building a website

OK, I know, I know - this is too broad a question ... :rolleyes:

I want to build a simple website. I know how to get a host and how to get a domain name.

But, trying to decide where to start to actually "build" the web pages has me a bit dizzy.

Years ago, (the 90s) I took a class in HTML and do not want to bother with that. I also took a class in a software called "Frontpage" (IIRC) that seemed easy enough, like MSWord, but doesn't seem to be around anymore.

There are zillions of templates and packages on the internet. A few of you have webpages that I like.

It will not be a commercial site. I do not need a check-out or shipping routines. I want to post some pictures, grouped in portfolios, and also some writing. Just for my own amusement and that of the 1-3 people who might give a rat's ...

Any suggestions on where to even start?

David,

Are you on Mac OS X? If so Softpress Freeway Pro might work well for your intended use.

www.softpress.com

Tom

Join me.com which is Apple's online web / email / calendar service. You can host a simple site there with your own domain name; and if you're on a Mac you can build it with the website-creation software included with the computer.

Simple image galleries and text pages would be no problem.

http://www.indexhibit.org/

Very good simple portfolio engine.

After a few years of doing PHP and HTML, I've recently switched to Drupal. It is a bit technical, but not as bad as doing HTML. Once it is set up, there is no need for doing anything technical ever again, just make your content and add it. It manages everything and builds all the pages. Your page can be as simple or as complex as you want. Your host has to support PHP and a database, preferably MySQL. If you ever change your mind about checkouts and shipping and decide to start selling your work there, it is fairly simple to add that.

Of course, if you are on a Mac and just want a simple gallery and blog, iWeb is a great tool for drag and drop web site creation. The only tools I've ever used for web site creation on Windows are edit and Notepad, but I hear PSPad is nice. It is a free text editor with FTP built in.

Check out www.siteground.com They have great packages and easy to build templates.

Friend of mine is a designer and recommended I look at Wordpress, which has a good variety of photo templates, and avoids Flash.

Bludomain and Livebooks are similar but use Flash.

I really like "Dreamweaver" for images text and links. Once you get the hang of it, it is very quick and easy and you can add stuff and change stuff anytime you want.

David, I used Dreamweaver building mine. Borrowed Dreamweaver for Dummies from the library and taught myself. It took a while but now I'm happy that I can do all changes myself and update it whenever necessary. I lets you use html, design mode or both.
Host is one.com and they are great and cheap.
My website is www.sarahfoto.com if you want an example
Good luck
-Sarah

http://dennispurdy.com/
And there is my Dreamweaver web site that I made 6 years ago. Very simple just text images and links. The fanciest thing I did was to make my name banner in Photoshop and then put it in as an image. It took me a while to learn to use DW but mostly because I was making it too hard.
Dennis

Apple's iWeb is an excellent program to build something simple. That's what I used. Dead Link Removed

I used iWeb (part of Apple's iLife group) to build mine. It's really very easy. Another easy (and still free) program is jalbum. http://jalbum.net/ - it's a basically volunteer made program that has a community of users. I've played with it and found it pretty easy to use - it was just easier for me to upload from iWeb than from jalbum.

I'd like to add my opinion that iWeb is pretty good. I know some web gurus who bad-mouth the way it does the job, but I found it very easy to make my own templates based on the existing ones, and for me to say something like that, it *has* to be easy.

If you go to my home page (Dead Link Removed) I think it works, and I didn't use any of their templates straight out of the box.

Alternatively, if you want to try your hand going a little further under the hood, you can build your site on Wordpress, but you do need to do some coding to get it to do what you want.

Thanks, everybody. I guess I should have mentioned that I am on a PC/Windows platform.

I have looked at Indexhibit, but I'm not sold. (2 of my former colleagues on the Texas Church Project have their websites in this stuff)

Dreamweaver! Hmmm ... the wife is a graphic artist and we had considered that a while back. (Even bought a book). We do own the entire Adobe CS suite, so maybe we can use that. But, I'm convinced there is an idiot-proof template out there somewhere ...

Thanks, everybody. I guess I should have mentioned that I am on a PC/Windows platform.

Click to expand...

jalbum is PC and Mac. I don't know html or how to tweak stuff and I thought jalbum was easy to use.

These days, I'd either use a wordpress back end and have someone build you a theme for it. Or, even more simply, some of the most usable and sexy stuff I've seen for photography have been Tumblr sites.

Both are traditionally meant as blog back ends. But that doesn't mean you have to use them for blogging.

I'd go tumblr. Unless you have some money to have someone build you a custom theme for wordpress, then that's a more customizable option.

David,

I know nothing about website building and don't have the time and inclination to get into it. From past experience, even if I managed to get to grips with html (whatever it is) and all that old stuff I'd have forgotten again by the next time I needed to make a change. After a lot of poking around on the web, I found Webeden at: http://www.webeden.co.uk/
This has easy-to-use templates, has printable instructions that run to only 30 pages and has suited me very well for what I want to do with it (which is really mainly to have a few photos on the web that I can point people at to show them the sort of thing I do). My own website is at: http://walkhamphotography.webeden.co.uk if you want to have a look.

Good luck with whatever course of action you follow!

Steve

Another vote for Jalbum. My site was built with it form a Windows maschine. Jalbum is built with photography in mind.

over the years i've made many sites and for all i've used dreamweaver, superb, quick, simple.

Have you decided on a hosting site yet? Many times they have free software or templates for you to use. I used Yahoo!s Sitebuilder to make mine. It's free when you use Yahoo! to host your site. It does have a flaw though, it won't utilize much memory at all, so if your site gets bigger the program itself starts to really drag. To get around that I feed most of my images from Flickr. When I want to change a slide show I just rearrange, add, delete on the set on Flickr and since that's what feeds the site it's automatically changed.
Yahoo also has Site Solution which is mostly templates, but I didn't care for them.

But if you have the Adobe CS suite you may already have something sitting on your computer to do a better job of it.

www.squarespace.com

good rates and very nice web based editing

Another vote for iWeb that comes on the Mac. Personally, I dislike Wordpress sites, in my opinion they tend to all look the same.
Dead Link Removed

I just clicked on some sites mentioned in the replies.

Most think they did a good job. That is for showing it to your friends etc... One site when clicking took 30 seconds to get the next flash page and the user is waiting and nothing is happening meanwhile. Another used 4 different fonts on 1 page. Clicking on a photo did not get me to the next page, only click on the text below it. Somethings awfull text is used for redirecting. Clicking for the next photo in a gallery show a different page where each time the next button was on a different location (very annoying). Sometimes you can not find where to click to get the gallery etc...

What I want to say with this is that if you want to get a professional site, get someone who knows what to do. If you want to only show it to your friends show them your photos instead. Building sites is just as difficult as creating and print pictures. It's another discipline that must be teached. You can lean how to place a button, but how to create a site that looks good is another job.

A solution that can help are they programs where you only have to provide the pictures and all the redirecting through the gallery is done for you. This will provide a way to show pictures in a quick way that works and looks quite good, because a lot of people use this method so they know exactly what to do when such a site pops up.

Sorry if some people feel offended by this, but i never say to a friend that a photo is nice, if I do not think it is in a objective way....

Sounds like a fun time!

There are many free templates available. Many times the host you choose will have templates available. I use Yahoo and they have many templates & software that's free.

Since my site is for business use I have many clients that work at a business that blocks flash. If you want folks to be able to view your site from a work environment check and see if they can view a flash site. And I also don't use music because if someone opens my page at a business in a cube then it can be distracting if not alarming.

My site is a constant work in progress. So whatever you choose I suggest having the tools to change things on your own.

you could also look at oneandone.com as a host - their webuilder is a template based site creator which you can fully customise and obviously integrates well with their hosting service. Used oneandone in the UK for years.