Need Advice/Help on a Mainstream Project

MadMax · 2004-12-20, 09:54 PM

I've got a customer who we do industrial work for who just found out I'm a webmaster, and he'd like me to quote a new website for his company. This would be a corporate site for a company that produces automotive components. He wants a fair price, but mostly he wants some specific functionality. I'm pretty good at what I know, but there's still a lot about web design that I don't know, so I'm hoping to get a little direction from some of the gurus.

I need to be able to allow my customer, who has no HTML or web publishing experience and would prefer not to have to actually learn anything, to update the text of his website when he wants to. I know content management systems like PHP Nuke would be the easy answer, but unfortunately I need more flexibility in design than the CMS that I'm familiar with (primarily some of the ones available in Fantastico) will allow.

He also wants to be able to update a PDF brochure, so I've already let him know he'll need to buy a license for Acrobat and he'll probably have to come to terms with the use of an FTP client.

The concept is that I would design and publish the site and he wouldn't have to come to me every time he wants to update the text on the pages.

I know there's salvation for me out there, and I wouldn't mind paying some cash for the right solution. I just don't have the experience to know the right places to start looking.

Thanks in advance for any leads and advice you can give me.

2004-12-20, 09:54 PM	#1
MadMax "Without evil there can be no good, so it must be good to be evil sometimes" ~ Satan Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Motor City, baby, where carjacking was invented! Now GIMME THOSE SHOES! Posts: 2,385	Need Advice/Help on a Mainstream Project I've got a customer who we do industrial work for who just found out I'm a webmaster, and he'd like me to quote a new website for his company. This would be a corporate site for a company that produces automotive components. He wants a fair price, but mostly he wants some specific functionality. I'm pretty good at what I know, but there's still a lot about web design that I don't know, so I'm hoping to get a little direction from some of the gurus. I need to be able to allow my customer, who has no HTML or web publishing experience and would prefer not to have to actually learn anything, to update the text of his website when he wants to. I know content management systems like PHP Nuke would be the easy answer, but unfortunately I need more flexibility in design than the CMS that I'm familiar with (primarily some of the ones available in Fantastico) will allow. He also wants to be able to update a PDF brochure, so I've already let him know he'll need to buy a license for Acrobat and he'll probably have to come to terms with the use of an FTP client. The concept is that I would design and publish the site and he wouldn't have to come to me every time he wants to update the text on the pages. I know there's salvation for me out there, and I wouldn't mind paying some cash for the right solution. I just don't have the experience to know the right places to start looking. Thanks in advance for any leads and advice you can give me.