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do engineering students get discounts on website design software?

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Marc936

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Oct 25, 2009
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i have a small business idea i would like to try out next year, and if it was as good as my last idea (10k profit on a 3k investment), i'll be a happy man :D


But as of right now i want to build a professional website for it, figured a year toying around with it would get it to my liking before i launch it. However, i just checked some of the software goes up to $400 retail...too expensive
 
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Marc936 said:
i have a small business idea i would like to try out next year, and if it was as good as my last idea (10k profit on a 3k investment), i'll be a happy man :D


But as of right now i want to build a professional website for it, figured a year toying around with it would get it to my liking before i launch it. However, i just checked some of the software goes up to $400 retail...too expensive
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Okay, as someone who does some work in this realm, I'll give you a word of advice. If you want to create a PROFESSIONAL website, please use a consultant/freelancer who knows what they're doing and has created professional websites before.

You say $400 is too expensive for software, but I guess you have to think of how much money you expect to make. There is a big difference between a decently nice website and a very nice professional one. You would be surprised the difference in money you can make between the two types of designs.
 
marothisu said:
Okay, as someone who does some work in this realm, I'll give you a word of advice. If you want to create a PROFESSIONAL website, please use a consultant/freelancer who knows what they're doing and has created professional websites before.

You say $400 is too expensive for software, but I guess you have to think of how much money you expect to make. There is a big difference between a decently nice website and a very nice professional one. You would be surprised the difference in money you can make between the two types of designs.
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well before i get that far ahead in spending i want to test things out.

a few hundred lost for a domain/software is fine if it doesn't work as planned, but i'll i dont wanna risk high money until i can see it working for real
 
Marc936 said:
do u know how much it would cost around?
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I second the Dreamweaver. Used it in college and its incredibly easy to use. I would almost suggest picking up the entire Adobe Suite. If you know how to use Flash and all of the likes, you can build an awesome webpage pretty easily.
 
I feel like a big shot making $10k profits on $3k investments can afford a $400 program if its his next big idea. I don't know how much I believe in your success if you're looking for an engineering student to buy a program for you.
 
RG25 said:
I feel like a big shot making $10k profits on $3k investments can afford a $400 program if its his next big idea. I don't know how much I believe in your success if you're looking for an engineering student to buy a program for you.
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Are you sure that he's not an engineering student?
 
RG25 said:
I feel like a big shot making $10k profits on $3k investments can afford a $400 program if its his next big idea. I don't know how much I believe in your success if you're looking for an engineering student to buy a program for you.
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because if i lose money on this i'll have no use for this and would most likely just **** away money and a lot of time


my last project, i wanted a motorcycle, so either way was a win for me, i was going to have fun with it regardless. So even when i wanted to get a 750cc bike, i bought a 250cc instead because i saw the vast amount of people without motorcycle licenses. I rented it out for $100 an hour and another $50 to go out to courses and teach them how to do it.It was cheaper and less time consuming then taking a motorcycle course and was pointless for the people riding for years. I had a fast, vastly cheaper service for very little work. It was a gold mine for an 18 year old.

i stopped doing it a couple years ago and still get emails today from the amount of cards i passed out. I have about 1,000 more business cards in my glove box from it. I had to let it go because my job wouldn't let me take off for the summer to pursue it, and my former partner was a **** ( i had the bike, i had the clients, all he had to do was be at my place and got paid extra to train people) and wanted 50%.


This project is more time consuming, on something i dont like doing, and will be stuck behind school work as well , hence i dont want to be fully committed unless i know it will work. If it doesn't work, oh well, i only lost a few hundred, if it does work, well then i know i should work harder on it.


and a college student paying out of state tuition with no job during the school year, i am in no position to dump tons of money on a failed project.
 
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Set up a website using Drupal or Wordpress.org--the future of the web is in using systems, not spinning off a custom website from scratch.

Both Drupal and Wordpress.org are free, but you do have to have a host (very, very cheap) for it be live. You can use Drupal (for sure--maybe Worpress as well?) locally to develop it.
 
saf said:
Set up a website using Drupal or Wordpress.org--the future of the web is in using systems, not spinning off a custom website from scratch.

Both Drupal and Wordpress.org are free, but you do have to have a host (very, very cheap) for it be live. You can use Drupal (for sure--maybe Worpress as well?) locally to develop it.
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i might buy the adobe s5 master collection, its $350 if ur a student, and i can play with photoshop. Going to try the trials first to mess around with it though, its kind of over the amount i wanted to pay, but reviews say its well worth it
 
Marc936 said:
well before i get that far ahead in spending i want to test things out.

a few hundred lost for a domain/software is fine if it doesn't work as planned, but i'll i dont wanna risk high money until i can see it working for real
Click to expand...

Yes, I would say get your business model down pat first. The thing is though, you are going to have to risk it unless:

a) The idea is so good, a decent site vs. very professional site doesn't matter in the short and long run.
b) You have certain users who don't care.

Is your idea going to be actually running on your web-site (i.e. a web application/interactive content) or is it just an informational site for the idea you have?


I know a few good sites for private freelancers where you could probably get a decently professional site for under $500 - $750 (depending on how many pages you want).



To the guy who said something about Wordpress and Drupal, I agree those might be good ways to go, but it really depends on what type of site (functional vs. informational) you're going for. I would say though look into various free Content Management Systems to manage your static content.
 
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Marc936 said:
because if i lose money on this i'll have no use for this and would most likely just **** away money and a lot of time
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You have a point, but sometimes you have to be in a small percentage more money to reap even more benefits. Ever seen Antiques Roadshow? All the time they appraise an item and they say "If you put in $500 more to restore this, the price will go up by $3000."

Just because you put in 5% more money, doesn't mean you're only going to get 5% back. Putting in 5% more may produce way more revenue for you than if you didn't do that.


You are a college student as you say, but if you feel the idea is SO good you are going to make money and it is a novel idea or your business model is good, wait a little bit and save up some more money for it. Judge how you're going to use your website and judge how you'll need to develop the site for it. Believe me, I am in an area which creates big-time websites/services/infrastructure for big companies. You would be surprised how much more revenue some of these companies make after redesigning their site so it's easier to use and so it has a better designed. Some of these sites looked fine before, but by just making them look even better and easier to use, their revenue goes way up. Absolutely amazing.
 
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I would hit up the design students to see if anyone is interested in working with you. I designed my first 2 sites for $100 just to beef up my portfolio.
 
marothisu said:
You have a point, but sometimes you have to be in a small percentage more money to reap even more benefits. Ever seen Antiques Roadshow? All the time they appraise an item and they say "If you put in $500 more to restore this, the price will go up by $3000."

Just because you put in 5% more money, doesn't mean you're only going to get 5% back. Putting in 5% more may produce way more revenue for you than if you didn't do that.


You are a college student as you say, but if you feel the idea is SO good you are going to make money and it is a novel idea or your business model is good, wait a little bit and save up some more money for it. Judge how you're going to use your website and judge how you'll need to develop the site for it. Believe me, I am in an area which creates big-time websites/services/infrastructure for big companies. You would be surprised how much more revenue some of these companies make after redesigning their site so it's easier to use and so it has a better designed. Some of these sites looked fine before, but by just making them look even better and easier to use, their revenue goes way up. Absolutely amazing.
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oh don't get me wrong, i fully agree. I just want to get my feet wet before I actually go with the eventual "novel" idea I plan. I have a decent savings to dip into, but I don't want to risk using it just incase I'm stuck with no job after i graduate. I'm only going to start putting real money into it once I have a steady job.



so yeah, the creating websites thing is to toy around with things, its essentially a bunch of little projects for me get ready for the giant project.
 
Marc936 said:
oh don't get me wrong, i fully agree. I just want to get my feet wet before I actually go with the eventual "novel" idea I plan. I have a decent savings to dip into, but I don't want to risk using it just incase I'm stuck with no job after i graduate. I'm only going to start putting real money into it once I have a steady job.



so yeah, the creating websites thing is to toy around with things, its essentially a bunch of little projects for me get ready for the giant project.
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I can understand where you're coming from. I think you just need to think about it for awhile and realize how you want to attack things. You have to consider other costs too such as marketing (via search engine or however you want to do it).

Is your site just an informational site or does it actually do "something?"
 
marothisu said:
I can understand where you're coming from. I think you just need to think about it for awhile and realize how you want to attack things. You have to consider other costs too such as marketing (via search engine or however you want to do it).

Is your site just an informational site or does it actually do "something?"
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yeah, i already have that planned, i'll pm u the details, its nothing grand, but it will be a decent amount of chunk change in the long term if i do it.
 
Marc936 said:
yeah, i already have that planned, i'll pm u the details, its nothing grand, but it will be a decent amount of chunk change in the long term if i do it.
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Okay. Well if you want advice from someone in this kind of industry, I can give you some. You don't have to tell me your idea though or anything don't worry.
 
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