How to make your own website

[GTO Assassin]

Is it easy/hard? What are some inside tips? My first thought was to buy a Dummies Guide to Creating your own Website. Any help would be great.

Scotty

[AgentOblivious]

Rent/host a server...learn HTML or get dreamweaver...make pages. Just remember that the home page has to be saved as index.html

[green-lantern]

Somebody did give you a computer for your B-day huh?

[Danube_3KGT]

you can find some easy website builder programs.. where you basically drag and click where you want stuff i think..

[GTO Assassin]

Rent/host a server...learn HTML or get dreamweaver...make pages. Just remember that the home page has to be saved as index.html
See that really doesn't make sense to me.... the last bit anyways. lol


Somebody did give you a computer for your B-day huh?
I've had a pooter for years Paulie. A nice big shiny Mac and it's better than any pc. :eek:


you can find some easy website builder programs.. where you basically drag and click where you want stuff i think..
Ok, nice. Thank you. I'll check that out.

Scotty

[CoreyB]

Interesting. I dont know shit about making a website either. Was just thinking about this last night, I want to make a random shit site.

[DrGonzo]

First off stay away from those damn website builder programs. The code they generate is shit and it always looks like crap in the end. A real developer would not be caught dead using Dreamweaver and a newbie should stay the hell away from it and learn the core language first.


Start by going here: HTML Tutorial (http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp)

Download notepad++ Notepad++ Home (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) Great tool for editing all types of files.

A basic webpage is nothing more that a bunch of text "HTML" files that the browser reads. You can create them right on your computer using any notepad/textpad program, save them on your desktop, and open them on your browser.

Start with the W3 Schools tutorials. The start you off small and build you up. plus their tutorials have a built in interface that lets you type code on the webpage and see how it will be displayed.

once you have the basic HTML down, move on to the CSS tutorials, than the Javascript tutorials.

Want to get real fancy move onto learning PHP "Server Side Scripting"and SQL which will allow connection to a database and store information, but you will need to run LAMP "Linux,Apache,MySQL,PHP" to work with it all. You can download the environment and run it on any machine for free. XAMPP is my personal choice as it bundles them all together into one but also includes an Email server and FTP server.

[TUFFTR]

Only a suggestion here, but would a program such as Joomla! or wordpress be suitable? I used Joomla! for my last semester's assignment and although a bit tricky to use was not bad in the end to navigate around.

Mr.Assassin, Just another option is what I've listed above, called a CMS or Content Management System. Built in user accounts, news, menu's etc. All with a built in backbone. (Like admin pages for yourself to control all through GUI)
Give it a look maybe? Joomla! (http://www.joomla.org/)

There is also Drupal
Requires no coding skill's. I think you should have a look at it as you can have some very smooth websites made!!
Let me know what ya think?

[stealthify]

Wordpress can be a good option for people just starting out. Installation is a breeze, many hosts will set it up for you, and there are a lot of plug-ins/themes that are easy to install as well.

Scotty, what type of website are you looking to build?

[AdamVR4]

This is the site I always used for reference. I was making framed pages when I was like 13. HTML is easy. Of course clean, simple tables are the way to go today, but anyway...

HTML Goodies: The Ultimate HTML Resource (http://www.htmlgoodies.com/)

[DrGonzo]

Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal are all CMS "Content management system. They are a dynamically built templating system based off of a very large server side codebase and are database driven. Many large websites use these type of backend as the user interface is pretty friendly and usually requires little code knowledge. There are massive amount of base templates out there for use with those systems.

It is still best to start learning basic concepts of HTML,CSS,Javascript,etc so you will understand exactly how these systems work and use it to it's fullest extent.

[BigTyla]

I'll echo everything Dr. Gonzo has said. Learn HTML. W3 schools is a great reference. You should be able to get right to work on writing HTML code in Notepad and have a dummy page set up within a couple of hours of starting. It's really quite simple. Once you get the basics down, you can move on to more advanced HTML like frames and Javascripts.

[TUFFTR]

Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal are all CMS "Content management system. They are a dynamically built templating system based off of a very large server side codebase and are database driven. Many large websites use these type of backend as the user interface is pretty friendly and usually requires little code knowledge. There are massive amount of base templates out there for use with those systems.

It is still best to start learning basic concepts of HTML,CSS,Javascript,etc so you will understand exactly how these systems work and use it to it's fullest extent.

Ive been doing HTML and Dreamweaver at TAFE as part of my IT dip for the last 6 months and I still find alot of it hard to grasp. It's a big thing to just 'pick up' which is why I suggested a CMS. For one time users or someone who just wants something mostly GUI orientated I think it'd help.

Basic HTML is easy but for the effort put in it's gonna look like a 15 year old made it in 1995.

[GTO Assassin]

Really appreciate all the input guys. It's for my lady as she is looking to setup a website for a possible business venture in a year or so. And as you can tell, I really know very little about computers and it's language. Learning HTML is a great start so will look at that first. As far as costing goes, what are we looking at? Free all the way? How much for hosting? (I know it varies country to country - or does it???) The actual website is to do with patchwork. (sewing, quilts etc)

Scotty

[stealthify]

Ah!

If you're doing all the work yourself, there's only two key things that will cost you:


The Domain (http://www.quilts4u.com.au)

Yearly cost (Price Range/yr: Free to $34.99 USD)
Can be purchased multi-years in advance, sometimes at a discount
Sometimes included for free with your hosting package (see below)
Known domain regisrars: www.GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com), www.Namecheap.com (http://www.namecheap.com), www.NetworkSolutions.com (http://www.networksolutions.com), www.MelbourneIT.com.au (http://www.melbourneit.com.au), and your host (sometimes)

The Hosting (file, image and database storage)

Monthly cost (Price Range/mo: Free to $200+ USD)
Price scales depending on what you need (ie: a dedicated server vs shared, etc)
Free hosting can be obtained if you don't mind them putting banner ads on your site, but usually the features are limited. I've yet to find a free host that I like.
Based on your description, it sounds like you could probably get away with a cheaper business class host for now ($4.99-$11/mo) and move up to a larger plan as your website grows and gains more traffic.



Setting up both the domain and host are fairly straight-forward. Most of the sites do a pretty good job of walking you through it, telling you what is included in each plan (allowable traffic per month, how much storage space, how many email addresses, etc). These days, a lot of hosts are marketing an 'unlimited' option, but remember that you can always start small and upgrade later. Whichever host you go with, be sure to ask them if they'd be willing to help you out with that when the time comes.

The other thing to consider, since you plan on opening an e-commerce shop, is what is known as an SSL certificate. These can get kind of pricey, but it's meant as a form of security to protect customer data that's being transmitted through your site. I'm sure you've seen these before on many legitimate online retailer's websites. Look for the 'https://' in the address bar as opposed to the 'http://' (no 's'). These sites are generally the secure ones.
Alternatively, if you don't plan on dealing with or accepting credit cards directly through your website, you could depend on PayPal to do it for you. This is what I did for my company when I first started. They offer a number of 'shopping cart' solutions so that all you need to do is copy some code that they give you for a purchase button, and then you paste it into your website. For smaller businesses, this is a reasonable place to start.

Hope this helped!

[GTO Assassin]

Thankyou so much Shaun. That's brilliant information and more helpful than you know. :bigthumb:

Scotty

[NickS VR4]

I use hostmonster.com. Decent pricing.

[reallyxxxxxxloud]

Contact Brad Baker [brad@xyzulu.com] I pay $12.50 a month for the hosting and support and $79 a year for the Domain. Support Center - XYZulu (http://my.xyzulu.com/) Hope this helps Scotty. They even have Joomla Tutorials on site...

[NickS VR4]

Why is everyone paying over $10/yr for a domain? Hosting costs money, not the domain.

[stealthify]

Why is everyone paying over $10/yr for a domain? Hosting costs money, not the domain.

The domain is costing somebody money. Sometimes the host will pay it for you (as part of their 'package deal'), but I've found it best to NOT let your host register your domain. I've seen it happen all too often where a person tries to transfer their site to another host and their old one refuses to give up ownership of the domain they included. Some shady stuff out there, it's probably best just to keep them separate.

[stealthify]

$79 a year for the Domain

Is that for a .com.au domain? Or just a .com?

If that's just a .com, that's a bit steep. Alternatively, I do know that .com.au's are a bit pricier ($65+/year).

[DrGonzo]

Justhost.com - Unlimited everything, 3 free domains, Joomla, Wordpress, OSCommerce already installed. and only $6.95 a month.

Web Hosting : Just Host (http://www.justhost.com/web-hosting#ic)

I have been using them for years now and never had any issues with them at all.

[IPD]

becoming fluent in HTTP is your friend.

[NickS VR4]

becoming fluent in HTTP is your friend.

My new friend is CSS and <div>

[Jimvr4]

I setup my web site with a CMS. I still have no clue on HTML and frankly I don't need it. I sell a few Spyder related things using Paypal buttons. I renewed my domain for around $120 for ten years directly with a registrar and I pay $4 per month for web hosting. My traffic is increasing though and I might have to pay more for bandwidth.

[J-Groove]

First off stay away from those damn website builder programs. The code they generate is shit and it always looks like crap in the end. A real developer would not be caught dead using Dreamweaver and a newbie should stay the hell away from it and learn the core language first.


Start by going here: HTML Tutorial (http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp)

Download notepad++ Notepad++ Home (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) Great tool for editing all types of files.

A basic webpage is nothing more that a bunch of text "HTML" files that the browser reads. You can create them right on your computer using any notepad/textpad program, save them on your desktop, and open them on your browser.

Start with the W3 Schools tutorials. The start you off small and build you up. plus their tutorials have a built in interface that lets you type code on the webpage and see how it will be displayed.

once you have the basic HTML down, move on to the CSS tutorials, than the Javascript tutorials.

Want to get real fancy move onto learning PHP "Server Side Scripting"and SQL which will allow connection to a database and store information, but you will need to run LAMP "Linux,Apache,MySQL,PHP" to work with it all. You can download the environment and run it on any machine for free. XAMPP is my personal choice as it bundles them all together into one but also includes an Email server and FTP server.

While I agree with everything you said with the exception "a real developer would not be caught dead using Dreamweaver"

Really?

While yes, I can see your point to some extent, especially from a beginner's standpoint, but for more experienced dreamweaver is a great tool.

If anything just for the easy of setting up a nice color coded system in the source view. Any site I am coding I'm working within dreamweaver, all of my CSS pages are nice an color coded for ease of finding the line I'm looking for months later. Also a person can follow behind me and easily figure out what I did and why. Yes all the code is the same, but it is nice when you have your comments in a different color instead of all black in notepad where you need to pray that the person used tabs correctly.

-John

[Alan92RTTT]

Why is everyone paying over $10/yr for a domain? Hosting costs money, not the domain.

Some of the prices listed are not in USD some are in AU.

[DrGonzo]

While I agree with everything you said with the exception "a real developer would not be caught dead using Dreamweaver"

Really?

While yes, I can see your point to some extent, especially from a beginner's standpoint, but for more experienced dreamweaver is a great tool.

If anything just for the easy of setting up a nice color coded system in the source view. Any site I am coding I'm working within dreamweaver, all of my CSS pages are nice an color coded for ease of finding the line I'm looking for months later. Also a person can follow behind me and easily figure out what I did and why. Yes all the code is the same, but it is nice when you have your comments in a different color instead of all black in notepad where you need to pray that the person used tabs correctly.

-John

Notepad++ does the same thing for color coding without the hefty price tag. Plus Notepad++ works with 99% of the languages out there.

Granted Dreamweaver has a lot of features packed into it like FTP, Check-in/Check-out, Auto building CSS, build in web service and drop down functions listing but it was all derived from already existing open source projects/software. I've been Developing/programming now for 12+ years and have yet to meet one core developer that uses Dreamweaver and that is usually cause their all a bunch on Unix/Linux guys who have gotten used to working with open source platforms.

[J-Groove]

Notepad++ does the same thing for color coding without the hefty price tag. Plus Notepad++ works with 99% of the languages out there.

Granted Dreamweaver has a lot of features packed into it like FTP, Check-in/Check-out, Auto building CSS, build in web service and drop down functions listing but it was all derived from already existing open source projects/software. I've been Developing/programming now for 12+ years and have yet to meet one core developer that uses Dreamweaver and that is usually cause their all a bunch on Unix/Linux guys who have gotten used to working with open source platforms.

That is true, now that I think about it all of our in house programers use notepad++ and 2/3rds of them are on Linux.

I'm a sr. graphic designer, so with living all things Adobe for all my life just about Dreamweaver is just par for the course for me and my team.

Also...I'm on a Mac...runs away and hides. Textwrangler is supposed to be similar to Notepad++ for Mac, but I haven't tried it.

In your original post I miss read notepad++ and just notepad. I learned to code HTML and C++ in notepad, but that is something I never want to go through again. haha

-John

[stealthify]

While I agree with everything you said with the exception "a real developer would not be caught dead using Dreamweaver"

Really?

Dreamweaver can be a useful tool. However, what hasn't been mentioned, and a large reason that many developers turn their nose up at it, is because it can easily be abused (more specifically with the WYSIWG design editor). Sure, it may save you from having to really learn HTML/CSS, but it also has been known to write sloppy, non-standards compliant code. It's deceptively easy to fall into this bad practice when you're first starting out, and most 'professionals' would agree that you'd do a much better job if you just take the time to learn the language and construct it in text-based editor instead.

Text-based editors (like Notepad++) have come a long way over the years. I suppose the reasons professionals prefer them (beyond the bad stigma associated with Dreamweaver), is because they're more lightweight, packs in a lot of useful features (FTP, subversioning, multi-language capabilities, terminal integration, better commenting system, adjustable syntax color highlighting, etc), and for the most part are pretty bug-free.

For the Mac users, I would suggest looking into Espresso (http://macrabbit.com/espresso/), TextMate (http://macromates.com/), TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) or VIM (http://macvim.org/OSX/index.php). Alternatively and personally, I've been using Panic's Coda for most of my work over the years, and I love just about every bit of it.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. But hopefully that explains things a bit better.

[NickS VR4]

Personally I like dreamweaver, but never design any other way besides manually typing my code. Most of the time I am using php or DOM, and I cannot see the actual preview, but I still like having that option available. Admittedly, dreamweaver isnt the greatest, but I do like that is has good color coding for a lot of languages, and I am too lazy to set all the colors in these other programs... i just got used to dreamweaver.