Should I try to build my own website or hire a professional?

  • Resolved anelson

    (@anelson)


    14 years, 4 months ago

    I don’t know if I should pay a professional to build my WordPress website and show me how to manage it, or try to do it myself with help from the WP forums. It’s a business decision that I need advice for.

    I have no experience with building a website or writing code. I don’t have a lot of time to teach myself, read about WP codex, and solve issues. I’m trying to get my business started quickly.

    Briefly, my business will be teaching guitar online and locally. My website will be video centric. A Welcome video will start playing when someone comes to my site. There will be video post accessible to anyone, but I also want to have video lessons accesible only to my students on a per class basis. I want my videos to be protected as well as possible from being downloaded or shared without my authorization. The pros I have talked with over the phone say I should put my videos on a place like Vimeo, create guitar classes with particular video lessons, and then give permissions to students to access classes that they have paid for.

    I feel like I have too much to do for one person. I need to play guitar more and make a lot of video lessons. I tried reading the WP codex and felt there was a lot to read. I have read and I have created post and pages, but I need to do more than just create post and pages. So I forked over some money for Digging Into WordPress, which I realize now is for people who know more than me. I then forked over some money for a custom theme from Press75.com. But I don’t know how to build my site with Jason’s theme’s and he doesn’t provide support beyond his theme.

    Perhaps I just don’t know how a few plugins here and there, and some help from the WP forums could quickly get my site published with the functions that I want it to have. I will also need the best SEO possible. And of course there are more functions I will want to add later, like online payments for a guitar class.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • so long..

    kmvan – lol

    anelson – It is easy to get started with WordPress, even without prior programming experience. You can buy a hosting account with 1-click WordPress install to get you up and running fast. Then you can select your own themes – you can work it out from the control panel without reading the WP codex. You can install plugins easily enough and customise them from the control panel.

    But your requirements are more complicated than a basic install. If you want some posts to be viewable to the public, others for your students, PayPal subscriptions, particular design or layout etc. then you will spend a lot of time learning.

    Your time is better off spent making videos. Hire a professional with lots of WordPress experience. Use them for a couple of hours here and there as you need. Keep the brief simple so it doesn’t cost you much.

    If I were you, I would make an attempt if you’re not afraid to experiment. You’ll find that using WP is pretty intuitive.

    Worst case, you learn more about what you want or where the gaps are and eventually realize that you’ll need help. Best case, you’ll be able to do everything yourself, including managing the site on your own without relying on anyone.

    Thread Starter anelson

    (@anelson)

    My Thanks to HeyHeyMonkey and Gabe. With the answers, “alot of time learning” and “WP is pretty intuitive”, I think I’ll hire a pro and get my hands wet when I have time. Thank you. This question is resolved.

    “Pretty intuitive” means that I think you could do it.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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