[deucemeister]

I am very new to website building and I want to make a webpage for my photography business but I want it to look professional and require minimum worktime from me. I would also like to know what people think is the best way to design and publish a webpage is down to the specifics (what FTP client is preferred, how all the files and folders are kept organized, etc.)

I have looked at several online web design aids (free ones and ones that have fees) like:

Homestead
Freewebs
Tripod
and several others that didn't strike me as noteworthy

I just can't decide whether I should go with Frontpage or Word and save the .html files for later upload with my FTP client or use a more user-friendly service with preset templates,easy publishing etc.

My conditions:
-I want a .com domain
-I don't want ads on my site.
-I want easy access to the files for the site (especially high-res photos considering I want to be able to show off my photography on the site)
-I don't want to spend more than $5-25 on any service or domain hosting

Any advice ? Thanks much

[professor05]

Here's what you'll need: http://www.netfirms.com/
I suggest you learn "Flash" which is not that hard, and do your website in flash. Then just go, register your domain with any popular ending you what (what is offered), upload your website files and, viola!, you're set!
Currently, I'm working on a photography site right now too. I love photography and am a photographer. Smugmug.com is so annoying and costs too much, so I decided to make my own website. Make sure you update me on how's you progress with your website building, maybe I could be of some help.
Cheerz,
Serg

[lavazza]

I am very new to website building and I want to make a webpage for my photography business but I want it to look professional and require minimum worktime from me

I am very new to carpentry and I want to build a shop for my photography business but I want it to look professional and require minimum worktime from me


In other words: I hope you're a genius!

Unless you take the time to learn not just the basics, but the finer points of html and css BEFORE you upload a single page to a server, your site will look anything but professional

And, in my humble opinion, the word 'flash' is - all too often - an antonym for the sites that use it

Sure, there are some superb sites delivered in flash - but they were designed, built and maintained by teams of professionals

Luckily, everything you need to know is available for free!
Full Web Building Tutorials - All Free
htmlhelp.com

And, when you think you have something ALMOST worth putting on the net, you can check - again for free - that it complies with the industry standards... if it doesn't it WON"T look professional
HTML Validator
CSS Validator

And, when you get confused by (inevitable) error messages, forums like this can be very, very helpful - again, for free!

[voodish]

Its a great time to get into web development as there is so much content available to design and develop your website correctly from the start.

W3C Schools is a good start as it will show you how to separate your design from your content with use of CSS, instead of the very old fashioned method of using Tables.

There are lots of online validators to check code / accessibility / page strength etc.

Once you have a page ready, here are some tools that I found useful:
http://popuri.us/
http://browsershots.org/
http://webxact.watchfire.com/
http://sitescore.org << Currently down at the mo; but here is an article discussing the validator: http://www.voodish.co.uk/articles/ho...website-score/

Please don't try and use FrontPage or Word, it will only end in tears. As suggested do it correctly from the start with CSS, and you will be far better off. Good luck.

[MaidenFan]

Originally Posted by professor05

I suggest you learn "Flash" which is not that hard, and do your website in flash.

Nooooooo :P

Flash is ugly if it isn't done to a very high standard. It also can't be read well by many search engines so although your site may look nice and pretty, nobody can find it because Google can't crawl it.

I agree with voodish, W3Schools is a brilliant site for learning how to code websites in HTML. Also if you use Firefox on Windows, download the "HTML Tidy" Addon. It's a little validator that sits in the status bar and shows you instantly if a page doesn't conform to W3C standards.

By far the best way to build sites (in my opinion) is by hand-coding them in HTML and CSS. I learnt HTML out of a book, but W3Schools will work just as well.

One thing that I would say is that good web design is by no means an instant thing. I began making websites about 5 years ago and I'm forever learning new techniques. Whatever happens though, always test your websites in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 (and also IE6 if you have it).

Some of my work:
www.sonicadesign.com
www.cwatson.org
www.ukthrash.co.uk

Mod Edit: removed profanity.

[JohnWill]

MaidenFan, please watch your language, profanity is not required to express yourself.

[Elan]

Much like the guys who have already posted on here, I'd like to create my own website. I don't think learning HTML is the way to go. Surely there are some (free) tools that can be used for a simple site.

I have created a site before using word (!) and saving as html, which works, but is too simple for what I now need, as I'd like to have sub-pages.

So, what I'm looking for is a simple (free) package to let me build a site ( I do have an old copy of Frontpage - can I use that?)

[briealeida]

If you can get the HTML from FrontPage (not sure if you can) then W3Schools' tips, tricks and techniques can still be useful if you're interested in meshing them! Also, look at the source of sites you like for ideas!

[harmor]

Don't use FrontPage. It adds extra HTML that isn't needed. Try NVU. It has a WYSIWYG editor and you can also upload directly to your site.

[lavazza]

There is NO such thing as a WYSIWYG editor...

There are editors that can generate code that will show WYG-in-one-or-maybe-two-browsers

Currently, the only way to get cross-browser compatibilty is to write the code yourself

A simple text editor (esp one that recognises syntax - e.g SCiTe) is all you need

If you want to write pages that anyone on the net can read then I strongly recommend that you start at the start - by writing a very very simple page

When you can make something simple work and validate, then move on to something a tiny bit more ambitious/complex

The sites that I linked to above will show you how

If you don't know how a line of code works, you'll never know how to fix it if/when it breaks

[matt-h]

I use Notepad to edit templates I download. I can't be bothered to set up the page with all the basic css but with a template I can just jump straight in, moving stuff around and changing everything to suit my needs.

[Blob493]

http://www.clantoolz.com/

Even though this is not for buisness as such, it is still a very good proffesional looking website which might be useful to you.(fee website)


www.freewebs.com is a free site where you can make your own website for free.Although it doesn't come close to http://www.clantoolz.com/ but it is a good site to learn the basic things of how to make a website

my 2cents

[deucemeister]

Thanks to everyone. I decided to register for some free webspace (a site called FSP or something) and FTP upload my files to that. I linked to my main page with a "click to enter" button on my tripod site.

Check it all out and let me know what you think:

http://podiumphotography.tripod.com

[namenotfound]

Originally Posted by deucemeister

I would also like to know what people think is the best way to design and publish a webpage is down to the specifics (what FTP client is preferred, how all the files and folders are kept organized, etc.)

This is what I use, everyone has their own preference.

FTP - FileZilla
Editor - Crimson Editor

You mentioned Word, I'd suggest staying away from Word if you want a "professional" site. Word adds a lot of invalid and unprofessional code to your site. You also mentioned FrontPage, it's "ok" I suppose, but it has its shortcomings. FrontPage is better than Word though. If you must have some kind of WYSIWYG editor, then I suggest DreamWeaver. Though I find it a little annoying to use, a lot of people have had positive feedback about DreamWeaver. If you can't afford DreamWeaver, then a good *free* WYSIWYG editor that I like is Nvu.

[drdrew1469]

Just Say No to flash!

Notepad and Paint baby...hardcore all the way