Hey there, 1st post so please be kind. I've got a small amount of html experience as I did build a few sites back in the 90s, but man have things ever changed. Here is what I am looking to do... Find a great template and modify it as I please. Some of these built in templates on 1&1 and ipage are cool, but then when you want to edit it, forget it! Their drag and drop is useful but so limited. Arghhhhh it's so frustrating. Im Looking to do the editing in a program on my pc, but an easy to use free Web app works too. One time fee is fine too, as long as I can save the work indefinitely. Reason why? I want hard copies of everything. I don't like the fact that if I stop subscribing to a specific sites monthly fees they will take all my hard work along with them. So, what software or Web app would you recommend? And which site would you recommend for themes? Thanks in advance. Dan.
Hi, welcome to the forum - and you're right, things have changed. First up, you'll need hosting. Then I'd look at what type of site you are going to build - if it's just a simple site with information, photos, maybe a few sales then I'd strongly recommend WordPress as a great way to get started. You host it, so you own your data and you can back it up. If your site is more complex then you may want to look at Drupal or Joomla and if it's ecommerce then WordPress + wp-ecommerce or Magento. Looking at those templates is fine to give you an idea of what kind of layout etc you want, but you need to pick your Content Management System (CMS) first and then look for templates (or a designer) to fit with the CMS. You won't be hamstrung - there are wonderfully creative designers out there and their designs will either be free or <US$100 (which I reckon is a bargain). You'll only need desktop editing tools if you decide to extend the CMS is ways that haven't already been done. Or to edit photos. I'm a cheapskate so I have ftp: filezilla images: gimp coding: netbeans css: topstyle - haven't found a free tool to match it and it's cheap database: SQLYog - haven't found a free tool to match it, not cheap but worth it for having batch backups done everyday of my sites. That, and it's just nice to have a quality tool for querying your database.
Ok thanks for that. For hosting I'm currently using ipage. I've tried WordPress as a web app through ipage, but it is a bit confusing. In regards to themes, what site would you recommend? I'm trying to build a Real Estate and lending website. Do I just pick which one I like then upload it to WordPress? Or is it more involved than that?
You can install wordpress through your iPage control panel, then access the wordpress admin by going to your domain.com/wp-admin. You may have to practice a little but its REALLY EASY. Installing themes is pretty easy, you upload to the themes directory or install through wordpress admin. You can find some real estate themes at themeforest.net that will save you a lot of time. There are a lot of real estate themes and this would be the easiest way to setup a half way decent real estate site with limited coding knowledge. There are tons of tutorials on youtube that will walk you through the process of setting up a wordpress site.