A Little Web Help Please

[Canyons12]

i'm looking to start up my own website, and i'm pretty ignorant as to how to get it all started. i have already chosen (and paid for) a domain name that i really liked. i did that through Yahoo. Yahoo offers some basic web hosting packages when you purchase a domain name through them, but i don't like any of their cookie-cutter templates, and would like to do something else more customized. i don't HAVE TO web host through Yahoo do i?

anybody have suggestions on a good web host that is relatively inexpensive and is not the standard cheesy template design?

i really like the look and design of Carpeybiggs' site (www.danransom.com), and am looking to do something similar.

thanks in advance!

[Jaxx]

I have done a cheapo with Web.com. My sister used to work for storesonline.com, I don't have any experience with them though.

[Alex]

If you purchased a domain name through Yahoo, it's kind of a pain to switch the domain hosting to another host. You can however redirect the DNS over to another web server, that's easily done via their DNS tools.

I assume you don't know html or php, so the cookie cutter is the way to go to start. Once you become familiar, then you can design your own stuff from scratch. Dan put in a lot of work into his site to make it purty.

[Canyons12]

i think the biggest problem with the cookie cutter designs offered through Yahoo is that they're all set up to be "online businesses." i don't want that. i want a style more similar to an online photo gallery.

[Deathcricket]

I'm not sure if this will be super helpfull but I'm kinda doing the same thing as you and what i did was grab the code off a website I liked then inputed my own values.

Just put enough of your own stuff in there to make it original enough. you can learn enough html to be dangerous for free at http://www.w3schools.com/

hope that helps.

[Sombeech]

It all depends what you want to accomplish with your website. If you want a place to put your latest photos & categorize them, you may even want to look at a blog.

You can still have your domain name, but upload the blogging software, such as www.wordpress.org to your server.

Then you can EASILY add photos, logging in from any computer, just like a blog. There are really a lot of options with wordpress software... as I'm finding out.

[sparker1]

I don't see why you have to use their software just because you use their domain. There are tons of html editors or simple to use software to create your files, then FTP them to Yahoo. I even used MS Word once to create a web site.

[DiscGo]

Maybe I missed it, but what exactly are you looking to have on your site?

[theking648]

The most important thing is to learn Basic HTML!!! things will be so much easier.

but coding works in a chain. html -> css -> php -> mysql and if you know C++ then that helps to understand Php and vice-versa.

i've used tons of differant web hosts. starting with angelfire.com when i was 11 years old about a year ago i was using 50webs.com but now i'm using freehostia.com and by far my favorite.

now if you wan't to get a personal feel and theme to it, well there is no better way then making it your self. this series and website is very helpful
(tutorials 1, 2, and 3)
http://css-tricks.com/videos/

and by far the most helpful web site i've ever been to is http://www.tutorialized.com/

i'm 17 now but if i was able to teach myself HTML at 11 you can do it.

it's all trial and error, i wish you the best with your website.

[ericchile]

The most important thing is to learn Basic HTML!!! things will be so much easier.

but coding works in a chain. html -> css -> php -> mysql and if you know C++ then that helps to understand Php and vice-versa.

i've used tons of differant web hosts. starting with angelfire.com when i was 11 years old about a year ago i was using 50webs.com but now i'm using freehostia.com and by far my favorite.

now if you wan't to get a personal feel and theme to it, well there is no better way then making it your self. this series and website is very helpful
(tutorials 1, 2, and 3)
http://css-tricks.com/videos/

and by far the most helpful web site i've ever been to is http://www.tutorialized.com/

i'm 17 now but if i was able to teach myself HTML at 11 you can do it.

it's all trial and error, i wish you the best with your website.

forget all that crap if you want a photo website.. Just make it in flash. By the way HTML and CSS is not coding, its scripting.

[theking648]

forget all that crap if you want a photo website.. Just make it in flash. By the way HTML and CSS is not coding, its scripting.

i got bad news for you it's all coding/scripting. scripts are the completed CODE. PHP and C++ is scripting too.

even if you do a flash web site. the load times are longer and uses more of your system resources. but you got to learn to crawl before you can walk, and still have to know how to embed flash. no matter what type of website it is you better learn html. at least.

[ericchile]

forget all that crap if you want a photo website.. Just make it in flash. By the way HTML and CSS is not coding, its scripting.

i got bad news for you it's all coding/scripting. scripts are the completed CODE. PHP and C++ is scripting too.

even if you do a flash web site. the load times are longer and uses more of your system resources. but you got to learn to crawl before you can walk, and still have to know how to embed flash. no matter what type of website it is you better learn html. at least.

Scripts are completed code? lol Get off your high horse and read up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language

vs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_languages

There is a big difference between scripting and compiled code(not sure if you meant compiled, completed or just don't know what you are talking about). Html is never compiled, nor css. php is compiled on run time, c and c++ as well as most java stuff is precompiled.

Now back to the real issue. Even though flash takes a long longer to load (not outrageous), it tends to look a lot more professional if done right and also is a lot more presentation friendly. Just do a search and you will see most professional photographers websites are mostly flash.

[theking648]

LOL i don't care what you say it's all coding to me and at the end of the day i know what i'm doing and how to code it all.

if you don't like me using coding then how would you describe scripiting and programing in one word... and what you say is what i'll use.

[accadacca]

There are loads of open source apps available now a days and plenty of nice web systems already built; no need to learn html or css. You might look at www.smugmug.com. They have some custom templates that look pretty good and have a built in way to sell your photos. Let them handle the nuts and bolts, you handle the photography.

You could point the domain that you purchased to your site once it is complete on SmugMug. They have some really cool features and unlimited storage. That is my two cents coming from a web dood.

[Canyons12]

Let them handle the nuts and bolts, you handle the photography.

EXACTLY!!!! i'm a photographer, not a web designer. the smugmug tip is looking VERRRRRRY attractive right now. thanks for the hot tip!

[RedMan]

Look into Joomla www.joomla.org

You can have a very professional looking website up and running in a day.
Took me about 6 hours for the first one.

I'm adding a full blown shopping cart with Virtuemart now which take more time but is not substantially harder. www.virtuemart.com

[Canyons12]

question regarding page sizing:

i'm having problems setting up a page that works well for most screen resolutions. at varying resolutions the browser may or may not have to scroll side to side to see everything on the page. i notice that Bogley.com works for almost all resolutions without having to scroll side to side at all -- how did you do that? is that built into the sitecode or what?

isn't there a way to make the pages i design automatically resize to fit whichever resolution is used?

[theking648]

question regarding page sizing:

i'm having problems setting up a page that works well for most screen resolutions. at varying resolutions the browser may or may not have to scroll side to side to see everything on the page. i notice that Bogley.com works for almost all resolutions without having to scroll side to side at all -- how did you do that? is that built into the sitecode or what?

isn't there a way to make the pages i design automatically resize to fit whichever resolution is used?

um yes it's all in the code an you can do it.... like i said before no matter what you do it's helpful to learn HTML.
on my website i use CSS that adds a property of "margin: 0px auto;" and it centers everything in the middle and i have a background image that repeats on the X axis. (all very basic stuff in css) but i don't know what type of webpage your doing sometimes just a simple <center> around the whole page in html will work fine. and then adding a width to the main content part. i wouldn't suggest anything wider then 1000px.

again it's kind of a hard topic. i'm sure everything above just went over your head as you read it. it's like tring to teach a blind man to read.


--EDIT i might want to say for center to work it has to be put around table and if you do that the whole webpage will have to be a table... and thats why it's better to use CSS

[Canyons12]

UGH! i'm throwing in the towel!

i have a couple hundred bucks for someone who is willing to build me a site. i'm pretty sure i can maintain it, i just need someone to BUILD it.

this is a serious offer. reply here or PM me.

[theking648]

i can build one ground up but it's not going to be easy to edit it. if you don't know what your doing.

i'm haven't got into creating user edit interface type thing for that you would need php and mysql, and i only know the basics of both.


"i can build you the car but your the one who has to learn how to change the oil. "