# Making Websites



## TedW (May 6, 2012)

I'm starting this topic because, well… it's already been started in another topic, the posts being widely dispersed throughout that other topic. This way we can keep all those posts together and easier to follow. If you have an interest in making a website to display, write about, sell or otherwise show-off your woodworking endeavors, feel free to jump right in.


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

SPLASH.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Wow, that's a big splash.. must be all that English bacon! LOL

Welcome to the web nerd zone Rex


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

I name this thread *Making Websites*, may Ted protect her, and all who post in her.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Just a quick note about my web building expertise.. expertise is too big a word. I've been dabbling in making websites for a couple of years now, but still don't actually have one online, mostly because I've been more interested in how it's done than actually doing it. But that's going to change now. I'm going to go ahead and build myself a real live website.

I use Joomla! (yes, it's properly spelt with the ! for added drama) which you can learn more about at http://joomla.org.

Another platform that I've dabbled in is WordPress, which you can learn more about at http://wordpress.org.

Both of these website building platforms are what's known as a CMS, or Content Management System. They are free to download and use, and they are the two most popular among litereally hundreds of other CMS.. many of which are free and many of which aren't.

Both Joomla! and WordPress can be used to make a basic website, but they originated from two different perspectives. Joomla was originally designed to host a community, not unlike the one right here at LumberJocks. WordPress was originally developed to be used as a blog, or online journal. However, they have both morphed over the years to accommodate a wider user base, to the point where either one can be used for either purpose. It is beyond the scope of this post to elaborate but, suffice to say, they work differently, have different features, and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Here are two demo website created by RocketTheme, a commercial template provider. One is built on Joomla and the other is built on WordPress…

Joomla => http://demo.rockettheme.com/nov11/

WordPress => http://demo.rockettheme.com/wordpress/wp_enigma/

They look identical, but under the hood they are radically different.

The Joomla site can be used as a blog, but it is better suited for example, an online catalog, a community, or a corporate type website.

The WordPress site can be used as an online catalog, a community (with limited funcitonality) or a corporated website, but it is better suited to be used as an online journal, or a blog as it is better known.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Okay, too complicated…

Go to http://wordpress.com and create a free blog.

Optionally, you can purchase hosting from http://godaddy.com or http://bluehost.com or http://hostgator.com and install wordpress (http://wordpress.org) on your own domain.

I already have hosting with BlueHost.com so that's what I'll use. Also, I use Joomla but I'm also familiar with WordPress and will gladly help out with either, if I can.

Later!


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

Ted,
If the intent is to develop a web presence for LJs to catalog and sell their wares, which package is the best to use. Can we not choose ONE package and go from there?


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## Stephenw (Nov 14, 2011)

I use WordPress. I also have experience with Simple Machines forum software.

My hosting service…

http://www.charlottezweb.com/

I originally started with GoDaddy and got terrible service. Their servers were slow and a constant stream of errors.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Great thread Ted,
That has a ring.
Here is my first
www.chiselandforge.com
Lets build some sites together.
A little about me. I am in the IT field but I am not a programer. This is new and interesting ground for me.

Thanks for posting.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Ecwid (http://www.ecwid.com/) is easy to set up and can be plugged into any website. I have tried it and I'm really impressed with their setup, and it's free. For $17 a month one can use the advanced features, but most hobbyist woodworkers don't need all that.


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## GenerationWW (Mar 29, 2012)

I use Hostgator.com, great service and good package pricing. It fits my site www.generationwoodworks.com perfect.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Stephen, SMF that is an excellent forum software. I'm a big fan of their nearest competitor, phpBB, but I use Kunena because it installs on Joomla. There doesn't seem to be much forum options for WordPress, which has always surprised me.

I've never tried GoDaddy hosting but from what I understand they are a good choice for simple websites. All the bad things I've heard seem to come from people wanting to create larger websites with advanced functionality. I've never heard of CharlottezWeb. Their prices seem good but the packages are rather limited. I like BlueHost because they have unlimited pretty much everything, and they've proven to be pretty dependable and have good support. I've also used HostGator and can say the same for them.

I like your website. Looks like you got the little one started on woodworking. After he's done with that toolbox you should post it in the Projects section.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Nice website *Dave*.. looks familiar . I like them nice clean urls


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Gen (mind if I save myself some typing?  it's like you read my mind. I'm currently working on a similar type of site, but using WordPress in multisite mode and some e-commerce plugins. Every member will have their own blog/store and, like on your site, products will be promoted on the home page. I've been testing it for a couple of months now but running into some obstacles. I'll probably be launching in the next week or so.

I like the nice, clean look of your site. Mind if I ask what platform you're using?


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## AndyDuframe (Jul 27, 2008)

(I already have hosting with BlueHost.com so that's what I'll use.)

I also use BlueHost, and I've found their interface to be fairly straightforward and easy to use (well, as easy as I've found in the always-complicated world of web hosting interfaces). Of course, once you have a hosting account set up, you can install whatever you like to serve as the backbone of your site (wordpress, html, etc.).

I've created both WordPress sites and hand-coded html sites, and against most popular opinion, I have to say I prefer building my own pages in html. The problem with WP (at least for me) is the PHP code-which means if I want to make the slightest change to the look and feel of a particular WP theme, I pretty much have to be a friggin' programmer to figure out how to do it. Sure, the newer themes have better user interfaces these days, but we're still talking a PHP-based site, which can be difficult to fix if it breaks and you don't know PHP.

The real value in WP is that it provides a super easy and quick way for internet marketers to pump out thousands of websites full of pure junk, sites that Google loves to put on page one. Pretty heavenly, if that's your thing.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

*Dave*, good news.. subscriptions are working properly. I got the email notification about "Dovetails On My Mind". Now I won't miss a single post on your site.









Hi *Andy*. It's true, a lot of junk sites are built on wordpress, but so are a lot of really great and resourceful sites. I guess that's just the nature of the Web… there will always be plenty of junk sites. What you say about editing themes is also one my pet peaves about using wordpress, and one of my reasons for using Joomla instead-WP templates are just too darn confusing. The back-end interface that so many come shipped with these days does help, but it also limits how much you can do. Joomla templates seem a lot easier to edit, although they are still written in PHP. Many Joomla template providers are moving to proprietary interfaces, which is starting to complicate things. In fact, I may be forced into finally learning actual programming, as opposed to the copy/paste style hacking I've been doing.

ezwoodshop.com looks really nice, and looks like a lot of useful information there. I bookmarked it so I can check it out later.

*Everybody*, I'm putting together a simple tutorial on how to install and configure a simple wordpress powered website, along with a storefront so you can sell your stuff, and a few other features I think you may find useful. It will be directed mostly to the absolute novice who wants a simple website to get started. It's going to take a couple of days, but I'll post it here when it's ready.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

i have started polishing an apple

i haven't been in school for a while
but am ready now

cookies and milk
while we wait
then a little nap


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

I am loving this.


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Ted, you don't need to D/L and configure Joomla or Wordpress or a host of other applications on many web hosting packages.

There is an automatic set up system included with most called "Softaculous" and another called "Fantastico Deluxe" that will configure them for you whether you want a CMS, shopping cart, Blog, Adverising, photo gallery, project management, site builders, e commerce, and dozens of other applications.

This is included in the Control Panel you get with your website usually.

I've been selling web hosting packages for the last 20 years, writing websites part time and generally making a presence on the web.

For every web hosting package I sell I include a download link for a really good website builder called "Webpage Maker" that includes a license also.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Dallas, I get what you're saying. I've also set up a web server with hosting packages - LAMP with cpanel and fantastico - just to see how it's done. But not all hosting packages come with such applications. The tutorial will cover all the basics including uploading and setting up the database, for those who want it. They can skip that part if they have Fantastico or similar available or, for whatever reason, don't want to use it. Like your tag line says, Improvise… Adapt… Overcome! I will show them how to do just that.


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

I agree with you Ted.

If you start a website such as MMM.widgetwood.blogspot.com you won't get a control panel. Unfortunately, in that case, you don't own the domain name. The owner of the main domain can take it away from you at anytime for any reason. the http://www points to the internet, (to put it simply). The widgetwood*.* (notice the dot) is a subdomain of the main domain name which is blogspot.com. 
Subdomains don't contain a control panel because they are actually just a file folder in the http folder of the file system on the larger main domain.
It's possible to give them a control panel like Apache software provides for the main domain names, but it's limited to whatever the owner of main Domain chooses to give it.
Using free hosting sites is a crapshoot because you still don't own the domain name even if it really is a mmm.widgetwood.com IF they are the ones who supply the domain name. The reason is because they are the ones who bought it and they aren't going to give it away free. They make their money by having advertising and click throughs on your website and many times they don't and won't give you a choice or a voice about what advertising goes on your site. 
I have a lady that buys web hosting from me that quit using the free hostga*xx*r hosting because the adverts that kept coming up were less than fit for PG13.

There is more to choosing a web hosting company than just paying them their monthly fee and starting up a web site. 
Buying a Domain Name means you need to register it in your name, with your bonafides and other information. It cost's about $10 - $12 per year for that. *ONLY* buy and register a domain name through a certified registrar. Don't let any company tell you that they will pay for it and give it to you free if they don't provide a form for you to fill out with physical address, admin name, owners name, contact name, email addresses, phone numbers, etc. 
I learned this the hard way about 22 years ago and have never looked back since.

Oh, and those 'unlimited space' and 'unlimited bandwidth' hosting packages are going to bite you in the ass. They buy from the same people that I do and that means they are limited. If you exceed their pre-defined limitations in their control panel, (WHM), they will throttle you back or cause blackouts. I can do that with any of the sites I host but I don't. instead I offer a set amount of space and a set amount of bandwidth for a set price. It's much more honest that way.

For any of you that have the 'free hosting' packages and have experienced slowdowns or failure to load, try opening up a command prompt window and type in after the c:\ tracert www.(yourwebsitename).com and hit enter.
That will give you a list of every jump it takes to get to your website and show you where the hangup is. Most of the time it will be at the nameserver for your website.

Good Luck!


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Dallas BRAVO!


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

*TED* great tread sounds like a great deal of intrest on this web stuff.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

For the money, with just about anything you need to have a web site be it Wordpress, Joomla. Drupal, use their Site Builder with over 2500 templates or build your own site from scratch with free editors or Expression Web and Dreamweaver. One thing to make sure a host has is Cpanel as the Admin Panel.
Cpanel has Softaculous installed in it. It's loaded with just about anything you want or need and it installs the scripts and programs for your site.

We have several 100 small business client sites hosted with them. They have the fastest support of all the hosting companies we use. They will also help you edit their templates and install any of the scripts.
http://www.kvchosting.com/

For the easiest shopping cart software try Coffeecup. Coffeecup has some of the best software in the industry and it's cheap.
http://www.coffeecup.com They also have a WYSIWYG editor to build sites in if you want to give it a try on your own.

Two companies we do not use is Godaddy and 1&1.

Here are some of the best reviews on just about any hosting company.
http://www.webhostingreviews.com/index.htm


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

*Dallas*
Bluehost is a so-called no limits hosting provider and I can build unlimited websites, using addon domains. They used to limit databases to 50 but they've up it to 100 databases not long ago. That's more than I will ever need so it works for me. The couple of things that don't work for me is the limit of 250,000 files and the warning that too many files could slow down all my sites. Also, can't store non-site related files, but that's to be expected.

I used to pan out $130 a month for a kick ass dedicated server some time ago, but that was eating me alive. But talk about fast.. that thing was lightning! Also, 2.66 GHz quad core processor, 4 GB memory, 250 GB hard drive and a second hard drive for backups, and cPanel/WHM and Fantastico included. At the time I was making enough profit from affiliate advertising to afford that kind of setup, but when the economy bottomed out so did my earnings. Too bad.. I really did like having full control.

It's common for hosting providers to include a domain name with their annual hosting packages, and that domain then belongs to the customer - the provider only manages it. I don't know how things were 22 years ago, but if one wanted to manage that domain their self, they just have to contact the said provider, who will probably unlock the domain for transfer. Then the site owner can transfer the domain to any registrar they want. The new registrar will most likely require that you buy an extra year of owning the domain. Some hosts use enom as their registrar, and the host acts as a reseller, especially those who use whmcs, since it interfaces directly into enom. In that case, one just has to create a free enom account and have the host push the domain over to that account. Unless the customer plans on changing hosts, however, it's probably best to just let the provider manage it. Bluehost provides a domain control panel so I could technically do that with my free domain. At least I'm pretty sure I can… I haven't had any reason to try it. I'd still have to set the nameservers to point to bluehost, since it's the main domain for my account. If I change the settings, all my websites will stop working.

I've never heard of a free host providing FQD, or fully qualified domains. Only subdomains. I set up a free hosting on my server once, but never opened it up to the public. It was just to see if I could do it. I don't want to play host to other peoples websites, paid or otherwise. I don't want take on that kind of responsibility.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Bruce great stuff!


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

*Bruce*, I had a run in with Coffee Cup a long time ago and vowed to never do business with them again. They held a promotion promising free software when buying hosting from one of a company they partnered with, got a couple of hundred sign-ups, got their commission, then never delivered on the software-left the hosting provider having to explain to everybody. I don't know if they've changed their business practices over the years, but I have no reason to find out.

I took a look at that KVC Hosting and their offerings look pretty impressive.

I've heard horror stories about 1&1


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

I recommend that you never have your domain with a hosting company. They control the domain not you.
We use Namecheap and Internet.BS for our personal domains and our clients domains. The client can control their own domains and not a hosting company do it for them.

We had a situation recently where a new client had his domain with his hosting company. We needed to move his site to a VPS with another hosting company. The owner of the domain had to pay the hosting company $100.00 to be able to keep his domain.

He set up an account with Namecheap and we transferred the domain to them and all is well now. Namecheap and Internet.BS are ICANN certified domain registrars.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

We use some of the Coffeecup software and love it especially their shopping cart and photo gallery. 
Ted I've not had anything to do with their hosting partners and I understand what you're saying.
I'm sure things have changed with them now. They're also located about 100 miles from me so if they boinked me I would pay them a visit for sure.
I would suggest with any software try their free trials before you buy no matter what company it is.

Godaddy and 1&1 were a nite mare for us several years ago so we do NO business with either of them.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Bruce, thanks for posting that link to KVC. I am so impressed with their setup that I went ahead and signed up for 3 months. I think bluehost may have lost a customer


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

About getting the domain name through the host, if it's free I'll take it… but I won't build any important site on a domain unless I'm in full control of it. The one I got from BlueHost.com, for instance, is just some obscure domain that I'll never use for anything. My websites (don't have any online yet) will be addon domains, the hosting provided one just my access to cpanel.

Absolutely agree on cPanel - I wouldn't use anything else.

I started this topic so I could help some fellow LJs with their website, but it looks like I'm learning a lot too. This is awesome!


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## nomercadies (Dec 31, 2011)

Must Follow …


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## PineChopper (May 21, 2012)

Hello Ted, well since we're on the topic of wood working, I have a question.
I use to sell my products (part-time woodworker back then) at yard sales and swap meets.

What are some to he other methods that LJ's are using these days?

Internet? I've seen many of those too.
Antique Malls? I had a friend that sold various things there about 18 yrs ago.

Any other ideas out there?


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

Bluehost was bought out by a company called Endurance, think that's correct. They'll buy out a company and soon afterwards the company starts going downhill.

We don't use Bluehost nor Hostgator. We had some client sites with them got to a crawl loading so we went on the hunt to find the problem.

The problem was they were over selling their servers and would throttle the servers to help hold the cpu usage down and their support got terrible so we moved the sites to another host and they fly now.

Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal are great CMS (content management systems) and good for someone trying to figure all this web development stuff out.

We also have some clients on the KVC $19.95 for life package and we can't tell any difference between that package and the big package as far as loading speed and uptime. You can also talk to a human there,

We never use a hosting company that does not have their physical address on their site nor a 24×7 support phone number, and speak English.

I would suggest to anyone to buy their domain through an Icann Registrar, get hosting with a company like KVC and start playing. The guys at KVC will also help you point your domain to their nameservers and will help you move a site from another host to theirs.

Always. and I mean always, read the host TOS (Terms Of Service) and abide by their TOS and not get your site booted.

You don't need all the latest and greatest web software. One thing that's very important is to optimize the images on your site so it will load faster. If you're new to all this stuff then go to Ebay and get you Photoshop 7.0. It also has Image Ready. Learn to use it and implement the optimized images on your site with it. 
PS 7.0 can usually be bought on Ebay for $60.00 and less.

Even though we have PS CS5 I still use Image Ready 7.0 to optimize most of my images. Cs5 cost big bucks and now CS6 is out but we're not going to upgrade anymore Adobe anymore.

Have fun building your woodworking site! If anyone is interested I'll tell you how to SEO your site in your local area so your site will be hitting high on Google, Yahoo and Bing for your locality.

Here are two sites I built in Photoshop 7.0. I did all the work in PS7 including building all the images.
http://www.m3sitetest.com/lj.html


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Lots of good information there Bruce.

I also use NameCheap. I have 8 dedicated servers set up as mirrors for two reseller accounts. 2.86Ghz. quad core Xeons, 8Gb ECC RAM, 6-3Tb drives in each server and enough bandwidth to make a T3 line scream uncle.

I also had problems with GoDummy. I had set up an account for dedicated servers and there was always something going wrong and little or no support. 
After losing at least a dozen accounts I sold web hosting to, I gave up and moved everything to NameCheap. They have real people to talk to and have offices in several places around the country. 
My up time with Namecheap has been over 99.7% for the last 6 years but with GoDaddy I could never achieve more than about 80%.

Good Thread Ted!


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

Ted, I love messing around with websites and it was one of my main hobbies and I did it for three years. Then when I had to start working on my house about three years ago I just stopped because I didn't have time. I learned a lot about XHTML, CSS, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, JQUERY, and was just getting into XML. I probably spent 20 hours per week on this hobby. Where I ended up with the training that I enjoyed the most was Lynda.com. That is a wonderful website but it's a paid site. You can belong for a month or as long as you want. Their training is in the video format and I highly recommend it. I'm quickly forgetting most of what I had a pretty good grasp on and want to get back into it. You know how it is - if you don't use it you loose it.

I have a history of getting into hobbies very deeply for several years at a time. Before that it was electronics and then another time computer programming. I wish that I could just retire and then I could have a whole lots of fun. The one hobby that I'm going to stick with is woodworking.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Bruce can you go further on the subject of SEO.
I am learning so much.


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## vegeta (Mar 10, 2009)

wow may take me a year to figure all this out i dont know any of this stuff a lot of it is way over my head but i will still folow and see if i can pick up on any of it i need a wed page as i am selling my stuff at art fairs and would like to incress sales or at least have a page for customers to look at for picking out items 
thanks ted and everyone else


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

As I said earlier, I started this thread to consolidate a subtopic from another thread - namely, Dave and I were discussing his website. But it turns out I'm learning more than I'm teaching, not that it would have taken much 

*Dallas*, agreed…. this is an excellent thread. But it's you and the others making it that way. I'm glad you guys popped in and look forward to all the useful info.

*Bruce*, so far KVC is totally rocking. It wasn't instant activation as advertised, but they got me set up within a few hours.

I'd also like to know more about SEO. I know a little, such as optimizing the title and description tags for each individual page, but SEO was never my favorite subject - I just like to make the website look nice, then sit back and admire how nice it looks. 

*Pinechopper*, it seems yard sales and swapmeets would attract a lot of lowballers looking to get things cheap. I could be wrong, but when I go to those it's low prices I'm looking for. Antique malls seems like a good avenue, since antique buyers tend to also like handcrafted items that aren't necessarily old. (hmmm… I wonder if a chair made from a 100+ year old tree could be considered and antique chair? hee hee).

Selling wood crafts online seems to have it's pros and cons-on the one hand you don't have to lug all your items around to different markets, and you don't need a store front. On the other hand, wood crafts are something people like to touch and get to know, before they buy. I think one of the best uses of selling wood crafts online is to attract a local market, so they can visit the sellers brick and mortar shop, whatever that might be. Another good use of an online presence for a woodworker is to market bulk produced items, or stuff they make multiple copies of.

I don't really see selling online as a main business for woodworkers, though I could be wrong about that. But getting a few online sales while grabbing the attention of the local market is not a bad thing.

One avenue for selling wood crafts that hasn't been mentioned yet is to sell through local retailers, like on a commission basis. They already have the foot traffic and you won't have to pack everything up at the end of each day. I think a lot of small retailers (and possibly larger ones too) would like to work with local home businesses, such as woodworkers, to show that they are part of the community.

*Dave*, as an IT guy I'm guessing you could get addicted to this web stuff. I'm really wondering what your website will look like, say, 6 months from now. I bet it will be awesome!

I'm starting to feel like a really small fish in a really big pond, but that's okay.. I'm a good swimmer.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

*Eddie*, you came to the right place. 

For all the novices out there (myself included), search Google for "free website template" and find some free templates you like. Download them and then open the 'index.html' file in any text editor. For windows users this might be Notepad or Wordpad. I'm not sure what Mac users would use. This will give you a first had look at the actual code used to make a web page. And look at several different templates. The simpler ones are the best for this, as they will be less cluttered with too much code.

Also, you can open that downloaded web page in your browser to look at it-it doesn't have to be loaded onto a web server unless you want to make it public.

Here's something to get you started…

*I Love Woodworking!*

Copy/paste that into your text editor, save it as 'mypage.html' then open it in a web browser. (right click the file, select 'open with..' and select your browser, such as Firefox, Explorer, Chrome…) Cool, eh?


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

I'll build a page on one of our test sites later today so you can see how we SEO the mom and pop sites to a local area. If interested I'll also show you how to optimize an image to a much smaller size so your site will load faster and use a fly out page to show a larger size of your project and not have to fool with learning jquery or a photo gallery.

W3C has a good free web site editor called Amaya,
You can read about it here.
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/

You can download it here and look at the screenshots of the program
http://download.cnet.com/Amaya-HTML-Editor/3000-10247_4-10575742.html


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Thank you for making this thread and to everyone contributing. Here is what I want and maybe you guys can direct me to the right package/source whatever… I want to have a template for my website but be able to edit content on each page without having to rewrite everything, changing links, etc. Basically I want to be able to change the content on different pages without messing with html (once it's set up).

I have several domains, hosting and sites already but I really don't enjoy writing html and scripting. I hate even more that right now I have to go in to each page and edit all the links, etc. by hand. Hostgator is my host and they use cpanel w/ Fantastico (mentioned above), would Wordpress, Joomla or any of the others do what I want? I'm not really familiar with what a CMS does. Would I just delete my site, install WP or Joomla and start over? A very simple shopping cart would be nice too. Right now I'm using a free BigCartel site.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

wormil, I am green and dont speak HTML either. I did mine with wordpress. Its a bit complicated. But free. And there is a ton of help online.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Wormil, that's exactly what WordPress and Joomla are for-they separate the content from the code from the design. CMS, or Content Management System

Don't delete your site or you will delete all the content you already have. Use Fantastico to install WordPress in a sub-directory, so it will be something like yourwebsite.com/wordpress/

After copying your content into WordPress, you can then delete the files (make sure to have backup copies on your home computer, just in case) and move all the files from the wordpress directory into your home directory. I think you have to follow that up by logging into the WordPress control panel (yoursite.com/wp-admin) and change the URL accordingly.

Hope that helps, and if you need to know more, just ask.


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## vegeta (Mar 10, 2009)

whell ted i see this is a large learning curve i may be one of those people who has to pay some one to set up a web site i tryed what you said and nothing happened for some one who reads e-mails and posts on forms only 
this may bee more than i can do but i will still folow this thread


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## RJweb (Mar 12, 2011)

I make web sites, have been since 1999, but I use adobe dreamweaver (used to be macromedia) cs5.5 now. I only just started working with wood because needed to get away from programing, needed more in life. good luck to all starting out in web design, but remember to validate all your work through http://validator.w3.org/ this will give you any errors you have so they can be corrected, makes your sites load faster and work accross all browsers.


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## PineChopper (May 21, 2012)

Thanks for the reply Ted and I agree with you.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Hey everybody, my new hosting provider ( http://kvchosting.com as suggested by Bruce ) provides a program called Softaculous, which is located near the bottom of the control panel (yourdomain.com/cpanel). I tried Softaculous for the first time just a few minutes ago, to install wordpress. It is extremely easy to use. I had WordPress installed in about 5 minutes and there is nothing complicated about it at all. I'm just throwing this out there for anybody who wants to use WordPress on their own domain and is still in need of a hosting provider. I signed up with KVC just the other day, and I'm really impressed with everything about them.

Note that I do not work for KVC or make commissions or anything of that sort. This is my completely unbiased opinion.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

I'm not affiliate with them either other than we use them as one of our top hosting companies. We like their fast support, fast servers, little downtime and their features. We use several small companies and like them much more than the larger companies. They blow smoke passing most of the larger host with their fast support.

We're finding out that the large companies on shared hosting, especially unlimited which there is no such thing as unlimited, are over selling their servers and will throttle them to keep them going and try not to disrupt the sites on the server. This can make a site slow down to a crawl.

If you have a forum on a shared hosting plan and it starts growing and taking a lot of hits you can count on the host to either suspend your account and ask you to upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated server. If you don't then most likely the host will suspend your account until you do.

Any host can have problems at any given time and it can cause problems for everyone, but that's hosting.
We use a company called Internetseer to monitor our sites. Uptime, downtime, load times and they have a free deal where you can have one site monitored for free 24×7. If we have a site go down they send us an email and let us know it's down. We then call the host support or send them a support ticket. That depends on the type site that goes down as to which way we contact their support, and they will go down sometimes.

http://www.internetseer.com


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## vegeta (Mar 10, 2009)

i now feel as dumb as a rock! as i read all of these acronyms and program names and have no clue what you guys are talking about i build all my stuff that i sell to with in .010 of a inch with out breaking a sweat but this web stuff is so far beyound me its not funny what i want to do is have a site to show case some of my new work to customers and posibly sell off the site in the summer when art fairs are slow. my question is is there a service out there that will build a site for you with out racking you over the cools and show you how to change items on the site (remove items as they sell and add new items as they are made?


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Gee Ted, I think I mentioned Softaculous awhile back…... 

Eddy, if your interested, I offer hosting for a 1Gb site with 2Gb of bandwidth for $15/month or $130/year. 
I also include a nice website program with license that will do just about anything you need, Flash, Java Script, XTML, HTML, etc. it's all a drag and drop with a short learning curve.

If you are interested, PM me and we can get you set up. You would be surprised how easy it is.

Oh, and BTW, for the price of admission, I also include up to 6 hours of live help. It can be either online or by telephone, or even by email. I draw the line at snail mail….LOL.

This offer is open to everyone else too and I apologise if this is against the TOS, I just want everyone to have a fair deal.


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## vegeta (Mar 10, 2009)

dallas that may be the way i go but i sure would like to do all of it my self so i may give this a week and see where i end up i have a week off from the shop. my present inventor of items is good and next art fair is 4 week out. 
my bigest issue is you say flash,java,script,xtml,html and i have no idea what any of that is. im sure that sounds funny to a lot of you how has this guy gone this far and not now anything about the internet. so my question is where dose a guy start i can look all of these items up on google i have looked at some of the links shown above 
but again where do i start do i regisert a domain name first do i down load a program first i just dont know where to start ?


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Register a Domain Name, that is your first step. From there your HOst, whoever it may be, can set the nameservers to point at your site.

If you aren't familiar with any of the types of software language, don't worry. That's why I provide a drag and drop type of software instead of a WYSIWYG, (What You See Is What You Get). Also, in the control panel you'll have, you have a choice of software to automatically install using Softaculous or Fantastico. those are both programs included in my hosting package and most others.

BTW, I wasn't trying to drum up business, I was just offering anyone who wants a web presence the ability to do so.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Dallas in a bit I may want to do business.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

I'm sooooooooooo confused…..


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## vegeta (Mar 10, 2009)

boxcarmarty thankyou i no longer feel alone 
looks like i found some one local that can put my fingers no the proper keys 
i think i am going to buy the web sites for dummys book 
thank for the offer dallas but the money is not in the books as of right now 
made a large tool purchase last month and i am still feeling it's pince


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