I am in need of a bit of advice.
Through a rather elaborate set of events I have been roped in to help develop a new website for a local box and paper company.
While I do have a bit of experience with web development I have really never done anything exactly like this or on such a scale.
The customer who is looking for a basic website to display information about his company, a product catologue and an online store. His current website, which is barely functioning and has no online store component whatsoever, needs work and I think it would be best to start from scratch.
That being said I am at a bit of a loss on where to start and how exactly I should go about building a web site with an online store component then handing it over the the owner of the company for easy future editing and updating.
Would SquareSpace or WordPress be a good option? Should I just start from scratch and code everything by hand?
I'm just looking for some advice on where to begin and what would be the best way to go about complementing the job to the satisfaction of the customer.
Thanks Again!
For anyone interested this is their current website: http://www.brandtboxnj.com/
First off, you almost definitely don't want to build it from scratch. There are well tested, open source CMSs/frameworks out there that can take care of 90% of the heavy lifting for you. You'll have to educate yourself on how they work but it's immensely easier to leverage something pre-built as opposed to going with a purely bespoke solution.
Squarespace is super easy to get up and running with, but it doesn't give you a whole lot of control over most aspects of your site, though it does have an e-commerce platform out of the box. Maybe it's fine for your needs, maybe not, you'll have to do the research. Definitely the quicker/easier/cheaper option.
Wordpress is a little more in depth and doesn't have e-commerce functionality (though there are free plugins that handle that sort of thing). It's much more flexible/customizable than squarespace, but that also give you more opportunities to shoot yourself in the foot.
It really depends on your skill set: if you're comfortable with php/javascript/sql, wordpress is probably ideal for you. If you're looking for a "just get it up and running ASAP" type platform, squarespace is the way to go. There's also drupal (my personal favorite CMS, though it is more advanced than wordpress), and joomla (not a huge fan, but some people like it), both of which are CMSs built in php that you may want to look at.
Also make sure you talk to your client to try and suss out which solution would best fulfill their needs. You definitely want to be on the same page as far as expectations.
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