Aim. I have 4.5 functions my site must be able to perform. Right now http://stephenkinsella.net does none of these particularly well, because web design isn't my day job.
- Teaching Pages: Podcasts/Lecture Notes/Some stuff shouldn't appear in the main pages, etc, but I don't want to keep editing pages the whole time. I want a system where I write lecture notes, put up slides or links or vimeo videos *once*, and once only, and students can get at that content easily.
- Feedback: I need a way to generate student feedback per-lecture or per query. Comment boxes don't seem to work well. I did this once 2 years ago, and it was a lot of work, see here.
- Op-Ed style ranting pages: (These should come to the front). I write an article once or twice a week for general audiences, see here. The current blog architecture does this really well, and list-category-posts does a passable job of archiving by topic.
- Research Pages: Now all a bit half-arsed, which is unfortunate, given that research is my day job. I want to connect a working paper to SSRN and/or MPRA, to showcase my work and get it indexed as soon as I put it up in this one space. I'd also like a way to manage different versions of the same article--now they just appear as newer blog posts, which is a pain in the arse.
- Sell my books: Right now, http://irelandin2050.com sucks, and there will be 3 more books by end 2010. I want to host them all in the same place, with different payment options, because there will be different publishers, and with the ability to host discussions/put up extra (gated) material/videos/podcasts/interviews/ in a similar space.
For colours, etc, think of sites that look like this: http://stephenkinsella.net, http://ignorethecode.net/blog/, http://zenhabits.net/. Think simple white space, well typeset text, few but significant images. Teaser images, etc, should work well by post, think http://ronanlyons.com on this.
I want to do this once. I'm happy to pay well and promptly for it, but to receive support if I need it for, say, 6 months.
I want you to show me that the work you'll do is superior to something I can get for 80 bucks from these guys (http://diythemes.com/) and 5-10 hours of my own time. I expect a bit of help with SEO. I know enough .php/css/.html to cobble something together, but that's not really what I'm after. Obviously, value for money is important.
Please drop me a mail if you're interested in helping me sort this site out.