Creating a website

jammy_c

jammy_c

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James
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Hey Guys,

I know this is a question that is probably asked often, but here goes...

I'm looking to create a website for my own photographic work. I have been given a copy of Dreamweaver8 by a friend who never really got on with it.

I want a ".com" or ".co.uk" domain, and i'm on a relatively tight budget, but wide timescale.

My question is, to start with, am I better making my own site from scratch using dreamweaver and teaching myself via online tutorials, and in time attempting Flash/Java, or, am I better off using one of the quick & easy on-line website builders and getting it transfered to the relevent domain so I don't have an "unprofessional" URL?

With each method, what are the costs I'm looking at for initial setup and monthly/annually thereafter?

Oh, and have I missed any options? (I can't afford for a pro to build it)
 
All depends on how good you are at this kind of thing, and how much you want to learn about the art of building websites.

If you just want a quick route to a semi-professional looking site that wont cost the earth, take up too much of your spare time and not turn you into a programming nerd, my recommendation is to get yourself some cheap hosting and install Wordpress on it, then customise it using one of the many free themes that are available. You can even get it pre-setup at some places.

If on the other hand you want to end up as a HTML ninja, start with notepad and code everything by hand. You'll end up with the skills to do whatever you want, but it will take forever and by the time the site is ready you'll have forgotten all about photography :)

I haven't used Dreamweaver in about 8 years, but from what I remember about it, it sits somewhere in between the other two approaches.

oh, and avoid flash and java -> complete waste of time imho! jQuery and php are better alternatives if you want to get your geek on.
 
I tried a recent version of dreamweaver. Didn't think much of it to be honest.

I'd build it with wordpress and get it done. Flash is outdated and excludes browsing from certain devices so it's a no-no really. Java is a pain in the arse.
 
I am a fulltime web designer and I wouldn't waste your time learning all these extra skills unless you plan on creating more than one webiste. There are so many things to learn and understand, this time would probably be better spent on furthering your photography. I agree with Karlos, use a piece of software that you can install and customise easily. I know many photographers who use http://www.clikpic.com/, I cannot comment on it myself but looks quite good for the price and is quite easy to set up from what I hear.
 
Thanks guys, that's some food for thought.

I'd like to learn how to do it properly, but i think maybe setting up something quick and easy first might be the best option, and learn the science of it all in my own time.

With Wordpress, can I design a site and buy a domain to have it transferred to? (.com / .co.uk) if so, what is the best way of doing that? and where's best to buy one?
am I right in thinking that most Wordpress URLs are: http://yourbusinessname.wordpress.com? or something similar.
do I also need to pay for hosting?

apologies if i get any of the technical gubbins wrong, i'm a newb at this.
 
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Buying domain names is the easy bit, there's hundreds of places that sell them. I have found 1 and 1 to be very reasonable and have bought most of my domain names through them.
Hosting is trickier - some of the really cheap ones offer very little space which will be an issue if you plan on using it to host your own images. I have space through ukwebhosting. But you should shop around. You'll need to make sure you have at least a couple of databases available and php support with whatever package you end up with.

Would definitely recommend chucking wordpress on there initially though. It really is a pita to start from scratch.
 
ok, good advice, cheers.

What's the deal with Wordpress then, you buy a webhosting package from somewhere and download the software from wordpress. That then gives you all the tools to publish a fully functional .com or .co.uk site?

Do you need "hosting" AND a "domain" when using WP? it only really mentions hosting on the bits i've read on the site.

can you download and start creating the site BEFORE you register with a hosting client? (i.e. play around with it and get everything just as you want it before uploading)
 
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You can download wordpress to your PC/Mac and start playing with the layout etc (though there are some great pre built templates out there) locally, would recomment installing a web server as well so you can run it all locally (Not sure if you have a PC or Mac but if it's a PC google WAMP and install that).
Once you're happy with it you can upload it (FTP is probably the easiest way of doing it) to your webspace.

Most (if not all) webspace solutions will be accessible on the net without the domain name, but will have hard to remember urls (e.g myusername.ukwebhostingsolutions.co.uk) so no you don't really need both, but it's definitely a bonus.....

.co.uk domains are under a tenner for a year and .com are just over a tenner usually..... so well worth the investment if you plan to build a 'proper' web presence.....
 
There's a sticky at the top that's full of good info.
I use Fast Hosting Direct - you'll get a domain name and unlimited hosting (unlimited everything) for £20 a year. Easy to manage and they've click button installers for things like wordpress, joomla etc.

As well as Wamp, take a look at Xampp, another useful emulator for webstuff.
 
If you want to create the website then you have to take care of following things.

1) Designing.
2) coding.
3) Content and the Informations.
4) Management of data.
These 4 are the main thing for the website creation.
 
james, i can sort you out some cheap hosting, if not free, depending on what you want. drop me a pm or mail me tom at outdoorcircle dot co dot uk

and anyone else for that matter :)
 
Cheers, Guys! :)

Stokes, I have sent you a PM, very kind of you.

Thanks.
 
jammy_c said:
Do you need "hosting" AND a "domain" when using WP? it only really mentions hosting on the bits i've read on the site.
Click to expand...

Back to basics....sorry but gonna be simplistic here:)

A domain name is just that.. A name.. costs about 6 quid for two years but you cant put a website on it because its just a domain name

Hosting is where you put your website that you built using any of the options in this thread.. you simply upload it to your hosting

you can then associate your domain name with your hosting and you have your website with your domain name

when buying hosting beware of any company that uses the word "unlimited" as they are lying.. there are limitations. normal users with a normal website won ever reach those limitations... people who host a lot of pictures and have a lot of people viewing those pictures will be more likely to reach the "unlimited" limitations :)
 
KIPAX said:
Back to basics....sorry but gonna be simplistic here:)

A domain name is just that.. A name.. costs about 6 quid for two years but you cant put a website on it because its just a domain name

Hosting is where you put your website that you built using any of the options in this thread.. you simply upload it to your hosting

you can then associate your domain name with your hosting and you have your website with your domain name

when buying hosting beware of any company that uses the word "unlimited" as they are lying.. there are limitations. normal users with a normal website won ever reach those limitations... people who host a lot of pictures and have a lot of people viewing those pictures will be more likely to reach the "unlimited" limitations :)
Click to expand...

:lol:

Thanks for taking the simplistic approach with me also. that was as I understood it in my own head, but some clarification never goes amiss.

Cheers!
 
So the next issues:
The look and feel of the site:
A site built from scratch by an amateur will look amateur. If you become really good at it it'll look and work OK after a while.
There are templates on the web and you might hit lucky and end up with something half decent in 6 months time - it might never happen.
The content and management of it:
Actually creating professional content - both images and copy isn't as straightforward as you might think. If you build the site yourself you'll be constantly tweaking whenever you add to the content.

A Flash template site is relatively inexpensive (compared to the time it takes to learn that level of expertise) and will just leave you needing to add content. But it's not very SEO friendly and will not work on most mobile devices.

A Wordpress site is anything from free to mid priced is easy to set up and you just add content. Depending how geeky you then feel you can spend a year or so learning how to customise it to make it truly unique.

There are also a few dedicated Photography hosting / CMS vendors - clikpic etc. I have seen some nice sites built using these but the majority look appalling.

I suggest you find some hosting, register a URL and read up on Wordpress.
 
Have a free play with Wordpress on the link below. You can see and play in the admin section. I use the free WP site that i registered to try out ideas before putting them on my own hosted WP site.

https://en.wordpress.com/signup/
 
Phil V said:
So the next issues:
The look and feel of the site:
A site built from scratch by an amateur will look amateur. If you become really good at it it'll look and work OK after a while.
There are templates on the web and you might hit lucky and end up with something half decent in 6 months time - it might never happen.
The content and management of it:
Actually creating professional content - both images and copy isn't as straightforward as you might think. If you build the site yourself you'll be constantly tweaking whenever you add to the content.

A Flash template site is relatively inexpensive (compared to the time it takes to learn that level of expertise) and will just leave you needing to add content. But it's not very SEO friendly and will not work on most mobile devices.

A Wordpress site is anything from free to mid priced is easy to set up and you just add content. Depending how geeky you then feel you can spend a year or so learning how to customise it to make it truly unique.

There are also a few dedicated Photography hosting / CMS vendors - clikpic etc. I have seen some nice sites built using these but the majority look appalling.

I suggest you find some hosting, register a URL and read up on Wordpress.
Click to expand...

Some good advice there, Phil. thanks.

I think i'm definitely going to get started with a wordpress site as soon as possible.
I've got a fairly clear outline in my head of what i want the site to look like, with quality, substance and a bit of class rather than looking like I knocked it up in ten minutes. (hopefully anyway).

Flash is always a nice thing to have, but like you say, it can cause issues with mobile devices, and with more and more iphone/android/smartphone users about, it makes sense to keep it simples (as the meerkat would say). ;)
 
I'm in the process of recreating mine after the old version was corrupted whilst hosted on a mates server.
So I've arranged my own host and started a fresh with a new design (and content).

Using Joomla CMS, done it for a couple of sites and seem to be happy with the results. :)
www.jambophoto.co.uk
 
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