I want to build my first site. I have one site up and running but I used Associate-O-Matic for that one (it's an Amazon store) which is cheating as they do all the work for you. Now I want to build my own - I have around 30 domains at present and there are a few I'm considering developing instead of just parking them. At this point I'm not sure which ones I want to develop but none will have blogs or furums (for now anyway) so I imagine wordpress won't be much good for me. So.... What's my best option: Learn PHP and build a script Start off with a design template and go from there Use an application such as DreamWeaver, Fireworks etc Have a go with Joomla Any other options I've missed out Please tell me what you have used and have found to be the best method for you. Does PHP involve learning a programming language? Is it difficult to learn? All comments welcome.......
I don't your skills for details. But for me,i would start to learn HTML.I think it's pretty easy,you could understand it less than 2 or 3 hours.After that i would start to learn XHTML and CSS.Because so many website using this technology these days.I suggest you learn those stuffs.Also don't forget to learn photohsop for your web design skills.IMHO,try to see more web templates there're thousand of them.maybe you could start from _www.cssbeauty.com,_www.cssdaddy.com and the like.Try to google them.It's good to sharpen your web design skills and finally you could find your own web design styles.After that,you could try to make some templates to make it more advanced of your web design skills. Almost forgot this part,i usually use dreamweaver when i learn these skills and right now i'm still learning. PHP is a plus plus plus.And i think it takes more time than learning HTML.But if you could understand PHP,hey you're a pro ! Joomla is a quick one.Just google it and then you can find thousand of joomla tutorials (ebooks,video tutorials,etc).Just try to understand joomla from the manual book and then you can have a dynamic website I think that would be all.Forgive me for my bad english Cheers
CSS and HTML are the core skills you need. Dreamweaver or Similar should be what you use to start with. Oh, and don't use Tables for laying out (I mean you can if you like, but CSS is much more elegant).
I suggest you to use CMS to build your website becase it so fast to build website and easy back office tool. when your website(s) grow up ,you can learn HTML or PHP to up you knowledge for next step.
Thanks for the replies guys, I'm not familiar with CSS and CMS and google isn't much help, can you enlighten me?
Are you sure google isn't much help? CSS - Cascading Style Sheets - They are used to layout a webpage CMS - Content Management System - things Like Textpattern, Wordpress, Joomla (there are loads) If I were you I'd get hold of a copy of Firefox (web browser) then find yourself a simple site (i.e. not too busy. Think google's main page). now hit CTRL+u - this will show you the page's HTML code. This is what you are going to need to be comfortable to build your own site - so get to know what each bit is doing (by typing things into google and seeing what comes up). Thats how I started anyway. good luck!
It's in your best interest to learn html first along side css. Google html and css tutorials. You can also look at premade templates and pick apart the code and learn that way. Or fool around in Dreamweaver. THEN learn PHP and MYSQL, they won't do you any good if you don't know how to design a site. It's not really possible to do it in opposite order. You could also buy a premade script and template if you don't want to sit down and learn. But you should really take your time and learn everything in order.
my first site was a template that i snapped fantastico scripts into. its a very quick way to build a site that is usefull
If you start with Dreamweaver then what would be the next step? I think dreamweaver is the best and you can't go any higher.
You might want to start out with a wordpress or other CMS since you have some to learn with coding a site yourself. Find a web host that has Fantastico in it's control panel and you'll be able to install a CMS with ease. But definitely start learning the basics of html, css, javascript and/or using Dreamweaver. It will all come together for you the more you work at it. Best of luck to you
Joomla is quick but you dont need a big portal as I understood, joomla is very good cms but its for portals actualy, you can use Wordpress for Amazon store web page its very very easy and quick
Recently ive been reading http://w3schools.com/ to learn about the basics of HTML, XHTML and still there im currently reading about CSS, i find it very useful and its very clearly presented. Il still be reading ebooks, online tutorials and all that too.
For the fastest site implementation, I would recommend a CMS like Joomla or even WordPress. Joomla takes some learning and the code is kind of sloppy, but it has some great add-on modules and components. If you want to tackle building a site on your own, I would recommend Dreamweaver. It gets bashed by hard-core coders, but it's a good program to learn HTML, CSS and PHP with. If you want point and click CSS layouts and easy database integration in Dreamweaver, check out my sig links for some Dreamweaver extensions that make developing complex websites very simple.
Joomla is what our site uses and I have nothing but good things to say about it and the support available for it. The main thing you must remember is that building a site is easy but building one that looks good and provides a useful service is the hard part. It's the same with any medium. Anyone can draw but not everyone can draw well. Anyone can sing but.... You get the idea. If you know any designers then I suggest asking them to help you with the layout/theme of your site. Also, know your target audience. Good luck!