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Old 05-23-2011, 05:40 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
608 posts, read 1,705,627 times
Reputation: 455

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Hi all,

I'm planning on creating a website relatively soon and I've been exploring some options, but I really don't know what's right for me.

Some background: My reason for creating the site is to sell some economic data I've created. Most of the data will be delivered on the website in the form of charts that will be in .jpg format. Basically, I need a relatively simple website, with multiple pages for different sets of data, and user permissions, so I can allow only pay users to access parts of the site they have paid for.


However, I'm not all that fluent on creating websites. The last time I did one was 1998 and that was using very basic HTML. So you might as well consider me a total n00b.


I have one friend who recommends I use StudioPress themes via WordPress. One advantage with this is that I'm already familiar with WordPress as I blog there occasionally.

Another friend told me that I might consider a software program like Dreamweaver. I understand that I could also do the WordPress route if I wanted to go that direction. But I don't totally understand the difference between these two options, other than that Dreamweaver might be more complicated.


Can anyone offer opinions on these two options? Or provide other recommendations for my situation?

Thanks a bunch,
DG.
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Old 05-23-2011, 06:22 PM
 
Location: Tucson for awhile longer
8,869 posts, read 16,280,653 times
Reputation: 29230
You'll have to pay some kind off fee to buy your domain name and have your site online. Have you considered getting a hosting company to do that for you? Many of the better Web-hosting companies have site-building (including templates) as part of a package of services you can buy for not much more than you'd pay for a copy of Dreamweaver. They offer customer service to answer questions and provide advice on which choices will help you achieve your goals. They also offer assistance in how to get your site to appear when people do searches on your topic. No sense having a site if no one knows about it, but it's no easy matter to drive traffic to your site.

I've had good customer service from CityMax. It's a Canadian group (Vancouver, I think), but they're set up to do business with American companies and they have a wide variety of professional-looking templates.
Website Builder - Make Your Own Website
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Old 05-23-2011, 08:49 PM
 
15,913 posts, read 20,157,064 times
Reputation: 7693
Yellow Pages
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Old 05-24-2011, 09:16 AM
 
28,803 posts, read 47,590,355 times
Reputation: 37905
I've recommended inmotionhosting a couple of times in threads here and it's been the choice of the OP both times. They have an excellent range of options including "build it yourself" and we "build it for you".

Prices are good and service is excellent.

I've had a client (transcriptionist) using them for years and she has been very happy with them.
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Old 05-24-2011, 09:32 AM
 
2,182 posts, read 5,426,622 times
Reputation: 1214
Look into Squarespace
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Old 05-24-2011, 10:34 AM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,920,524 times
Reputation: 17863
Quote:
Originally Posted by DiderotsGhost View Post
Some background: My reason for creating the site is to sell some economic data I've created. Most of the data will be delivered on the website in the form of charts that will be in .jpg format. Basically, I need a relatively simple website, with multiple pages for different sets of data, and user permissions, so I can allow only pay users to access parts of the site they have paid for.
For this you need server side scripting with a backend database. You can do this yourself but it might take you months, years to develop the skills.

Other than having someone develop it for you you can use off the shelf solutions like a CMS or content management system that will have this all included. There are some open source ones avaiable like Joomla! and Drupal.

This would be similar to Wordpress but I'm pretty sure both would exceed the capabilities of Wordpress.

What you can do is download XAMPP which will give you local testing environment similar to what you can expect from a host. Part of the XAMPP package is PHP and MySQL which is required to run most of open source applications for the web like the ones I mentioned above. Once you have XAMPP installed you can download the CMS packages and install them locally to play around with them.



Quote:

Another friend told me that I might consider a software program like Dreamweaver.
This is an editor and may be helpful for modifying files specifically the HTML templates in the CMS but generally speaking you only need a text editor. Last I checked you have to use text mode with Dreamweaver because it will do funny things to template code that is not necessarily pure HTML. For just a text editor I'd recommend Notepad++ which is open source.
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Old 05-25-2011, 09:55 AM
 
28,803 posts, read 47,590,355 times
Reputation: 37905
Big learning curve with Dreamweaver as well.
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Old 06-11-2011, 04:51 AM
 
Location: On the brink of WWIII
21,088 posts, read 29,139,624 times
Reputation: 7812
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tek_Freek View Post
I've recommended inmotionhosting a couple of times in threads here and it's been the choice of the OP both times. They have an excellent range of options including "build it yourself" and we "build it for you".

Prices are good and service is excellent.

I've had a client (transcriptionist) using them for years and she has been very happy with them.
Second inmotionhosting. We looked at them when we read a previous post by tek_freek. We have been VERY happy with their service. We are using HTML for now, but will be moving to a web design program shortly.
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Old 06-11-2011, 07:22 AM
 
Location: The Southern Sac's, NM
1,872 posts, read 3,402,415 times
Reputation: 2898
You might also consider places like odesk.com and elance.com where you can hire a website builder for the one job only. They are rated by previous customers, so you can pick one that is recommended.
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