Creating a website...for a beginner?

swamp_rattler

Baseband Member
Messages
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I'm thinking of creating a website for my various nature photography and blogs (so what, I'm a nerd!). Anyhoo, I have NO experience whatsoever in doing such, and I don't know where to begin. I'd be continuously adding updates/trip reports, etc and because I have a ton of photos (and the number would continuously build) I'd need a lot of space allowance. There would also be a lot of narrative, so it's not just a simple photograph site.

I have no idea where to host, how much it would cost, how to start, etc etc. Here's a couple sample images to show the size of the photographs I'd like to use on my site (i.e. I don't want small, detail-reduced thumbnail images):

MassasaugaSecond2.jpg


EatingMerlin.jpg


Any thoughts??
 
I reccomend WebHosting UK. I host my websites with them. They may not be THE cheapest, however they are, in my opinion amoungst the best.

I have an affiliate link: http://www.webhosting.uk.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=460

and a non-affiliate link: http://www.webhosting.uk.com/.

It'd be cool if you'd use the Affiliate link - It helps me out, and doesnt cost any extra for you. But meh, If you dont want to, then that's OK!

Once you've got your hosting, there would be a quite a few things you could do...

You could

a.) Use HTML/Dreamweaver to code your website yourself. The advantage of this is that you could get everything JUST how you wanted it... The disadvantage is that you'd need to learn HTML, CSS and perhaps Javascript to do the job well.

b.) Use a CMS like Drupal or Joomla. You could make pages with these software packages, and you wouldnt need to be a programmer to do it. However, it might not be quite what your looking for... While you can blog with Drupal, Joomla etc, they are not MADE for blogging with... Nor are they made for displaying images. You can get plugins for most CMS's, however it can be annoying having to update each individual plug-in when a security update is released - The more plugins you have/use, the more likely it is for your site to break :p.

c.) If you just wanted to show off your pictures, you could use a script like 4images or Gallery2. Gallery2 is very good in my opinion, and is quite easy to use/manage. You can have different categories for different sorts of image..

d.) You could install Wordpress, which is a blogging script. You could update the blog with the details of your trips etc. You can include images with your blog posts, however I wouldn't use Wordpress on it's own if your going to be dealing with a lot of photo's.

I'd personally use a combination of Wordpress and Gallery2. You could upload your pictures with Gallery2, Write about them in Wordpress, and have a link to the the individual picture within each blog post.

There are even ways to integrate Wordpress and Gallery2 together (http://www.easyjo.com/ has done this), however there's not point in talking about that until you've decided what you would like to do :)
 
I would suggest you the steps assuming that you do not know much about html and programming.

1.Scout the internet for free web templates,there are thousands of them,download the one you like and make some changes if you prefer.

2.For Content Management System i will strongly recommend zimplit . It is a CMS created keeping non programmers in mind.Here you do not have to write even a single line of code for any thing and you do not have to hire an expensive programmer for integrating with joomla or drupal.
 
If you are not familiar with coding a webpage, I would recommend purchasing a "canned" version, or paying someone to build a website for you. I know there are many choices available for the "canned" website builders. One I'm familiar with is http://www.register.com/titan/index.rcmx? It has a fairly simple user interface, and can be updated easily. They have a good support team that answers the phone 24/7, which may be important if you get lost during site construction.
 
Honestly, start googling about little bit. Then you'll see if it's to hard (then you just pay someone to do it for you) or not (you do it yourself). I mean simple websites can be created, it totally depends on you, on how advanced you want the website to be.
 
why not jus use wordpress or blogger? u dont need to kno much about coding and everything and its free. no monthly charge for the server.
 
+1 to the above, drupal and joomla are two other options you might want to look at (my personal favourite is Drupal.) Blogger is probably the easiest route to go down, and that might well be all you need.
 
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