Need Website-Help Wanted

King, when you find out how about posting the goodies on LJ’s.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

AT&T/Yahoo! is my provider. They’re great…. who is your provider … try them.

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke".

Grumpy- If it works out , I’ll do it. Also, I now know that it is nearly noon in Sydney. So there. As always, bbqKing

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

Check out GODADDY and/or Network Solutions…
They have all kinds of templates and will do the hosting…
A good “do-it-yourself” is XSitePro $197.00 … relative cheap compared to progams by ADOBE…
Hope this helps…
Ed

Skip Godaddy…their “website tonight” isn’t very user friendly and produces pretty poor sites.

If you’re truly willing to put forth some effort, you might want to find a hosting company that offers a number of opensource “content management” tools—like one of these If you can decide on one this way, then visit the software’s website and look for a “hosting” page for a list of hosting providers.

Another option is to just pick a provider such as “bluehost.com” (i use them, they’re OK, but I would recommend looking around as I haven’t compared with others in years). Do a google search for “PHP hosting” or “CMS hosting” and take a look at the CMS systems they provide. Many have “point-n-click” installation of a large assortment of CMS systems and cost well under $10/mo.. With bluehost, for example, you can try out about a dozen or so different systems to see which one you prefer. You can then set it up as you please—some CMS systems are simpler than others….some are very complex and powerful while others are much simpler but rather limited. If you find a particular one difficult to comprehend, try another one. All of them have online docs and support forums…though some are better than others. ;)

One of the easiest and best-supported systems out there is Wordpress—it’s really blogging software, but has quite a few CMS features and may be sufficient for your needs. In fact, you can setup a wordpress blog for free through Wordpress.com—it will have ads on it, but it would give you a chance to play with the software before shelling out any money.

I hope you find this helpful…good luck!

- Patrick

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL www.TenonAndSpline.com

Ditto what Odie said. Some ISPs provide a web hosting service for minimal costs and will help you set up your site.

Here are a few links to free web authoring software-

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/categories/webauthoring/

http://www.majorgeeks.com/KompoZerd5797.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Nvu_d5490.html

Lew

An arguement I have seen against using your ISP to build your site is that if you ever move, you will have to start from scratch. If you don’t ever intend to move, that may not be a drawback.

I use Homestead to make and maintain my websites. They have about any flashy gimmick you could want for a website, but you can just drag and drop if you don’t want to learn html or any of that other stuff that some people say is so easy. If you know how to use it you can put it in if you want. You can make it as easy or complicated as you want.

http://www.homestead.com/

-- David, Southern Indiana, http://www.freedhardwoods.com

This is one of our Lumber Jocks that does this for a living. Ad Marketing Guy Bill http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/AdMarkGuy He’s started a series on everything you need to know about using the web effectively. I’ve had a web site for about 8 years and after reading some of his stuff, I’m just waiting to get the time to put some of it into use.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Onya King, you are a fast learner.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Got to this thread late.
I used to be a computer programmer, and have built web sites. Sorry but I can’t recommend specific sites in answer to your question – I’ve always hand-coded everything.
But I could help when/if you have problems, suggest things etc.
I’m also on a Mac – you’d be amazed how many sites (including some huge names) simply don’t work on a mac, so I’d be happy to test it.
One thing I would say is that you have to think carefully about what you want to achieve – do you want a “pictures and email me for more info” kind of thing (pretty easy), or some wizzy “order online” sort of thing (as hard as you want it to be).
I’d also disagree with Patrick on the “one stop solution” – it may be a bit more complicated, but I’d keep the hosting and the “what’s being hosted” separate – hate to be “tied in”.
Just my two-penneth worth – PM me if you fancy (never received one of them – wonder how it works).

A website can be a great way to impress local people and show
your work in that context…. but if you are expecting to sell
nice woodworking profitably over the internet to non-local markets
then you are in for a surprise.

Building the site isn’t hard to do with the software available
today. For most guys it’s going to be the actual marketing that
they’ll struggle with – the written content on the site – follow-up
marketing, getting traffic, and so on.

I would steer clear, in general, of the proprietary site builders that
are attached to hosting plans. The hosting is generally pricey
and if you move your site won’t work with your new host.

You can get a local kid to build you a site for $100 easily. If you
want to do it yourself for the satisfaction of doing it yourself,
then you might look at NVU and Wordpress as design platforms.
Both are free.

-- http://amherstcabinets.com - also a marketing consultant with expertise in direct response marketing for woodworking and online businesses - http://COPYMATCH.COM

I am a web site programmer for a living so let me know if you have any specific questions.
I’m more knowledgeable with the programming aspect, rather than the design aspect.
I agree with Loren’s advice, if you want to do it inexpensively, hire the local kid to build you a site. I have several friends that will build you a site but they will charge you a lot more.