Website Ques?

[Juliepry]

Hi there,
I've been researching website creation for a while and have learned alot from this thread!! I have a few questions about websites.
I am really wanting to learn how to build my own website for the knowedge and challenge. I don't know how hard this will be. I want a clean & simple site(eventually).
Questions:
Any good recommendations for books or tutorials to learn html?

I've found alot of sites that offer free templates, clipart, ect.., where do I even start to put them? Do I need some kind of web program to get started?

I read quite a few people that said to stay away from Frontpage and that they liked Dreamweaver? Can I build a website without spending $300 on software?(I'd rather spend it on glass and presses!!) Is it unrealistic to think I can build a nice/simply website without buying expensive webbuilding software?


Can you use a trial version of a web building program to build your pages and upload them to your website? I think I have a 30 day trial of Dreamweaver.


Any tips or suggesttions from those who've already treaded in my footsteps is very much appreciated!!!!

Thanks so much for any experiences or input!! I really appreciate it!
~Julie

[letha]

You don't have to spend anything to get a great webpage. I would highly recommend NoteTab Lite, I believe that it's free. I guess the rest of your questions are dependant on what you want your page to look like, and be capable of. There are great tutorials and even some pages that give you a layout. Layout o matic is one such place....hope this helps!!!

[lnew]

I just got my website up a few weeks ago. I went with web.com and did it myself for 9.95 a month. The initial work took me a whole day (I had no website experience) but now I can move along pretty quickly in there. I went thru paypal for a shopping cart. There's a link in my signature if you'd like to check it out. I wanted a nice, clean look also. This design is my second and I like it.

[Juliepry]

Thanks for your input. I'm having a heck of a time juggling between time to make beads and time to figure out a website. I just love a good challenge.
Thanks again,
Julie
ps. Lisa your website looks GREAT!!!

[villa design]

Can you use a trial version of a web building program to build your pages and upload them to your website? I think I have a 30 day trial of Dreamweaver.

If you have a student ID floating around somewhere (or know someone) you can get a student versions of Dreamweaver. I think it's half? Maybe even less. It's been awhile, I've had my version of Dreamweaver since college. You might also want to try out geocities.com. They have web tools that can help you out and offer packages without ads.

Lisa... nice website! If I only had time to sit down and figure out the shopping cart thing...

[evolvingBeau]

Here's my hmm...15 cents,
I did my own web design with a WYSIWYG program called SiteSpinner for the last couple years..It was ok but really ended up being a PITA and deterred me from updating my site because it was difficult to get everything where I wanted it. Before that I used front page arrrrgh..
I went with pappashop after looking around and trying out their demo. I pay $19.99 a month (some additional startup costs depending on what you want) so it's a little more than web.com (which I know absolutely nothing about so can't really compare, but that site looks great and appears to have similar features) all I know is that I really like the way it functions and selling one set of beads a month will pay for the monthly costs.
It has a full on store system that makes adding items easy and it gives you alot of options. They have incredible support too.
HTML code can be really frustrating and not really worth your time unless you want to design webpages for a living so whatever you do I would get some kind of WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) or you'll spend alot of time accomplishing a little..you can still edit HTML if you want to tweak things even more but you usually can do whatever you want without having to strain your brain with %<Meta=SRC.ouch.ouch<body><head>% kind of stuff.
It all depends on what you're going for and what it's worth to you. This is our sole source of income so it's worth alot to us.
Hope that you find exactly what you're looking for!:smile:

[Juliepry]

Hey Melissa, Beau & Shani,
You both have great websites!!!!!! Thanks for both of your opinions. Beau and Shani I can definately see how if beads are your income how I'd use a well organized webhost/designer like Pappashop!! I've heard nothing but great things about them.
I looked on CNET reviews last night and found a review for a webdesigning software that they rated top for the year and found it locally for 89.00. They said it was much better than Frontpage and very comperable to Dreamweaver for a fraction of the cost. I bought it today and I think I'll try it They offer a 30 day moneyback guarantee. I guess I like a good challenge. Beading is a hobby for me so I'm trying to keep the cost down.
Thanks again,
Julie
BTW- You all make BEAUTIFUL beads!!!

[pipyr]

Julie,
You could always use a free html editor like firstpage and get a book on how to write your own codes. Then you have absolutely unlimited creative possibilities and don't have to pay anything but the hosting costs (a few dollars a month) There are advantages to writing your own code...it will take longer initially, but it's important to know anyway, even if you have a program that will write the codes for you. I would highly recoomend that anyone who is trying to run a site know how html and css works, regardless of what kind of program you use. That way, if you run into snags or want to change something, or something doesn't come up correctly on certain browsers, you can fix it :) Just my $.02! Then again, I love building websites, so maybe I'm just a little over-passionate about the whole traditional process ... lol!! ;) :D