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Free Web Development @ J&D Studios

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Free Web Development @ J&D Studios
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Associateddeanylev on 31/01/2017 - 19:25 jdstudios.design (2352 clicks)
Last edited 01/03/2017 - 22:33 by 1 other user

Update: The company has ceased operations however they will be fulfilling all requests.

To celebrate the launch of J&D Studios, we'll be building websites for free for orders placed between 10:00am and 11:00pm tomorrow!

There are some conditions to this deal, please view these by clicking the "Free Websites Day!" box on our homepage

We're a web development firm that creates truly custom sites. No WordPress, no templates, no software. Just blood, sweat, tears, and lots of caffeine.

Note - the first 20 sites get guaranteed spots, and after that, we'll try our best to get as many of them as possible done.

How this promotion is going to work:

1. You place an order using our order form.

2. We reach out to you via email (generally within 24 hours) to discuss the specifics of your website.

3. We build your website and email you to notify you of this. You email back with any changes you'd like. We do this up and down, until you are 100% happy.

4. We email you your site's files (or optionally invite you to its Bitbucket Git Repo).

5. If you choose to go with our awesome free hosting, you point your domain to nameservers we provide, and voila, your site is on the internet!

If you're looking to modernize your current site, want a cool portfolio site to show potential employers, or simply want to see if we're any good at what we do, order away! You have nothing to lose, except a bit of time :)

If you have any questions or constructive feedback, feel free to leave it in the comments!

EDIT - Wow, thanks for all the comments everyone! Here's a mass response to the more negative comments:

Looks like we'll be abandoning our plans for a custom CMS, as everyone seems to hate that. Fair enough, we'll go with a more appropriate solution.

For all the people saying our our designs are amateur, that's your opinion, but we ask that you don't write us off from the get-go. I'd appreciate if you told me specifically what you don't like, not just that you don't like them. Always time, and room, for improvement.

We're offering a free service, people can just try us out, and who knows, maybe we'll surprise you :P

Also, to the people placing orders, please play by the rules. Your orders will not be counted towards the first 20 and will not be fulfilled, please place them tomorrow.

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closed Comments

  • easternculture on 31/01/2017 - 19:45

    nice. see you tomorrow

  • psyren89 on 31/01/2017 - 19:47

    Out of interest, what will you use to build said sites?

    • FFx0 on 31/01/2017 - 20:05
      +1

      Personal Blog - WordPress
      The Rest - PHP + SQL (+ Custom J&D CMS??)

      Source: the site..

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:11
      +2

      For the front-end, I use Materialize, since it's gorgeous, and amazing to work with. This, paired with completely custom HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery.

      For the back-end, Jack uses PHP and (if needed) MySQL. He's exploring other cool stuff, like Yii.

      • Captain M on 31/01/2017 - 22:15
        +1

        Some great frameworks to work with there.

      • dfaktz on 01/02/2017 - 05:53

        You might want to word your current FAQ abit more accurately then, as this wasn't the impression I got when I was just 'looking around' at the services you offer. (See below) Goodluck with the business though!

        "What makes your websites 'custom'?
        A lot of firms that build websites decide to use a pre-built CMS (content management system) such as WordPress or Drupal to build the site, start to finish (often, but not always, with a custom-built theme).

        We, on the other hand, build each website totally from scratch (utilizing CSS/JS frameworks, such as Materialize or Foundation), and then implement our custom-built control panel, so you can edit content on the fly. This puts the power back in your hands, without us charging 'maintenance fees', or anything of the sort.

        It's the best of both worlds, and allows us to achieve the exact result you desire."

  • mysticbiscuit on 31/01/2017 - 19:52
    +5

    Wallah? Do you mean voila?

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:09
      +2

      Darn that Urban Dictionary! :)

      I thought it seemed wrong. Fixed.

    • Jackson on 31/01/2017 - 22:52
      +1

      Maybe he's Lebanese? Or Indian? (chai wallah)

      • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:54
        +1

        Nope, just tired :P

  • motion2082 on 31/01/2017 - 19:53
    +12

    You're crazy, best of luck

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:12
      +1

      Haha that's what I like to hear. Thanks, we'll probably need it :P

  • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 20:03
    +6

    Can I make a suggestion that you change the conditions to only accept a certain number of applicants and that you vet each application for suitability.

    Either that or you might make it a random draw for say 3 websites, and then also select another 3 applicants selected based on your personal selection. This way you get to keep a few people happy and everyone feels like they are in with a chance… but you also get to choose a few projects which are of more interest to you.

    If you don't do this you could end up creating negative publicity as you will try to accommodate everyone and the some will miss out, whilst others will see a lower standard of work as you try to rush through production. That's how I see it working out anyway, depends how popular the offer is.

    Edit: Saying "We reserve the right to cancel any order, at our discretion." is an out for you, but it is something that is likely to create a negative feeling amongst the community if it gets quickly overloaded.

    I was thinking of getting you to take a stab at a very dated website I created years back at www.fontgod.com

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:15
      +1

      Very good idea. I put that there for this exact reason, but you're 100% right in what you're saying. I'm going to go update it. I knew we'd get a lot of useful feedback from OzB before the deal was live.

      • coolhand on 31/01/2017 - 21:09
        +1

        Abolsutely this, add in some kind of limit otherwise you may be flooded with 100+ requests

  • spackbace on 31/01/2017 - 20:11
    +5

    Give this site a makeover ;)

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:15
      +6

      Noooo, that's a classic!

    • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 20:19
      +1

      Looks very much like some of the early sites I created, from around the same era.

      • spackbace on 31/01/2017 - 20:37
        +1

        Same lol

    • belongsinforums on 31/01/2017 - 21:02
      +1

      heh

      • deadpoet on 31/01/2017 - 21:29
        +1

        Holy crap. It's like GeoCities all over again.

  • Eldub on 31/01/2017 - 20:17

    Do you do booking systems as part of the business package?

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:28

      I'll double check with Jack, but for now I'll say yes, should be nice and simple.

      • tin tin on 31/01/2017 - 22:13
        +6

        Development rule #1 - Nothing as simple as it first sounds

  • CI on 31/01/2017 - 20:26
    +1

    Thanks I'll take one

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:28

      Look forward to working with you :)

  • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 20:31
    +2

    You should probably confirm what timezone your offer is for?? NSW?

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 20:32
      +1

      Oh man, missed that entirely! Thanks. It's whatever Melbourne time is, I'll go specify :P

  • ldstr on 31/01/2017 - 20:32
    +5

    Honestly, looking at the sites you've built, they are overall quite uninspiring, bland and frankly amateur. You've taken buttons and input fields from Material Design but haven't incorporated any of the other guidelines which leaves the sites looking very unprofessional. I highly doubt any decent-sized business would pay proper money for a site like those. The creation of your own CMS or framework is a nail in the coffin - there is no reason you should be developing either of these in 2017 given the plethora of high quality ones available.

    • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 20:50
      +21

      Fairly brutal honesty there, and frankly your tact is amateur to the point of being non-existent. This is a business just starting out and in need of experience and a portfolio, and to do that they are offering a free service. If you are offering negative feedback, try to balance it with something positive or it's really just kicking someone in the balls who is trying their best to get ahead.

      You don't walk into a trainee hairdresser offering $5 style cuts and expect a cutting edge experience.

      I would have to agree with the CMS comment though.

      • ldstr on 31/01/2017 - 21:03
        +5

        Nowhere do they advertise themselves as trainees or new to web development - rather, they pride themselves on developing solutions entirely from scratch, which raises a few issues:
        - You are essentially locked into them as your web development partner, as nobody will know their CMS or quite frankly want to deal with it should they go out of business or otherwise
        - You lose the advantages of the open source community CMSes, e.g. security updates, reduced development time, no reinventing the wheel

        Furthermore:
        - jQuery is fast becoming dated in favour of front-end frameworks such as React, Angular and Vue
        - As I mentioned above they are mixing elements of Material Design with poor layouts and conflicting colour schemes

        • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 22:22
          +4

          All good points however there's not a lot of businesses that would market themselves as being green to the industry (trainee hairdressers aside), but obviously many are beginners or no new businesses would ever start up.

          I have no idea of the level of previous real world experience the owners have prior to starting the business. If they do have previous experience I would like to see what they have worked on in the past even if they cant present it on their own site (as well as detailing what aspects they worked on). Nobody likes to waste time, either as a client or business so it's good to get an idea of expectations on both sides. Without a decent portfolio its a bit of a chicken/egg thing though, a small test site for nix can certainly help gauge what to expect.

          Sometimes clients (particularly small business clients) can really kill a design by requesting changes that go against the designer's original idea so it can be dangerous to use the projects in your portfolio. I once designed a logo for a local real estate agent that had a swish of green, yellow and blue representing the local coastline (cliched but hey). My client loved the design but then asked me to change the colours to shades of plum to match a couch they had in their entry foyer… I told them this would entirely lose the message of the logo but changed it anyway and got paid, they are still using the same logo ten years on, albeit with a crappier font. I wince every time I drive past. :)

          Do I think the op is going to be offering cutting edge design, I would probably say no, but then I also understand the market they are going for and price point.

          I personally feel that the Op should be working with existing opensource CMS, and become a wizz at modifying some nice templates to suit client's needs. Building sites from scratch is great, but only if you can match the gloss of another web company that is banging out templated sites. Most customers will just see the end result and not care if it was created in a template, as long as it looks the part/works/editable.

        • cerealJay on 01/02/2017 - 04:24
          +2

          Jquery (the library) can quite happily co-exist with Angular/React/(frameworks). Those frameworks are not equivalent to or meant to replace the use of the very handy and extremely popular and versatile Jquery library. It's excellent for not only basic DOM manipulation, but also general javascript programming, making your life easier for everything from string manipulation to drop-in modules via the vast choice of Jquery plugins.

          Frameworks like Angular with all their data-binding tricks are tailored towards more complex tasks, not to mention their much more difficult environment setups requiring a dozen or so steps before you can reach "hello world". Angular 2 is even more painful to setup and works quite different to Angular 1, meaning learning Angular 1 doesn't translate to Angular 2. What a PITA.

        • ldstr on 01/02/2017 - 07:54

          @cerealKiller:

          You are grossly misinformed. You should not be using jQuery with any of those frameworks as it is a complete antipattern. Your app would not be aware of any state changes made by jQuery and you would not benefit from the efficient DOM calculations made by these libraries to reduce the amount of Dom operations required.

          String manipulation? Use to ES6 backticks.
          Modules? Each framework has a constantly expanding ecosystem.

          If you had done any research you would notice the use of jQuery is subsiding in favour of better frameworks.

        • railspider on 01/02/2017 - 10:29
          +3

          @ldstr: jQuery is as popular as it's ever been and isn't going anywhere. You mention apps - but for a simple web site where no frameworks are required, jQuery is fine as a standalone tool.

          And really, you're arguing about things that are inarguable. Everyone has a preferred way of approaching a problem - what matters is the result.

        • congo on 02/02/2017 - 00:05

          @railspider: I lost everyone after jQuery :-)

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 21:05
      +10

      Ouch. That's a bit of a downer, but the feedback is appreciated.

      Nothing to lose by trying us out for free, only helps us build our portfolio.

      We were never targeting true Material Design guidelines, and personally, I don't believe the average Joe knows what Material Design is. We're very open to what the customer wants in terms of design, and the only sites you could've seen done by us are our own (which has gotten almost universally excellent feedback) and Matt Grey Mods (which Matt was very much in charge of designing, and which I was totally cool with). An opinion is just that though, an opinion, and maybe yours is what most people would agree with. Time will tell.

      We're not really targeting decent-sized businesses, there's plenty of huge web firms willing to take that type of clientele on (that's not to say we won't), but our pricing is aimed at small businesses and individuals, to give them a shot at a nice site.

      Our CMS is not a traditional CMS in terms of something like WordPress or Drupal, but a very simple and streamlined solution for clients to edit the content on their sites. We build custom functions into it for each client, depending on their needs. It's more of a 'control panel', if you will, giving people control over our custom sites, even after they're fully built.

      I appreciate the constructive criticism, but at the same time I don't think it's that fair to already write us off based on two sites - I can build sites using plenty of different web frameworks and styles - it's all down to what the customer wants.

      That all being said, you clearly have some sort of experience in this area - anything in particular you'd advise us to avoid in future? I'm truly very happy with how our site turned out. Hours and hours have been poured into it, with lots of revisions made to it.

      Again, appreciate the feedback though, and I'm grateful that you cared enough to look at our sites and tell us. With experience comes an increase in skills, that's a lot of what this promotion is about for us. It all helps us improve :)

      • legham on 31/01/2017 - 21:44
        +13

        Best of luck guys however having run an agency for close to 14 years, starting it when i was only 18, I have to agree with Idstr. We used to have our own CMS which we invested a lot of $$$ and man hours in however pulled the pin on it 2 years ago because it became a nightmare to maintain and like has already been mentioned there are plenty of much better solutions already out there.

        Had a quick scan of your site and the add to cart buttons don't work on mobile (Chrome, Android, HTC 10), appears to be no Google Analytics or tracking software, little to no on site SEO. These are all things clients of any size will expect so you should at least have them on your site.

        I think there is a gap in the market for the audience you are going after, as most people you target will go with a sensis solution or crappy Wix site, however even sensis base setup sites are like $2k. Also you'll learn to "love" clients real quick if you are offering unlimited revisions, as unforunetly the smaller they are the less likely they are to know what they want.

        Goodluck like i said as it can be hard to get started and gain some credibility/case studies for your website so admire this approach. Also if you have any specifc questions feel free to PM me.

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:09
          +6

          Very good feedback, thank you!

          Buttons are fixed, huge oversight on our part, we have different buttons for mobile and web. We do have tracking software through our live chat plugin, we'd use a proper solution, such as Google Analytics, for a client.

          SEO is really a weak-point for us right now, as neither of us have enough knowledge of it. That's something we'll have to plan out.

          And yeah, I see what you're saying. This isn't a full time gig for either of us at the moment, any business would be good. Sounds like we'll have to adapt over the coming months, judging by what people here are saying.

          What this has taught me personally, is that you can't get feedback from friends only. Strangers provide the most honest, and often more useful feedback.

        • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 22:30
          +3

          @deanylev: That last line is very important, something like this link might help dig up real feedback from friends. https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/06/18/10-must-have-ste…

        • Suspect420 on 31/01/2017 - 22:37
          +1

          @deanylev:
          Love your site and wish you the best of luck. I wont be going for the freebie tomorrow but will definitely be contacting you by April once I'm ready to start my new business.

          One thing I did notice is the colour blue and red on your site wasn't wasy on the eyes. Only minor but its a little feedback 😀

          Good luck! Hope ya smash it

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:39

          @BKZ: Thanks a tonne! Look forward to working with you :)

        • cim85 on 01/02/2017 - 08:30

          @Gravy: Hey some very apt and true advice on that link, thanks for posting it.

  • hell0 on 31/01/2017 - 20:53
    +3

    Sounds like a good deal but I agree with the poster a few paragraphs above with limited placement so that way you can pick & choose projects of interest to you & not get overwhelmed by people who make you do work but have no interest in writing content for their own site… I imagine lots of people will waste your time and not even take any more action on their site.

  • Starcraftmazter on 31/01/2017 - 21:08
    -7

    Hi I need a facebook but also with twitter and youtube all in one integrated, I will be happy to host it with you guys for free.

    Thnx

  • Unrvl on 31/01/2017 - 21:23
    +5

    I hope this doesn't sound too harsh, but i would prefer a wordpress website with a free template over this. your designs half of it looks ok, then the other half looks far too basic for 2017. i took at look at one of your portfolio websites, saw a 3mb image in the slider and noped it from there.

    There is a reason wordpress is the #1 cms and has like 30% of total websites hosted on it. yeah its fairly heavy weight and bloated, but the support, plugins and overall ease of use its superior to whatever custom in house CMS you could ever make privately.

    The web development business is a very hard game to get into with the amount of competition you have, and these days success usually depends on SEO to get you there. I'd highly recommend using a bigger CMS and focusing your energy into custom themes/designs/plugins, just make sure you have a solid CMS as the backbone otherwise you will lose a hell of a lot of clients.

    I'm not directly a web developer but have written plugins for multiple CMS, brother in law has been in this business for 10+ years and i have heard everything to how he started out (similar to this) to where hes at now, and moving to wordpress exclusively did his business wonders for everyone.

    just my 2c. good luck!

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 21:28

      Can I ask what you mean by 'far too basic for 2017'? If you're talking about Matt Grey Mods, he was very much in charge of how he wanted it to look.

      I shouldn't call it a CMS, it's a more basic system for users to edit their sites. We've discussed building custom themes and plugins for something like Drupal, maybe that's an idea for the future.

      Matt is in charge of that slider by the way, the control panel we built for his site allows him to add and remove images from the slider. I should go compress those for him though.

      • Unrvl on 31/01/2017 - 21:32

        things like auto compressing images are the thousands of under the hood improvements that you would get with a popular CMS. About 5 years ago i convinced my workplace to upgrade their website, and got them to pay my web development buddy to create one, i was in charge directed how everything should be from the front end, to the custom CMS at the back.

        not long after i regretted it, a year later we ditched it all and went with joomla, never looked back. though wordpress would have been nicer.

  • enzioFirenze on 31/01/2017 - 21:24
    +1

    "Note, this is in their base configuration. For example, a free portfolio site during this promotion only includes one page. The extras (in this case, $35 per additional page) are still full price. Or for example, a free eCommerce site only include 50 products. The cost of $10 for an additional 50 products still applies."

    So does that mean I can't use your template and create an additional page? (or add products myself for an eCommerce site)

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 21:25
      +1

      Of course you can! I should make that clearer. The CMS allows you to add extra products, and if you have good enough HTML knowledge, you're free to make extra pages.

      • enzioFirenze on 31/01/2017 - 21:31
        +1

        good to hear mate, yeah that wasn't really clear. Thanks for the clarification :)

      • Unrvl on 31/01/2017 - 21:42

        the majority of clients who want/use a CMS do not have HTML knowledge, nor should they be expected to. I cant upvote a product that, even when free, will still cost the target audience some money for something like writing a simple article.

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 21:46

          If they were writing articles, they'd likely want a blog. We'd be happy to build this ability into the CMS free of charge.

  • spare13 on 31/01/2017 - 21:29
    +2

    Good on you guys for giving it a crack. Definitely would be good to have a better/larger portfolio (which this deal will help you with)

    I don't particularly agree with your CMS as others have stated. There is no reason not to use existing solutions with far better security, and that will not cause issues with maintenance 5 years down the track when a PHP function written is no longer supported in later (more secure) versions of PHP.

    Personally, for such basic websites, I would suggest the use of purely HTML/CSS/JS (with a framework if you choose), along with using something like cushyCMS (or similar) that allows for generalised editing.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 21:31

      Never heard of cushyCMS, looks similar to what our solution is. Maybe we'll use that, thank you!

  • SpaceNinja on 31/01/2017 - 21:33

    a facebook and a google for me please.

  • c9 on 31/01/2017 - 21:44
    +2

    I have been in this field for 10+ years and I just wish you all the best to your adventures. If it is not too harsh for you, I might have to concur with some of the other comments about CMS.

    Please do your research about open source framework or competitors to identify your SWOT.

    In terms of constructive comment, I would have picked a solid framework or platform or even SaaS and sell yourself as a specialist in making costomization for your clients.

  • Aceboy884 on 31/01/2017 - 21:45
    +1

    I will give you guys a go…

  • 2002gts on 31/01/2017 - 21:48
    +2

    I haven't seen anyone charge "per page" since 2004. An interesting technique to try advertise your business, but I have a feeling it won't be of any benefit due to the websites being super amatuer (sorry, I have to call it how it is).

    • Aceboy884 on 31/01/2017 - 21:50

      … I had a quick look after my comment and I have to agree

      Perhaps design is not your strong point

      If you are good with coding, stick to backend

    • Unrvl on 31/01/2017 - 21:57
      +1

      i got a bit of 2000s geocities nostalgia looking at the portfolio page

  • Jatacid on 31/01/2017 - 21:54
    +4

    Oh man this brings back so many bad memories of trying to freelance web design. The competition is just too fierce, clients are too demanding and it's so hard to make good money without breaking your soul. Good luck OP, don't lose sight of what's important in life throughout this journey of yours. Also check out Beaver Builder - it's a fantastic 'developer friendly' page builder that doesn't add unnecessary bloat & speeds up your design & development process tenfold.

  • peterpeterpumpkin on 31/01/2017 - 22:21

    Thanks I wanted to build an improved clone of the entire Google ecosystem but didn't know where to start.

    I'll make my bid tomorrow!

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:23
      +1

      I don't want to disappoint you, but…

      • peterpeterpumpkin on 31/01/2017 - 22:33
        +4

        …we'll need 3 weeks to complete your ambitious project.

        No worries. That's great news!

  • dom on 31/01/2017 - 22:30
    +1

    Good luck guys, ballsy to post an offer like this on such a popular site. Tough industry and wish you all the best.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:36
      +1

      Cheers! :)

  • sunnyc on 31/01/2017 - 22:30
    +1

    Instead of taking free web dev from all applicants. How about you vet applications. Owning my own web hosting business and occasionally contracting web design. Most businesses have no clue how to design a website.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:33

      I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what you mean. Can you elaborate?

      • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 22:44
        +1

        He means qualify the applicants before just taking on the first 20. Otherwise you will be doing sites where the "client" is asking you to do the legwork that they themselves should be doing. It will also whittle out the really crappy site ideas and provide you with a better portfolio.

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:45

          Ahh right.

          Yep, that's the plan @sunnyc :)

        • Gravy on 31/01/2017 - 22:48

          @deanylev: Well… it's not the plan according to your current wording. You would need to change it to something like "We'll be taking on the first 20 sites that we deem of interest after consulting with the applicant".

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:50

          @Gravy: Again, I'm relying too much on the 'we have a right to cancel any order' bit. Thanks, I'll go fix it.

      • sunnyc on 31/01/2017 - 22:45
        +1

        So instead of saying free web design for everyone. Look at everybody's case and decide which concept is doable and would provide the best result. Then you would have a good looking portfolio.

        And instead of coding it yourself, use a cms. You don't need to prove you can code from scratch. You need to make websites that impress customers, look good and works well.

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:51

          Yeah, the plan now is to learn to develop custom Drupal themes and plugins. I really hate seeing firms that charge money and then make a WordPress site with a premade free template.

        • pwrusr-com on 31/01/2017 - 23:56

          @deanylev:

          Q: does that imply that you're never gonna charge any money if a client wanted a Drupal site with a premade free template?!

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 23:58

          @pwrusr-com: We'd tell them to look elsewhere I guess.

        • pwrusr-com on 01/02/2017 - 01:12

          @deanylev: I wish you well on your endeavors.

          • Also, given everyone else has taken the liberty to give you some advice, mine is:"The customer is always right" (I know, a little clichéd but true nonetheless).
        • Gravy on 01/02/2017 - 06:20

          @pwrusr-com: I used to try to steer the customer in the right direction if their requests went against the grain too much, but ultimately they sometimes want what they want and need to either accommodate that or pull the plug.

  • od810 on 31/01/2017 - 22:45
    +1

    I just hope one day you switch to something else rather than PHP. I die a little bit inside when I see another PHP project. That asides, best of luck with your business. I take a lot of time/effort to do all these for free.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:48
      +1

      Jack looooves PHP, but I'd like to switch to something cooler, like Rails.

      Why do people hate PHP? I've never really got it.

      And thank you, it will, but hopefully it'll be well worth it :)

      • od810 on 31/01/2017 - 22:57

        PHP is not really a well designed language. There are a lot of inconsistency and poor implementation. You have to be extract careful with dealing with PHP especially around the typing system. Here's a crazy example that you can achieve in PHP: https://eval.in/61309

        • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:59

          Assuming you do web development, what do you use? All the hip, new, cool sites seem to use Rails, so that's what I'm personally aiming for, but Jack's really open to anything.

        • od810 on 01/02/2017 - 00:03
          +1

          @deanylev: I haven't done Web Dev for long time. But I have to do it again, I would pick Python. Django is very mature python web framework (they do they the CMS built on it). Front end stuff is where i can't keep up to date anymore.

        • saikyr on 01/02/2017 - 01:24

          Wait, does it increment the suffix until it reaches e, which it interprets as scientific notation? Jesus PHP is a beauty.

        • od810 on 01/02/2017 - 10:30

          @saikyr: It interprets as 2*10^0 which is 2.

    • cerealJay on 01/02/2017 - 04:38
      +1

      PHP was good enough for Facebook (still is I think) then good enough for website development. Personally I dig PHP. I don't write it, I'm frontend, but I work with it and like it. I use a PHP based CMS and it's all good, doesn't let me down.

      • od810 on 01/02/2017 - 10:35

        The PHP runs Facebook now is not PHP. Syntactically, It looks like PHP but it's not PHP. I mean if you have an option to pick a better language, why don't you. Good programmers will excel in any language, but one might take more effort than the other.

  • jazattack on 31/01/2017 - 22:46
    +2

    Good luck. I'm assuming that you guys are quite young like myself and I've always thought about doing this. Props for doing it. Bit of feedback though, as you know the SEO definitely needs improving. It's worrying when searching google for 'J & D Studios' there is no link to your website, however this post on OZbargain appears.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 22:49

      We are, yes :)

      And yeah, that's definitely our weakest point imo. We're looking to hire someone to do SEO for us. Or learn it, if it's straightforward enough.

      • Krazyy on 31/01/2017 - 23:01
        +3

        I would recommend creating a sitemap.xml and submit it to google to start indexing via google webmaster tools.

  • haydent on 31/01/2017 - 22:57
    +1

    All the best with it mate. I like your evident passion for it and your site looks good. You'll definitely need some sort of revisions cap as us clients are never 100% happy. If they change their minds and need an additional feature you can always quote (reasonably) for that specific change once the project is finished. Our designers do it often at work ("out of scope" is their motto sometimes)

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 23:00

      Cheers buddy! That's an idea. We'll see what it's like doing these free sites, but sounds like a plan.

  • thargelios on 31/01/2017 - 23:09
    +4

    Look at all the experts. Seriously for people saying the sites aren't worth it. Do you really expect a ton for a $149 business website? And that's no offence meant to the OP, but that's cheap, like really cheap. If someone offered me that to build their site, I wouldn't even bother with a reply.

    Seriously I know a ton of successful freelancers of all sorts (design, coders, marketers etc). If a custom CMS works for you and you can provide value to someone and it works, there's no reason you can't do it.

    I could go through every single comment here and pick a ton out. But it would take too long.

    My only advice is. Why would you ever ever offer people FREE websites?

    "Looks like we'll be abandoning our plans for a custom CMS, as everyone seems to hate that. Fair enough, we'll go with a more appropriate solution."

    You're in the wrong place to get advice about using a custom CMS or not. Literally it's a business decision. You can take advice from 1 or two people who have gone down that road, but I also know someone who built their own custom CMS and it's 'the shit'. I work with another that is 'meh'. The only way you'll find out is by giving something a go.

    "For all the people saying our our designs are amateur, that's your opinion, but we ask that you don't write us off from the get-go. I'd appreciate if you told me specifically what you don't like, not just that you don't like them. Always time, and room, for improvement."

    I can't see any of your designs. Your portfolio is not working (in updated Chrome by the way). All I can see is your admin screen. Design is over-rated. There's a ton of awesome looking websites that convert like crap. UX is a different story.

    "We're offering a free service, people can just try us out, and who knows, maybe we'll surprise you :P"

    Honestly I get why and I think free is doing a disservice to you guys though. That's one business person to another. You're time is valuable. If you do ever do it again, offer your 'free' good will services to a local charity that can accept your 'in kind' work donation, instead of business that are out to make a profit. Just a suggestion.

    Also, as others have said, definitely remove the unlimited revisions. The lower end of the bucket (cost wise) the more picky people are. It's ironic to think that, but seriously the clients I have't gone with (that were too picky/over the top) were all bargaining me down. The ones that were happy with my 'investment' price, have better things to do then tell me what colour their buttons should be.

    Shoot me a PM be happy to add you guys to Skype/Slack and recommend you some resources to move into a successful freelancing career.

    • Associateddeanylev @ jdstudios.design on 31/01/2017 - 23:38
      +1

      Wow, thank you for taking the time to type all this out! Taken a lot of it to heart :)

      Appreciate it. Can't PM you for some reason, please PM me.

      • hell0 on 31/01/2017 - 23:41
        +4

        …and OZbargain is the last place to look for clients. You will get plenty of free clients but nobody will come knocking to spend a single $ and then you will starve! STARVE I TELL YOU!

        Anywho, if you are in Melbourne I can make you dinner. serious offer.

        Also, I wonder, do you ever think you could develop a really cool idea yourself and run it? It would be similar to how OZbargain started from Scotty trying to save $$$ and now it is one of the most-visited Australian sites. I mean to say something that you like as a hobby…

        • Gravy on 01/02/2017 - 00:07
          +1

          I like this thought, much more scope to really enjoy what you are working on and money making potential, depending on the idea and implementation of course.

      • thargelios on 01/02/2017 - 10:08

        No worries. ;)

        Seems PM's were turned off. Sent you a message now though.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/02/2017 - 07:51

      I agree with the giving the milk away for free bit. He needs to read F**k You, Pay Me!

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