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Pellice

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Oct 19, 2016
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One of my post-retirement goals is a website. I'm not going to be building it from html, but will be perfectly happy to use a template from one of the website creators.

But I can't find any guidelines on choosing a template (or company). I know there are different types of templates, but none of the creators seem to offer their samples by categories - and they all look pretty much the same.

Does anyone know the categories? I've heard of Magazines, Photo, Shopping, Blog - but those seem pretty limited. I don't want photos or shopping. I want a content rich resource site for my environmentally-related hobby, plus a blog. A few photos, but I don't want them to dominate. I'm not a fan of websites with a giant photo at the top, and very little information unless you click multiple times.

What I'd really like is a site where you answer questions about what you want on your website, and then it produces suggestions.
 
Have you looked at wordpress software for running a web site? This is very common. The wordpress software is free. You can run it somewhere like www.nearlyfreespeech.net for next to nothing (this assumes that you have some familiarity with linux/unix etc.)

Either way be sure to register your own domain name before you generate too much content. You don't want to have a bunch of visitors loose you by publishing a domain name that you do not own/control.

-gauss
 
Hello,
I used Earthlink to set up my website. I used their Trellix templetes for generating the actual website.
I use it for posting our trip stories, and it is very easy to use.
 
If you use the free software from wordpress.org run on your own host, then there are themes available that contain no pictures. You have full control.

-gauss
 
Pellice said:
I want a content rich resource site for my environmentally-related hobby, plus a blog.
Click to expand...
Play around with https://www.blogger.com (by Google) a bit.

It's pretty easy to use, has lots of templates and examples, and it's completly free unless you want a custom domain name.

I've used it for a bunch of blogs, and I've used it for my Homeowners Association website.
 
Blog setups are VERY easy with Wordpress. I just put together my first site using Wordpress with a few blog posts and a gallery for pictures. Plenty of VERY detailed tutorials on YouTube that will get you up and running in a hour or two. I'll send you a link to the site by PM in case you want to see it.
 
robertf57 said:
Blog setups are VERY easy with Wordpress. I just put together my first site using Wordpress with a few blog posts and a gallery for pictures. Plenty of VERY detailed tutorials on YouTube that will get you up and running in a hour or two. I'll send you a link to the site by PM in case you want to see it.
Click to expand...

Yes, would be grateful for the site. Thanks, everybody. My site will have a blog, but the main component will be guides, lists of resource links, etc. For example, I want to list and describe the various non-publicly owned nature preserves in my area. E.g., Nature Conservancy, Natural Lands Trust, etc. There are quite a few of these that don't get visited enough because people don't know about them, or the differences among them.

I'd be interested in hearing others' experiences in setting up websites.
 
You may get more appropriate/useful responses if you tell us some about your personal background with regards to computers.

IE
1) What os's have you used?
2) Have you ever built your own PC / loaded your own os?
3) Familiarity with command line interfaces (ie ping, telnet etc)?

Thanks in advance
-gauss
 
I've built sites from straight html using a text editor, and also used a number of WYSIWYG development platforms over the years.

As of right now I'd recommend WordPress. All development platforms shoehorn you into their model or way of thinking. Until you "get it," it'll seem very confusing. But for a beginner, something like WordPress is powerful enough to do more or less what you want, and simple enough that the learning curve isn't too bad.

Be aware, you're not learning web development. You're learning WordPress (or whatever.) Which is fine. Nobody really codes anymore.

I share your preference for text over pictures. However, you'll find fewer words and more pictures - even gratuitous pictures that aren't needed - will make the site much easier for most people to read, and keep their attention longer. Few of us actually read a web page like a book. Use pictures to break it up into small bits. Your audience will thank you. And may even stay around long enough to scroll down and read more.
 
A lot depends on how much control you want over the look and feel, and how much work you want to put into that.

I've built a simple site in Google (which I found surprisingly difficult to get to look decent) and on wix.com. Also have done work in WordPress, which gives you lots of flexibility and isn't terribly difficult, but does require more maintenance. DD helps folks set up websites and she likes SquareSpace - she can customize it the way people want it to look and says it's easy for them to maintain.
 
If it's OK, I'd like to tag along a related question:

I'm working on a few tech/DIY hobby projects. Hardware and software in most cases. Is there a good place to post these, to get good feedback, and maybe help out others who are interested in something similar, or want to reproduce my projects?

The benefit to me is it forces me to document things, and the feedback could be valuable. MAkezine, Instructables, circuit.io, hackster.io ?Others? Make my own google site or something?

-ERD50
 
gauss said:
You may get more appropriate/useful responses if you tell us some about your personal background with regards to computers.

IE
1) What os's have you used?
2) Have you ever built your own PC / loaded your own os?
3) Familiarity with command line interfaces (ie ping, telnet etc)?

Thanks in advance
-gauss
Click to expand...

Why would that be relevant to anyone who said " I'm not going to be building it from html, but will be perfectly happy to use a template from one of the website creators." ?

They seem to be looking for some sort of tool to allow easy website building, which I think makes a lot of sense for any casual (and a bit beyond) sort of situation.


-ERD50
 
If they go the hosted wordpress route, then there are a suite of different hosting options in terms of cost, access to command line etc.etc.

I would gladly recommend my provider to a person it would be appropriate for. Others might hate it.

Note, I hated the likes of godaddy that I used for a few years until I found my present solution when I needed to do a big project that needed lots of flexibility.

-gauss
 
Important web site topics you find out about the hard way:
- site ownership
- site security
- site backup
- site maintenance
- host security
- host support
- bandwidth
- available disk space
- email security
- admin time
- development time
 
target2019 said:
Important web site topics you find out about the hard way:
- site ownership
- site security
- site backup
- site maintenance
- host security
- host support
- bandwidth
- available disk space
- email security
- admin time
- development time
Click to expand...
+1
Consider 3rd party changes that break your site too. This sounds like a job.
 
target2019 said:
Important web site topics you find out about the hard way:
- site ownership
- site security
- site backup
- site maintenance
- host security
- host support
- bandwidth
- available disk space
- email security
- admin time
- development time
Click to expand...

Is all of that really a big issue for something like a simple Google site? I find it hard to believe that some of these people with simple blogs are putting that much effort into it.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
Is all of that really a big issue for something like a simple Google site? I find it hard to believe that some of these people with simple blogs are putting that much effort into it.

-ERD50
Click to expand...


Shhhhhh...OP asked what time it was. Many others here are telling him how to build a watch. :LOL:

omni
 
I have a self-hosted Wordpress blog. I self hosted instead of using a wordpress.com blog because I wanted to have the greater control I would have with that.

I followed these basic steps:

1. I registered a domain name (in my case through GoDaddy).

2. I set up website hosting somewhere else. I could have done it at GoDaddy but I wanted to split up the domain name registration part of it and the actual hosting of the website.

3. I decided on a blogging platform to use. I chose Wordpress because it is commonly used and there are a lot of templates out there. I decided that I would ultimately use a Genesis child theme.

Note that at this point many people would then go on and set up their blog themselves and maintain it themselves. I didn't feel that I really had the expertise to do that. I also knew I wanted to do a lot of customized stuff that I had no idea how to do. If I hadn't wanted to do anything customized I might have felt different. But, since I did...

4. I found a blog website designer (many of these designers will do general website design, but my focus was on my blog). I searched online for blog designer and looked up various results. In my case, my blog was a personal blog not commercial so I looked for designers who did personal blogs.

I also visited the blogs that I liked and looked at who designed the blog. There is usually a link somewhere on the blog saying who did it. I then looked up the designers listed there.

I ended up looking at several designers websites to see what services they offered and the cost. I ended up picking someone who charged on an hourly basis. She did my design making the changes I wanted. She also had a number of suggestions that she made. Since then, I paid her a couple of times when I wanted changes made (note, she has since changed her work focus so I currently am without a designer -- I actually need to find someone else).
 
omni550 said:
Shhhhhh...OP asked what time it was. Many others here are telling him how to build a watch. :LOL:

omni
Click to expand...

:LOL: Yes, that was my sense of it!

I've heard that expression before, but sort of forgot about it. Now, I can't wait for an opportunity to use it in casual conversation :cool:.

My other favorite word to try to throw into a conversations is: "juxtaposition". I don't know why, I just like it!

-ERD50
 
Right, I have no expertise in coding, unix, etc. I have some familiarity with Joomla and wysiwyg editing. And what I need isn't complex - no buying or selling, for example. I was just hoping there was a site that would "interrogate" me on what I wanted and would then spit out template or theme suggestions.* Am I right that all the template creating sites use the template categorizations of Magazine, Blog, Shopping, Portfolio, at least?

*If there isn't such a site, there should be! I bet it would get a lot of traffic!
 
I have used Mailchimp (at the free level) for managing email communications. Part of their system is a tool to create the design of the email template to be used for the email campaign. This tool sounds like it might be similar to what OP is looking for. Note Mailchimp is targeted towards marketing people without Design or Development experience.

Since it is free to play with, you might want to check this out (or at a minimum find a video that walks you through the mailchimp process).

Now before everyone says "She wanted a website, not an email campaign you silly watchmaker", follow my Gauss thinking here.

If she indeed likes the design tools with mailchimp, she could ask somewhere if there is a web site creator with design features similar to mailchimp.

It would help frame the question if that is indeed what she is looking for.

On the other hand, perhaps blogger.com and google already have this as others have offered up, so checking these sites out first, if this hasn't already occurred, might be the best next step.

-gauss
 
Last edited:
Pellice said:
Right, I have no expertise in coding, unix, etc. I have some familiarity with Joomla and wysiwyg editing. And what I need isn't complex - no buying or selling, for example. I was just hoping there was a site that would "interrogate" me on what I wanted and would then spit out template or theme suggestions.* Am I right that all the template creating sites use the template categorizations of Magazine, Blog, Shopping, Portfolio, at least?

*If there isn't such a site, there should be! I bet it would get a lot of traffic!
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you are expecting from a "a site that would "interrogate" me on what I wanted and would then spit out template or theme suggestions"...

But I just played with Google Sites, and created a dummy site in a minute. You put an image where you want, you put text where you want, you add pages as you want. It's all simple WYSIWYG. I'm not sure what more you would get from something asking you for what you want?

Here, my test site is very impressive (j/k):

https://goo.gl/Gqd2wm

edit/add: If you go to the 'Classic' sites option, they have a bunch of canned layouts. I only played with it for a minute, looks like you need to choose it to see how it looks, but that's easy.

https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/sites/get-started-classic-sites/#!/

-ERD50
 
Last edited:
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