Web help needed!

ajamj · Post by **ajamj** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:02 pm

I have been asked by my aunt to help her set up a website for their farm business. I find this funny, because I am NOT tech savvy. She, however, has had me come over to change her screen saver. More than once.

So, I need suggestions. It needs to be very user friendly, lots of tools, and not cost a fortune.

ComputerGeek · Post by **ComputerGeek** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:52 pm

ok first of all you have to find a nice cheap hosting site. Which isn't that easy. Secondly if you don't know html or PHP (web programming languages) you don't want to start from scratch. I would suggest using adobe dreamweaver but it's kind of expensive and hard to get the hang of. It's allows you to either program it yourself of use their tools and it will program it in the background. I would recommend using google's page maker It's free but you have to have your website name then .googlepage.com on the end but you could by a domain from someone like GoDaddy. then you can forward people who type the domain you bought to your google page. If you need any help using google's page maker you could PM me.

JesusIsAlive · Post by **JesusIsAlive** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:06 pm

An easy way to create a webpage is to download nvu which will automatically convert what you do to your page into HTML. Meaning that you can see and edit the page as it will appear published online, and then switch to seeing the HTML source and edit the HTML if you want. $\:D/$

Me · Post by Me » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:18 am

1and1.com and iWeb. The easiest/cheapest combo I know of.

STRYPER · Post by **STRYPER** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:34 am

Basically, if you don't know what you're doing, you have to pay a lot of money for web building software. If you do know what you're doing (i.e. HTML) then you can do it with any old computer for free.

...then you have to host it, which as people have said, is not cheap either. Plus if your aunt is not willing (or unable) to update the website those duties might fall on you every couple of weeks or anytime she wants to change something. Most business hire a web site manager to design and maintain their website for them.

If you're really serious about doing this you need to know (and your aunt needs to know) what is really involved...

Samwise · Post by **Samwise** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:03 pm

It depends on how professional you want it.

I'd say the easiest way to do it in Windows would be to go ahead and grab a domain and a hosting service. (dreamhost.com : I use this host and it's been quite reliable, the support excellent, and feature-rich)

Then go over to somewhere like http://www.opendesigns.org/ and grab a free template and start editing the content with a free program like Kompozer.

darcie · Post by **darcie** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:46 pm

I'll second Me. 1&1 (excuse the spam of my referral link) is what I have and it is as low as $3.99 per month with a domain name included. And I actually did use iWeb to quickly set up a website that looked really nice... I still need to get around to updating it to non-iWeb, but that's another story.

But iWeb is Mac only and $79 in a bundle with other stuff. I tried NVU also, and it's not bad. Basically place stuff where you want it to go and it converts it to html for you.

Samwise · Post by **Samwise** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:17 am

However it's always nice to be armed with the knowledge of XHTML, CSS, and PHP (or ASP.NET).

I remember it was about four or five years ago that I went to a really girly website and learned how to do basic HTML.

Then I studied the more concrete format that came with XHTML paired with CSS, which separated structure from style.

I find that brainstorming for ideas and inspiration to be the hardest part of making websites. Once you have that down, you can solve all the technical stuff.

A few resources that might come handy when starting from scratch with html/css:
http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/index.aspx
http://www.inknoise.com/experimental/layoutomatic.php
http://www.w3schools.com/

darcie · Post by **darcie** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:29 am

I definitely agree. Something like an "instant site creator" thing I'd suggest to get something up quickly while you work on your own.

Samwise wrote:I remember it was about four or five years ago that I went to a really girly website and learned how to do basic HTML.

Was this the really girly site? It has some good reference for kids and beginners. http://lissaexplains.com/

Samwise · Post by **Samwise** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:58 pm

Yep that's it! Haha I remember using that as a reference site while learning how to do HTML.

Now I don't really like their concepts because they don't strictly keep design in a separate stylesheet.

But it's a great place to begin for beginners.