I need help.

[Chris Fleharty]

I would like to start up a web site of my stuff. How would I go about doing that?

Do you that have sites designed your own or did you have someone do it? Where to do I even start?

Thanks for your replys.

 

[Edward Ballou]

A thread like this in the past started up a lot of controversy in the past - hopefully people can keep it respectful.

That aside, I would recommend you look around a bit at ST member websites. Find out what you like and don't like. Send them some PMs if you have questions. You'll eventually need a host company. You can do a WHOIS usually to see whom the site is hosted with.

I personally use Dryline Hosting and am very satisfied with their service. A lot of other chasers use them as well. They aren't the only host company out there, but the admin on their forums are open to questions.

Lastly, I did my own site design. Wordpress is a great framework that I use. It's very flexible, has tons of plugins and also can be customized to look quite differently. Try googling "wordpress themes"

 

[Chris Fleharty]

Wow... Thanks... that's at least a start. I hope I haven't (and won't) cause a controversy over this question.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Not being a techie allows me to share my perspectives as one who is still not far removed from the bottom of the learning curve when it comes to web design.

A few months ago, I set about to design my own jazz saxophone site, Stormhorn.com, using Windows Frontpage 2003. The software offers several templates to choose from, depending on one's needs and goals, but I, lacking even a rudimentary knowledge of HTML but fortified by copious amounts of ignorance, chose to forge my own creative path. Naturally, the result was a train wreck, and I just didn't have the time to try to clean it up.

So I hired a young couple who are skilled in web design. Starting from scratch, they constructed a website for me that looks professional and offers more advantages than I could have ever hoped to work my through on my own.

Based on what I've learned from that experience, here's my input:

• Know what it is you want. If your needs are simple and your tastes not too exacting, you can probably create your own website.
• Know yourself. If you have the time and patience to tackle the learning curve, and again, if your needs are simple, then you can create your own basic website. And if you're the techie type who enjoys learning the details of software and who would take naturally to the coding that's involved, you're definitely a candidate for building your own website.
• On the other hand, it's very possible that what you're hoping for in a website may outstrip your ability to produce it. In that case, I think you'd be wise to hire someone with the knowledge to create your website for you. The time you'll save, the headaches you'll spare yourself, and the results you'll get will easily compensate for the money you'll pay.

 

[David Mikulec]

I pretty much agree with what Bob stated above. Knowing what you want is a large part of the battle and will determine how you proceed. I like to keep my site and interface simple and text based so that it's dial-up friendly. This also helps to bring attention to the content, mainly my photographs and (eventually) blog entries of chase accounts.

 

[Michael Stanga]

I redesigned my site recently using Frontpage 2003. I go through hosting called freeservers.com (no its not free, haha, but there is an option to make a free site loaded with ads).

Couldn't agree with them more, the hardest part is knowing what you want on your site, as although I have changed my site and put in more hours that I ever imagined, I am still looking for ways to keep making it better and low bandwidth friendly (very hard to do a lot of the times with pictures).

 

[Chris Fleharty]

Thanks for the replies!

Well... I have researched some and come across a question. What is bandwidth... How much will suffice?

 

[Michael Stanga]

Thanks for the replies!

Well... I have researched some and come across a question. What is bandwidth... How much will suffice?

It is the amount of data that is coming off of the server hosting your website to the computer viewing it. If you have a lot of video, say its 20 MB (megabytes). and you only have 5GB (gigabytes) of bandwidth. well if a thousand people download your video you will exceed your monthly bandwidth and I think some hosting makes you pay more or shut you down im not sure. needless to say I have 5GB a month and seem to fare way ok, for others that may not work so well, depends on how big your site is and how much large content is available.

 

[Chris Fleharty]

Awesome... Thanks that makes total sense.