How to make your own website

[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:

1. 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, www.Namecheap.com, www.NetworkSolutions.com, www.MelbourneIT.com.au, and your host (sometimes)
2. 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.

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 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.