I want to create a blog/wesbite. Where do I start?

[The__Malteser]

Hi,

I want to create mainly a blog/website. I just want to have 4 sections. One for the actual blog, one to upload photos, one for videos (linking from youtube) and one for social network.

The blog will be the main section, the rest are just add ons.

I want it to be customisable, meaning I can put my own banner, logo etc.

I tried blogger and WordPress, but none were really what i wanted. I might go more for a website, but I'm not sure what there is out there (don't really fancy freewebs).

This is just a hobby/idea that I had, so I don't want to spend a lot (if any) money on it.

Does anybody have any help please.

Thanks.

 

[Hyburnate]

You will have to spend money on it, I personally think Wordpress would be the way to go. However to get the most customisation you'll need to buy a domain (about £7) and shared hosting.
What do you mean about the social networking?

 

[The__Malteser]

Is £7 a one time payment, or a monthly/yearly thing? I want something simple. By customization i mean that I can fit in a background, logo, colors I want, add the tabs i want etc. Nothing flashy. Word press seemed very rigid. You can't change the photos given (but you can fit a background).

Social network means just a section where I link to a series of Social networking profile. Its nothing big.

 

[spoffle]

You can get a domain for about a fiver, and a years' hosting for fifteen pounds.

After that, I'd say go with wordpress. Why don't you have a google for some free word press themes? You'll be able to see the sort of wide selection of free themes that are out there, you might even find one that you like and don't feel the need to tweak it.

 

[caz32]

Can you not code it yourself? I find it quite fun..

I've recently purchased my own domain, cost £6 for 2 years and I got given hosting for free and if I ever need to pay for it, it cost £6.50 a year or £16.50 a year depending on my needs (which atm is little)

 

[The__Malteser]

You can get a domain for about a fiver, and a years' hosting for fifteen pounds.

After that, I'd say go with wordpress. Why don't you have a google for some free word press themes? You'll be able to see the sort of wide selection of free themes that are out there, you might even find one that you like and don't feel the need to tweak it.

Yeah, I know that domains are quite cheap. i know a friend who has a few, and he got them quite cheap too.

I'll look around. Thanks

Can you not code it yourself? I find it quite fun..

I've recently purchased my own domain, cost £6 for 2 years and I got given hosting for free and if I ever need to pay for it, it cost £6.50 a year or £16.50 a year depending on my needs (which atm is little)

I already work 2 jobs, and I am already doing another project. While learning to code a website sounds good, I doubt I will have the time, and I won;t stick with it.

Sounds like you got a good deal there. Nice one.

 

[The__Malteser]

Starting to get the hang of things. Its coming 'ok'

Can i change the colors of a set theme? Don't like the white/black.

 

[The__Malteser]

So here is the link of my blog.

http://chitifaromanonperdemai.wordpress.com/

Its a bit confusing until you get the hang of it (I am using the online editor, nothing downloaded).

At the moment, I have a lot of placeholders, and nothing actually written down. I did make a background though. Pretty happy with it too. The layout (which is what i worked on) looks quite nice imo. (to keep scrolling down and see more of the bk, search for 'post' and the page should be longer)

I would like to edit the actual blog, as the default black/white teams are not doing it for me. Although to edit it, I need to pay $30 a year, which tbh, I don't want to. Seems like I need to make do with what I have.

I'll see what else I can add/edit etc. and see how it goes.

Quite happy with what I have atm.

 

[caz32]

Does word press use a "what you see is what you get" editor?

It is a shame you can't learn to code cause it gives you so much more freedom to make things how you want and tbh you can have a basic layout in a matter of hours.

 

[Meekal]

i recently bought a domain on tsohost and web space there. got the domain name for 1.99 for the year and the hosting is 2.99 a month. It has tonnes of different applications to install for blogging etc.

 

[Th3M8dH8tt3r]

I'm a WordPress PHP developer so can help you out here.

You'll need to create a child theme to change the main colours of the theme. WordPress has quick functions developer can use to allow for custom logos etc but, you are limited by what the original design and development team stipulated users could do to customise the theme. Best bet is to make a theme from scratch.

Depending on what you want, I could do this is for around £100 for example. If you find someone like the company I work for, then there's a chance you could sign up for a year's hosting, domain name reg and site built for a monthly fee of something like £20 to £25 or maybe a little more if you wanted to have a team on retention to make the odd change here and there.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you need any more advice and I'd be happy to help you out with any little bits and pieces you get stuck on.

 

[The__Malteser]

I wrote my blog post, but in the 'blog' page, it shows the whole post, not part of it with the possibility of seeing it all if you click on it.

How do I arrange it?

Also, bottom right I have a very small twitter follow thing. Is there something similar for facebook?

I have 'larger' widgets in the blog section.

 

[darubio]

I use blogger for mine. Easy to set up and it works

 

[Th3M8dH8tt3r]

Without having someone come and edit the theme for you, there's little you can do to alter the way that content is got from the database and displayed. This is because it is the actual code that is doing this. There are some themes which will have options but it's a case of finding them, always hard, and chances are, themes with more options cost money.

You'll just have to have a search about for Facebook plugins or widgets for the Facebook thing you're after.

WordPress is very rigid unless you can code or are happy to spend a few hundred on having a professional come in and write something for you. There are less rigid themes but again, they're more the premium ones, ie. paid for.

 

[kindai]

Personally I find wordpress to be horrendous. To use and to code with.

I've started using a system called Koken, its actually a media gallery, but how it handles "Essays" (blogs) is superb.

 

[Doraku]

Blogger is hideous - makes me cringe.

WordPress is the only immediate solution I can think of, and it benefits from the extensive support community.

Try Ghost when it is released.

 

[Th3M8dH8tt3r]

Blogger is hideous - makes me cringe.

WordPress is the only immediate solution I can think of, and it benefits from the extensive support community.

Try Ghost when it is released.

That looks properly awesome. He's right abot WordPress. WordPress is way beyond just blogging these days and is more a CMS. This looks brilliant. Thank you for the link. Bookmarked!

 

[mtalk]

Yes for blog wordpress is the best option, you can also take a look at b2evolution.