[NA] Who are our Wordpress website developers

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
20,803
Location
Denton, TX
Display Name
The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
Home Airfield
KDTO (Denton Enterprise)
In January, I'm going to begin polishing and adding too the basic website I have that's done in WordPress. www.dentontruckautoparts.com

Who here works in that environment? I need to build a roster of site design and management talent I can tap into once I boil down my wants, needs, and ideas into something you can turn into a top level business web site.

And I'd like to use folks with an aviation passion so I can help support your 100LL or Jet-A addiction.
 
I've used WP. It's sort of like asking your mechanic if he's ever used harbor freight tools.. He has, but he may not always admit to it. :D
 
I used to have WP, now I'm with squarespace. It works well for me.
 
it is really a blog platform. People use for websites so they don't need to pay a designer or developer. There is not really a ton you can do with it other than throw some content up there. If you are going to spend some dollars, you might as well do it right.
 
John221us said:
it is really a blog platform. People use for websites so they don't need to pay a designer or developer. There is not really a ton you can do with it other than throw some content up there. If you are going to spend some dollars, you might as well do it right.
Click to expand...

Good point.

Then I'm willing to find someone who is willing to be "my guy" to get it done right.

There does need to be a blog element, but that's a "level 2" item. More part of "keep the content fresh to keep the Google algorithm happy" thing.

Main bit is something that does a top job of "who what when where how", provides means for customers to "self help" for answers (part search, what is the warranty, where can I find the required form), a form to request a bid to sell their car, connectivity with social media sites, and a bit more. Oh, and make it easy and simple to keep up to date as the years roll on.

Search for some other well executed Auto Recycler sites and you'll start to get an idea of what I want to emulate and obtain. I want to become a site that folks find useful, informative, and one they will recommend to others when asked "Where can I find a good deal on parts for my car or truck?"
 
I rarely use WP, Joomla, or other frameworks for commercial sites. WP is a pretty good blog platform, but it's limited for most other purposes.

I also don't find that sites built on canned platforms optimize very well. That's okay if you just want to spew wisdom into the ether, but not so much if you want to make money. So I just code commercial sites by hand. It takes more time and costs more money, but the results are better.

Rich
 
I've been developing websites for almost 20 years (various platforms/languages). I'm not much for design, but have quite a few professional resources to fill that need for me. If there's something I can help with, let me know.
 
I've just volunteered to be webmaster for our local car club and I'm learning about Wordpress from a book they gave me and playing around on the site.
If there are any tips or sites anyone could point me to for learning how to do things like add photos and text I'd appreciate it.
 
champ driver said:
I've just volunteered to be webmaster for our local car club and I'm learning about Wordpress from a book they gave me and playing around on the site.
If there are any tips or sites anyone could point me to for learning how to do things like add photos and text I'd appreciate it.
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I haven't watched these videos yet, so can't speak to the quality, but a site like this can be helpful when getting started with Wordpress:

https://ithemes.com/tutorial/category/wordpress-101/
 
AggieMike88 said:
Good point.

Then I'm willing to find someone who is willing to be "my guy" to get it done right.

There does need to be a blog element, but that's a "level 2" item. More part of "keep the content fresh to keep the Google algorithm happy" thing.
Click to expand...

Look at PageLines as a wordpress plugin that can help you get a lot of additional flexibility for $99.

But on the whole, the folks saying that WP is really a blog platform are right. They are also right in saying that taking the next step beyond that has the potential of being quite expensive.

The question you might do well to ask yourself has less to do with technology and more to do with business. Are your customers going to change their purchasing decision on the basis of your website. If not, then just keep plugging fresh content into WP. If so, then be ready to write a larger check to get something spiffy.
 
I've done two websites with WP:

A blog site for my wife: http://www.cowetafayettefamilies.com/

and my local EAA Chapter: http://www.eaa6.com

They were kind of 'thrown together' sites. My better work has been at work on our corporate intranet developing business intelligence tools with either straight PHP in notepad or via MVC frameworks like CodeIgniter (a couple of years ago) and Laravel.

If you're wanting to do integration with your inventory system, you're probably going to want something more flexible than WordPress. It's great for throwing up a 'contact us' type of page, but it's hard to get it to do exactly what you want it to do without quite a bit of effort.
 
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rwellner98 said:
The question you might do well to ask yourself has less to do with technology and more to do with business. Are your customers going to change their purchasing decision on the basis of your website. If not, then just keep plugging fresh content into WP. If so, then be ready to write a larger check to get something spiffy.
Click to expand...

The repeat customers I do want to attract and keep might make a purchase decision based on what info is published on the site and how easy it is to find.

For us, it's a mix of retail (can I find the part myself? What is your warranty? Where are you located? Will you buy my car?) and commercial (I need a solid supplier with top shelf service and warranty).

Long term desire is to keep a good stream of retail flowing, but deepen my lake of repeat commercial customers. And be part of the "live, in person" machine by being the place we can say, "for additional info, visit our site..."

Site I want to have eventually needs to do the job of communicating that though the part is a used/recycled item, it is not junk, nor am I a "junk yard" (head down to the road to my competitor if you want that). Site needs to tell the story that I am as professional as any major store in any industry, and that when you spend your money, you're getting both great value (retail) and good profits (commercial).

If that means replacing WP with something more "complex" but has a better more desirable result, I'm okay with investing the money as long as I am shown by the designer/developer that I'm going to be getting great value and good profits for my money spent.


I'll work up the specs later in the month and get with those of you checking in via PM.

Oh, and add to the prelim spec list the ability to work well with mobile devices (tablets and smart phones) in addition to desktop browsers.
 
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