How to build a website?
 

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I apologize if this is already a thread but I searched and couldn’t really find anything so please merge if need be.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I want to make a website. Besides a couple geocities sites back in high school and linking sellourteamdannyboy.com to the donation site I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Here is what I want to do:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Make a website with a specific domain name (ie [URL="http://www.thewarpath.net/"][COLOR=#800080]www.thewarpath.net[/COLOR][/URL] NOT [URL="http://www.geocities/fanpages/thewarpath.com"][COLOR=#0000ff]www.geocities/fanpages/thewarpath.com[/COLOR][/URL]) [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Easy – I want to use templates, but I would like to use 3rd party templates as well if I wanted to [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Moveability – If I wanted to change hosts or servers I would like to be able to do so easy[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Cheap – I doubt Ill draw much traffic but I would like to be able to expand if need be. Whats a reasonable costs?[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Ability to have a mobile site for smart phones [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Personal – I doubt ill draw much traffic or need lots of space, but I want to be able to upgrade if wanted to. Or if I ever did have a business website I would like to have all my stuff at one place[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Im not selling anything – but I would like to know how and be able to put ads on if I wanted to [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]When I search and try and get peoples reviews of sites and what they offer I am primarily finding ads. I hate committing to stuff so I don’t want to get started with a hosting site and then find out I got one that sucks or doesn’t work for me. So I guess I am looking for you guys to tell me whats the best hassle free hosting site you’ve had experience with or which ones to avoid. I want to keep it easy, but I don’t want to cheat myself out of learning something new. Most of the reason I am doing this is to learn something new and know how.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I guess to sum up my needs I want something that has cookie cutter stuff that’s easy to start out with, but I want to be able to expand to legit warpath like status if need be. That said I don’t want to start a forum or anything, but I love sites that are user interactive and allow people to leave comments or take polls or get notifications. Any recommendations or advice? [/FONT][/COLOR]

Re: How to build a website?
 

Have you considered a blog? Blogs are very easy to set up and work with. Check out blogger.com. You can have one up and going in minutes.

Re: How to build a website?
 

What's the purpose of the website?

Re: How to build a website?
 

Site purpose? Content?

I'd worry less about the mobile access at the moment.

Re: How to build a website?
 

Matty:

Most "social" website stuff is blocked at my work so its hard to me to check that out. Also it looks like you might be using a different blog for your p90x stuff? That might be all i am really looking for, but i need to mess around with it and find out. One thing that is real important to me to be able to learn how to make a website so if i want to make a business one in the future i can - im not sure if a blog based site will accomplish that.

SS:

The main reason why im doing this is to learn how. I am hesitant to say what the website would be because it will be somewhat political, but also because im not really sure. Im going with a “somewhat” political based website, because it will keep me interested and i wont have to update nonstop.

Re: How to build a website?
 

If you want something somewhat interactive, a blog or forum is the way to go, or even a Facebook page. The days of firing up Microsoft FrontPage and making a site are in the rear view.

Blogs can be set up with add-ons to do pretty much anything a traditional site can.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=tryfuhl;721511]Site purpose? Content?

I'd worry less about the mobile access at the moment.[/quote]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I dont want to take away from the thread by explaining the content, but i guess i will have to. It will be a site about[/FONT][/COLOR][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]politicians who have cheated on their spouses, porkypoliticians.com. More than anything I thought the name was clever and it wont take a lot of work to update since a new scandal only comes out every 4 months or so. And this is mainly for a learning purpose, im not trying to get too involved with something. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I only said mobile access because I hate going to websites on my phone that don’t really have good mobile access. I just would like to be able to know that I can do it at some point, so I can learn how. I don’t want to feel restricted, because then ill just never get around to learning how[/FONT][/COLOR]

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=Mattyk;721531]If you want something somewhat interactive, a blog or forum is the way to go, or even a Facebook page. The days of firing up Microsoft FrontPage and making a site are in the rear view.

Blogs can be set up with add-ons to do pretty much anything a traditional site can.[/quote]


I guess i dont just want to take the real easy road. I want to learn how to make a basic website.

I went to [url=http://www.theomfield.com/]The Om Field[/url] and i like the lay out. What i dont understand is that i cant go to your p90x blog or click on a lot of things at blogger.com but i can go to his blog no problem?

Blog might be the easiest way to go and best fit for what im currently trying to do, but the main purpose is to learn how to build a site. Maybe im stuck in the past and there's really no reason to learn how to do that anymore?

Re: How to build a website?
 

Do you want a dynamic website or a static website? Static site is pure HTML and no user interaction goes on, where as in a dynamic website you will have to write back-end code that handles user requests and displays data from another source (i.e. database). Building dynamic website from the ground up is no small feat and if you want to do that I would suggest you pickup a few books (on Ruby on Rail, Javascript, HTML, and CSS). Better yet, take a course on the subject at your local community college.

Re: How to build a website?
 

If you want to learn the hard way, like saden said take some classes or pick up some books and teach yourself. Honestly though, with blogs and forums there's not much need to go that route, but that's up to you of course.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=Mattyk;721574]If you want to learn the hard way, like saden said take some classes or pick up some books and teach yourself. Honestly though, with blogs and forums there's not much need to go that route, but that's up to you of course.[/quote]

Plus you can customize the hell out of software like [URL="http://wordpress.org/"]WordPress[/URL].

Re: How to build a website?
 

I remember when I thought I was the man for knowing FrontPage, I was a pioneer among my peers...now I have to explain to people what that once was.

Create an app with a social game element, skip the website

Re: How to build a website?
 

a CMS system would def help

wordpress is one of the easier ones, joomla is decent, drupal is great if you hate yourself

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=SmootSmack;721578]I remember when I thought I was the man for knowing FrontPage[/quote]

oh man, not even sure what to say haha

I honestly never tried that type of program.. well I lied, I tried it once but it cluttered up my code so much I went back to hand-coding the same day

did you follow up with dreamweaver?

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=saden1;721544]Do you want a dynamic website or a static website? Static site is pure HTML and no user interaction goes on, where as in a dynamic website you will have to write back-end code that handles user requests and displays data from another source (i.e. database). Building dynamic website from the ground up is no small feat and if you want to do that I would suggest you pickup a few books (on Ruby on Rail, Javascript, HTML, and CSS). Better yet, take a course on the subject at your local community college.[/quote]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I think that since im completely new to this that I should start off easier than building something from scratch. I guess you see tons of things out there like:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.homestead.com/~site/hslo/website/features.ffhtml"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.homestead.com/~site/hslo/website/features.ffhtml[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.intuit.com/website-building-software/?pd=t&s_cid=CJ"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.intuit.com/website-building-software/?pd=t&s_cid=CJ[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]
Has anyone used any of these or others before with good results?[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Here is a review site that I looked at:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.buildwebsite4u.com/building/free-website-builders.shtml"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.buildwebsite4u.com/building/free-website-builders.shtml[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I have my domain with 1 & 1 so that’s likely who I was going to start with, then I decided to ask thewarpath. So my thoughts are building a website with one of these cookie cutter builders might teach me a little bit especially without knowing anything about css, javascript or html. I want something uncomplicated to start out with. But im completely ignorant when it comes to these things so maybe im over thinking it, and should just get started with the builder 1and1 offers? [/FONT][/COLOR]

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=saden1;721576]Plus you can customize the hell out of software like [URL="http://wordpress.org/"]WordPress[/URL].[/quote]


I think this is what im looking for. Obvisouly i dont really know how to ask the right questions with this stuff......

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=mlmpetert;721588][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I think that since im completely new to this that I should start off easier than building something from scratch. I guess you see tons of things out there like:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.homestead.com/~site/hslo/website/features.ffhtml"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.homestead.com/~site/hslo/website/features.ffhtml[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.intuit.com/website-building-software/?pd=t&s_cid=CJ"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.intuit.com/website-building-software/?pd=t&s_cid=CJ[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]
Has anyone used any of these or others before with good results?[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Here is a review site that I looked at:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][URL="http://www.buildwebsite4u.com/building/free-website-builders.shtml"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.buildwebsite4u.com/building/free-website-builders.shtml[/COLOR][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I have my domain with 1 & 1 so that’s likely who I was going to start with, then I decided to ask thewarpath. So my thoughts are building a website with one of these cookie cutter builders might teach me a little bit especially without knowing anything about css, javascript or html. I want something uncomplicated to start out with. But im completely ignorant when it comes to these things so maybe im over thinking it, and should just get started with the builder 1and1 offers? [/FONT][/COLOR][/quote]

no no no no no (in order)

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=mlmpetert;721595]I think this is what im looking for. Obvisouly i dont really know how to ask the right questions with this stuff......[/quote]

That's what I was saying earlier. With add-ons for blogs you can do pretty much anything you want. I would look into going that route if I were you.

Or how about this, what kind of sites do you want to model yours after? Can you show us some examples? Then we can give you a better idea of what you need.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=tryfuhl;721583]oh man, not even sure what to say haha

I honestly never tried that type of program.. well I lied, I tried it once but it cluttered up my code so much I went back to hand-coding the same day

did you follow up with dreamweaver?[/quote]

You know it! But I mean this was like 12 years ago

Re: How to build a website?
 

Yeah that's about when I started too.. 99 or 2000 I believe, so a year or two later

notepad or cutehtml (amongst other editors), photoshop 4.. man I thought that I was boss

I ran and contributed to a handful of popular e/n websites

things were a lot more fun back then

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=tryfuhl;721615]Yeah that's about when I started too.. 99 or 2000 I believe, so a year or two later

notepad or cutehtml (amongst other editors), photoshop 4.. man I thought that I was boss

I ran and contributed to a handful of popular e/n websites

things were a lot more fun back then[/quote]
a lot easier too...

I still use my HTML/CSS/javascript background, but I'm behind the curve when it comes to the newer stuff. I am familiar with ASP.net, but I'm by no means a whiz at it. Haven't touched Ruby on Rails or Drupal or Joomla yet either.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=Mattyk;721606]That's what I was saying earlier. With add-ons for blogs you can do pretty much anything you want. I would look into going that route if I were you.

Or how about this, what kind of sites do you want to model yours after? Can you show us some examples? Then we can give you a better idea of what you need.[/quote]



[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Honestly when you used the term blog i was completely thrown off. Blog and website meant completely different things to me before today.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]So the layout I have in mind would be along the lines of this:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[URL="http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]You see a picture of a person and click on it and it then it directs you to a page detailing the event that got them on the website along with some other basic stuff.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Also I started looking at some websites that I go to and I realized that maybe they are just blogs?????? Are these essentially blogs:[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[URL="http://www.fastcompany.com/"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.fastcompany.com/[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[URL="http://www.slate.com/"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.slate.com/[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[URL="http://gawker.com/index.php"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://gawker.com/index.php[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=tryfuhl;721597]no no no no no (in order)[/quote]


See when i was reading the descriptions of this stuff i was thinking to myself this just doesnt seem like what i want to do.

What web host do you all recommend?

Re: How to build a website?
 

If you go the WordPress route, you can pay for premium features and have it sit on the WordPress servers. I've heard Bluehost is good. I've heard mixed things about hosting with GoDaddy.

This site has some good reviews and links for hosting: [url=http://webhostinggeeks.com/]Web Hosting Reviews & Rating - Best Web Hosting 2010[/url]

Re: How to build a website?
 

I've used BlueHost in the past, no complaints and good bang for your buck.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=BDBohnzie;721687]a lot easier too...

I still use my HTML/CSS/javascript background, but I'm behind the curve when it comes to the newer stuff. I am familiar with ASP.net, but I'm by no means a whiz at it. Haven't touched Ruby on Rails or Drupal or Joomla yet either.[/quote]

yeah when everything started becoming much more dynamic I was left behind

you could find a cgi/perl script for nearly anything and that's still kind of true for php and asp, but things just have to be so tailored nowadays, etc

never got much into the real coding as opposed to just markup

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=mlmpetert;721706][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Honestly when you used the term blog i was completely thrown off. Blog and website meant completely different things to me before today.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]So the layout I have in mind would be along the lines of this:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[URL="http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]You see a picture of a person and click on it and it then it directs you to a page detailing the event that got them on the website along with some other basic stuff.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Also I started looking at some websites that I go to and I realized that maybe they are just blogs?????? Are these essentially blogs:[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[URL="http://www.fastcompany.com/"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.fastcompany.com/[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[URL="http://www.slate.com/"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://www.slate.com/[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]
[URL="http://gawker.com/index.php"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]http://gawker.com/index.php[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/URL][/quote]

the term that you'll find what you're looking for under is CMS (Content Management System)

things like Wordpress started out more as a blog-oriented package but have evolved into offering much more

Re: How to build a website?
 

I agree with others ... you want a CMS. I suggest WordPress.

So, then you'd probably want to start learning PHP. Everything you need to know is on the Internet, but it might be hard for you to find it (although the most useful and powerful skill a developer can have is to find information/answers online without assistance). So, you might want to check out a book on PHP. O'Reilly is a decent publisher.

[url=http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926103]Programming PHP - O'Reilly Media[/url]

Re: How to build a website?
 

Is there a way i can see what cms a website uses, like when you use whoishostingthis.com to see who the host is?

So ive been looking at wordpress and joomla, Ive got a lot of reading to do. It seems like wordpress is a little simplier, so im probally gonna go that route, plus if i was ever to make a real website i think it would be more along the lines of the format for one of those "news" websites i listed above.

What CMS do you think was used to make this site:
[URL="http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php"]Famous Political Leaders - Famous Leaders, List of World Famous Politicians[/URL]

Also i like to think my internet searching skills are pretty good, but obvisouly ive had a hard time with this. Im not really the type of person to read books (ive read 3 chapter books in my life and rarely bought books in college (i went to vcu)), so until i get through this and unless i have any real interest ill be holding off on any PHP or CSS/javascript stuff.

Re: How to build a website?
 

A lot of web hosts offer CMS packages, they should have a list of what they offer somewhere on their site. They are usually very easy to install too, just a click or two and you're good to go.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=mlmpetert;721898]Also i like to think my internet searching skills are pretty good, but obvisouly ive had a hard time with this. Im not really the type of person to read books (ive read 3 chapter books in my life and rarely bought books in college (i went to vcu)), so until i get through this and unless i have any real interest ill be holding off on any PHP or CSS/javascript stuff.[/quote]
The nice thing is there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Just about anything you can think of that you'd want to do on your site has been done and there are links out there that will tell you how to do it. A lot of my experience comes from learning on the fly, meaning if I can't do something, I Google it to find out how to do it, and then do it. That's how I learned to connect an access database to an ASP.net page, how to use jQuery, and how to incorporate CSS3 and make it work in browsers that don't support CSS3.

As far as CMS goes, you're better off finding your provider then worrying about what CMS they use.

Re: How to build a website?
 

[quote=mlmpetert;721898]Is there a way i can see what cms a website uses, like when you use whoishostingthis.com to see who the host is?

So ive been looking at wordpress and joomla, Ive got a lot of reading to do. It seems like wordpress is a little simplier, so im probally gonna go that route, plus if i was ever to make a real website i think it would be more along the lines of the format for one of those "news" websites i listed above.

What CMS do you think was used to make this site:
[URL="http://www.thefamouspeople.com/political-leaders.php"]Famous Political Leaders - Famous Leaders, List of World Famous Politicians[/URL]

Also i like to think my internet searching skills are pretty good, but obvisouly ive had a hard time with this. Im not really the type of person to read books (ive read 3 chapter books in my life and rarely bought books in college (i went to vcu)), so until i get through this and unless i have any real interest ill be holding off on any PHP or CSS/javascript stuff.[/quote]

If you go to that web site and view the source (right-click > view source), you will see a comment at the top mentioning "HotMetal". It appears that HotMetal is a web development software. I've never heard of it, and if you're interested in learning the fundamentals about web development you'd be better off steering clear of such things.