually.
Set up a PayPal button for payments (add the script to the website) and then when the person pays , you would receive an email with their details..
Create the user manually and save yourself a lot of money.

Number 5 just use a mail chimp plugin to keep a list of subscribes...

Number 4 is a little trickier, because this is where the two systems of booking and paying overlap and would need some integration, of the top of my head I can't think of anyway to simplify that.

Thinking about it, after writing all that a decent system would be between 3 to 5k. Avoid bigger companies they make things more expensive from overheads, look at smaller outfit or freelancer who is competent.

Think you'd struggle to get a polish system for 2k