<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I'd like to make a website for a chartable organization I've started. Nothing flashy or exciting, just basic stuff with a .com</p>
<p>Anyone done this before, or have any recommendations of sites to use? I'm utterly lost.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>You’ll need a host and a domain name. Many hosts will bundle them together, or you can use separate services. Most likely you’ll be more than fine with just a cheap shared host. </p>
<p>I’ve used [url=<a href=“http://www.bluehost.com/]BlueHost[/url”>http://www.bluehost.com/]BlueHost[/url</a>] before and their service is alright. Their hosting packages include the cost of a domain name. Alternatively, just google “shared web hosts” and you’ll find plenty of discussions and ratings. </p>
<p>Once you’ve got your host, you can either write the site yourself or use a web content management system. If you’re going to write it yourself, I recommend starting with learning XHTML. Just google “XHTML tutorial.” If you’re going to use a CMS, you’ll probably want to check out [url=<a href=“http://drupal.org/]drupal[/url”>http://drupal.org/]drupal[/url</a>] or [url=<a href=“http://www.joomla.org/]joomla![/url”>http://www.joomla.org/]joomla![/url</a>]. Keep in mind that when you use ready-made software, the result is often pretty generic.</p>
<p>If you know HTML and CSS, then you just need a host service.</p>
<p>If you don’t (which I’m assuming you don’t since you’re asking this), then you want a site that provides a WYSIWYG editor. Personally, I’ve found that webs.com and 000webhost.com are the best sites. I’ve seen very good sites come out of both of them. Both sites provide a free subdomain so you can try them out before you make up your mind on either one.</p>
<p>I truely dislike WYSIWYG. I just feel like codes make websites neater. But since you said “Nothing flashy or exciting” then take BMans advice. Webs works well.</p>
<p>I have to disagree, the mainstream CMS currently in use is Wordpress as opposed to either Drupal or Joomla, although Joomla is the main contender for second place.</p>
<p>As your needs are relatively simple, you may want to start off with a free shared hosting account and wait for your site to take off before switching to a paid account. </p>
<p>I also advice against designing the website from the grounds up by yourself unless you have the time and the energy to invest yourself into a comprehensive set of lessons to teach you the fundamentals of web design/programming, even if you’re aiming for the most minimalistic design.</p>
<p>EDIT: As a former web designer, I strongly advice against both webs.com and 000webhost.com</p>
<p>^Webs.com has banner ads so I can understand you being against it. But what have you got against 000webhost? 1.5 GB storage, 100 GB transfer and no ads seems a good deal to me.</p>
<p>thanks everyone! I’ll definitely look into those. Anyone hear of intuit’s website creator? Seems pretty idiot proof?</p>
<p>000webhost have various configuration errors that makes it almost impossible to deploy a large database on. But then again, I’m used to working off of a raw VPS with just the bare minimum installed (custom lighttpd-fastcgi deployment… without php xD, I’m a Django user) so I guess I can’t really give an objectified review of these hosts, but I know for sure that 000webhost oversells and have horrible uptimes (near 94%).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend a free host. I do affiliate marketing with some web hosts so if you sign up under me I can give you a 100% rebate. Please tell me if you are interested. I can also help you with the other stuff.</p>
<p>You should also try wordpress or drupal. You can setup a professional looking site with no css or html knowledge.</p>
<p>in addition to the above advice, If you don’t know how to design a site, an. I’ll assume you don’t, you can download some high quality templates (not the usual horrible ones) from ThemeForest.com/net (sorry I’m on my iPhone and can’t remeber if they’re .com or .net and I’m too lazy to look it up)
They’re not free but they range from $2 to $20-something. </p>
<p>That said, I suggest learning HTML, CSS and your chose of photo editors (e.g. Photoshop, PaintShop etc. ) and familiarize yourself with correct design practice- SmashingMagazine.com is a great reference. </p>
<p>Secondly, if you don’t learn anything else, learn PHP. In this day and age, a static HTML/css website is…not great. </p>
<p>PHP and SQL (database, I prefer mySQL) are easy to learn and you really need to work on mastering security, being effective in coding and in Designing and populating your database.</p>
<p>I suggest that any PHP you practice on be done on your computer and not a public accessible website - (as if you’re just starting out, you’ll likely leave security holes and open your site to hackers. )
you can do the above by downloading and installing WAMP. You can also practice HTML and CSS on your computer as well.</p>
<p>Thirdly, please, please,please, make sure you follow design and language guidelines. Your (x)HTML and css should validate in W3C’s validator (…though not entirely necessary, it just helps to - in theory - make sure your code will operate as desired across the board. )</p>
<p>Fourth, after you design and code (or use a premade template), get the gist of (x)HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL (you don’t need to be an expert but it helps to know it)
you’ll need a host. </p>
<p>I use DreamHost.com
It’s about $10/month or $100-year, and you can host unlimited domains, resell hosting, and for the most part it has “unlimited” space and bandwidth. (there’s a catch to “unlimited” but it’s too much to go into now.)</p>
<p>You’ll probably also need a CMS; I suggest adopting and tweeking WordPress since it’s pretty straight forward, whereas others like Drupal can be excessively complicated. </p>
<p>If you decide to use Wordpress and decide purchase a template from ThemeForest or a similar website (you can also hey free templates; smashingmagazine.com and dezinerfolio [I probably mispellef the latter; jus Google it] release pretty good quality templates. Most free templates are usually ugly though, it’s a lot of digging to find the good ones) make sure you download one that is specific to Wordpress or else you’ll have to modify it yourself — which isn’t hard. </p>
<p>Always keep whatever CMS you’re using up-to-date to avoid any possible security issues, and becareful when installing plugins, not all of them are secure due to poor coding by the author. </p>
<p>I think that’s everything. Good luck. </p>
<p>(Excuse any typos or craziness in the above. I typed this from my phone)</p>
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<p>wix.com is greatt.</p>
<p>Does anyone actually build a website by writing the whole thing in HTML and CSS anymore? Not using a WYSIWYG is just silly.</p>
<p>I have made non serious websites after taking the college webmaster class. I prefer ed the HTML and CSS part over the Dreamweaver part of the course. For the simple stuff I have made, I only used HTML and CSS. That’s my preference and I will never be serious in web design. =P</p>
<p>something relatively easy and intuitive to use is sites.google.com. You don’t need to know much (any?) html in order to create a working website. However, you don’t have as much control over each element compared to writing a website from scratch. Also, you need a google account, but that’s not a big problem.</p>
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<p>I believe the majority of web developers still use raw HTML and CSS. It’s the whole reason you have sites such as SitePoint and AListApart. Generally, it seems developers who are passionate about what they do would never settle for a WYSIWYG editor.</p>
<p>I’m an old fashion HTML and CSS person; a lot of people depend to heavily on programs like Dreamwever a crutch. </p>
<p>At my internship, my boss (stupidly) hired a web designer who didn’t have any idea how to code her design – and for whatever reason. Dreamweaver wasn’t interpretting her design properly – which left me to do both her job and mine. </p>
<p>It’s one thing to use Dreamweaver out of preference, but you should be able to understand and, be able to handwtite the HTML and CSS.</p>
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I used Frontpage in the beginning but then I saw the code it was generating. <em>shudder</em>
I prefer using HTML and CSS to WYSIWYGs. It’s not really very hard and you have more control, cleaner code and it’s easier to make most site-wide changes.</p>
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<p>If you attempt to pursue even a semi-professional designing job, even having a WYSIWYG based design tool could get you kicked from your job (with the exception of dreamweaver). And for good reasons too. How many rendering disparities exist between the mainstream browsers currently? How would you even be sure that the WYSIWYG editor can even correctly render the content as they would appear in different browsers? You can’t. It hinders you much more than it helps you, as the code that it generates is nonstandard and in no way at all elegant nor even readable, and it’s a pain in the ass to try to maintain.</p>
<p>“I used Frontpage in the beginning but then I saw the code it was generating. <em>shudder</em>
I prefer using HTML and CSS to WYSIWYGs. It’s not really very hard and you have more control, cleaner code and it’s easier to make most site-wide changes.”</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s why I prefer HTML and CSS.</p>