FROM CONSULTING TO SUPPORT
Web design and web development since 1996!
From the consultation, over the conception and the individual design up to the conversion, training and support.
My strength lies above all in the ability to prepare complex content clearly and aesthetically.
Everything from one source: web, photography, video, design, SEO, social media and ads.
Made-to-measure or off-the-peg?
Admittedly, this is a bit provocatively formulated, because even with prefabricated design construction kits (themes) you can create professional looking, appealing Internet pages and so reduce the design and implementation investment greatly. But you have to be aware that there will be many other similar looking websites, even if you use your own pictures, logos, colors and fonts. An individual, unique and with regard to the appearance and the functionality tailor-made Internet page cannot be realized with a theme but only with a professional design, which fits optimally to the needs of the customer.
COntent Management Systems (CMS)
For internet projects I usually use one of the following three content management systems, depending on the requirements profile.
ExpressionEngine is for me the first choice when it comes to creating complex individual websites where the design should be a made-to-measure from one casting. I have been successfully using ExpressionEngine for 15 years for many Internet projects.
Pro
- open source
- High quality plugins
- very clear and fast backend
- arbitrarily scalable up to Enterprise Level
- suitable for custom-made products
- very flexible and individually usable
- Easy-to-understand own template language
- excellent documentation
- commercial instant support possible (1 hour response time)
Contra
- no themes available
- partly high costs for plugins
- rudimentary developer knowledge required
- relatively small community
- Multilingualism only through additional module: $200
WordPress is particularly suitable for small to medium-sized website projects. In combination with a “Page Builder” tool such as Elementor Pro, attractive websites can be created very flexibly and without programming knowledge.
Pro
- open source
- many plugins available
- many Design templates (themes) available
- flexible page editors (e.g. Elementor Pro) available
- free Shop-Plugin (Woocommerce)
- many automation and connection options available through plugins "out of the box
- very large community
- many video tutorials
Contra
- needs a lot of server power if you want it to be multilingual and shopable
- Plugins are often of poor quality and are not regularly maintained by the developer.
- very slow and confusing backend
- rather unsuitable for super custom-made designs
- attractive target for hackers
- impure source code
I choose Craft CMS for multilingual small to medium-sized projects, with a low to medium degree of complexity. Especially the super solid integrated multilingualism of the CMS is unrivalled.
Pro
- free variant possible
- High quality plugins
- extremely clear and fast backend
- suitable for custom-made products
- very flexible and individually usable
- good documentation
- first-party support from the Pro version onwards
- own powerful shop module available
- Multilingual capability "out of the box" integrated
Contra
- no themes available
- partly high costs for plugins
- Developer knowledge required
- relatively small community
- Per-License $299
- Shop Module License $999
Costs
The following is a modular overview of the one-time license costs for the respective CMS and the necessary plug-ins.
Shopify Lite
Shopify Lite is a very inexpensive way to add a buy button for individual products at any location on your website. This method is particularly suitable for web sites that offer only a few products and offers the proven, legally compliant and distraction-free Shopify checkout process for only €9 per month.
The products themselves are created in Shopify and a code snippet (buy button) can be generated for each product, which can then be integrated into your website wherever you want.
The standard payment methods are credit cards, SEPA direct debit, Paypal, prepayment by bank transfer, Klarna invoice, SOFORT, Apple Pay, Google Pay
Example
Use the following test credit card data to complete a successful test order using the green Shopify Buy button above:
- Visa credit card number 4242424242424242
- credit card holder John Smith
- expiration month 12/30
- CVV number 123
