Building a Website
- Thread starter JRJ
- Start date
The best way you can do this is to purchase a web template/design off a designer and then pay someone to code it in HTML/CSS/JavaScript as this will get you the best quality. You will then need to purchase hosting and a domain, this will allow you to setup yourself an email very easily as most hosting includes cPanel.
I can probably give you some more information if you wish.
EDIT: You're probably better over on the Web Development of this forum.
I can probably give you some more information if you wish.
EDIT: You're probably better over on the Web Development of this forum.
Wordpress is quite popular for when you don't need anything fancy (anf even then wordpress does seem to do quite a lot). Just do a google search and see what themes you like. With this route you don't need to do any coding or hire anyone else to code for you.
Wordpress is good and there are a lot of photography themes about, its really what you want to use the website for (e.g. Display past work).
There are two different domains for wordpress that I know of:
http://wordpress.com/
This is for them hosting the blog for you, you can see the pricing and that by clicking here. That would be ok however it may be a little limited and you probably wont be able to get your own custom email setup.
http://wordpress.org/
This is where you can actually download Wordpress its self however you will need to buy hosting http://www.ochostreview.co.uk/ this site shows the hosts that the OcUK Forum guys use. You will need to install Wordpress its self which isn't that complicated and I'm sure there are tutorials out there and I can whip one up if you needed help.
In short, look at hosting costs and domain costs and then weigh up which one to go for.
There are two different domains for wordpress that I know of:
http://wordpress.com/
This is for them hosting the blog for you, you can see the pricing and that by clicking here. That would be ok however it may be a little limited and you probably wont be able to get your own custom email setup.
http://wordpress.org/
This is where you can actually download Wordpress its self however you will need to buy hosting http://www.ochostreview.co.uk/ this site shows the hosts that the OcUK Forum guys use. You will need to install Wordpress its self which isn't that complicated and I'm sure there are tutorials out there and I can whip one up if you needed help.
In short, look at hosting costs and domain costs and then weigh up which one to go for.
What ISP do you have ?
If you have V.Media you will get free web space. I suppose it all depends on what you want the site for. I have built my own hosted this way, I use it to share files, not large ones though with all my various forum buddies.
As for designing and coding up the site surely it has to be Dremwever. Not the easiest to learn but a fantastic tool and one worth getting to grips with.
Dont know if this is allowed but here is my link.
http://www.malcreed66.webspace.virginmedia.com/
Put it up just for you to get an idea of what Dreamweaver can do and what the V.Media will allow.
I built it with one pic from Photoshop and all the rest is done with CSS.
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 6,413
- Location
- SE England
Wordpress and a decent paid for photography theme gets my vote. I got my site up and running within an hour at the weekend.
http://www.ochostreview.co.uk/reviews/tsohost/
These seem to be highly thought of, never used them so can't comment.
https://www.tsohost.com/product/cpanel-hosting
The Standard package seems pretty decent for what you want.
These seem to be highly thought of, never used them so can't comment.
https://www.tsohost.com/product/cpanel-hosting
The Standard package seems pretty decent for what you want.
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 Jan 2004
- Posts
- 23,826
- Location
- South East
I'd suggest going with WordPress, plus a few select plugins.
If you don't mind paying to get it looking nice, sign up to www.elegant-themes.com. It's a bargain for what you get, their support is fantastic, and the themes themselves are highly customisable and they look great.
For hosting, I cannot recommend http://www.swbroadband.co.uk/ enough, they're great value, and the service is just out of this world. I always deal with the guy who runs the company and it's the best customer service I have EVER received. Go with them and you won't regret it. The £4.49 package includes a free domain as well.
If you don't mind paying to get it looking nice, sign up to www.elegant-themes.com. It's a bargain for what you get, their support is fantastic, and the themes themselves are highly customisable and they look great.
For hosting, I cannot recommend http://www.swbroadband.co.uk/ enough, they're great value, and the service is just out of this world. I always deal with the guy who runs the company and it's the best customer service I have EVER received. Go with them and you won't regret it. The £4.49 package includes a free domain as well.
Ok so I've just registered a domain name on its own until I work out what to do with the site! Got some wordpress ebooks for holiday reading next week, so until then I just want to put a holding page with some contact details on, now as I said in the OP I have no experience so dummy guides would be useful.
I have some webspace with my Talktalk account I can use to host the page but how do I go about getting it online and having my domain direct people to it??
Thanks in advance
I have some webspace with my Talktalk account I can use to host the page but how do I go about getting it online and having my domain direct people to it??
Thanks in advance
I went with Vidahost in the end seemed to be the most popular on the forum, should I just grab one of their hosting packages and go from there? instead of bothering with a holding page a re-directing.
EDIT- done just took out their starter package, now to work out this wordpress malarky
EDIT- done just took out their starter package, now to work out this wordpress malarky
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I wouldn't recommend Wordpress for a photography site. The back-end is just too advanced and unnecessarily complex.
I'd reccommend Pixelpost. Log into your Vidahost cPanel, go down to software and you should be able to do a 1-click install. Install it in a subfolder and have a play around. Hundreds of themes and skins available. Tailored for photography. Easy config, simple photo management. Comments, ratings and spam protection all built in.
I'd reccommend Pixelpost. Log into your Vidahost cPanel, go down to software and you should be able to do a 1-click install. Install it in a subfolder and have a play around. Hundreds of themes and skins available. Tailored for photography. Easy config, simple photo management. Comments, ratings and spam protection all built in.
I think Wordpress is pretty basic. Load a theme you like, set up a few options and your good to go. There are a few photography portfolio themes which are easy to configure.
Are there any good photography themes that work well for stuff other than landscapes? A lot of the themes I see that look good tend to rely on going full screen with the images which obviously doesn't work so well with portrait or unusually cropped images.
I've been using wordpress for my photos for 3 odd years now along with ProPhoto , and its now becoming obsolete due to not being able to sell my photos (shopping cart) so have been looking at other options like Zenfolio, SmugMug. But then they will double my outgoings a year. from £35 a year to £150+ & i'm looking at plugins/addons for wordpress and just to do the prints/dispatch myself.