Creating and Building a website

zervi2003

Hi guys,

Sorry if this is the wrong area to post this, if so please move.

I am looking for advice on creating a website.

I kinda volunteered/ was asked to create a website for a local sports club. I did a course years ago in web design (fairly basic-sites created in frontpage etc not very good looking). I do have a little basic knowledge, but am fast to learn.

They want to good looking professional page. I would have to create 6/7 pages.

What tools/programs are people using these days? I need this to look as professional as possible.

I am also thinking a bit of inter-activity wouldnt go astray. I was thinking of including a forum (to be moderated, possible generate passwords) and also I was thinking that people could log onto the site and submit information also i.e they would be the ones that would be updating the pages, rather than leaving it static and out of date. That way it would be everyones responsibility. Obviously it would have to be moderated also, as in when material is submitted it has to be approved in order to appear on the page.

And, graphics, how can I create them?

I have loads of ideas, but I dont know where to start!

Any help, books, tips, information, please let me know. Am starting to think that I am in over my head.

I have my own laptop (just bought it) so have a work station. All I need is to figure out how to start.

Thanks,

Z

Spiritine

I would go for a forum, i think you can get mods for them, to make them into a website/webpage too, sort of intergated in the forums, someone here will probleby know, but i would start here www.phpbb.com

Biggins

Try fasthosts.co.uk
Very cheap, you can incorporate a forum and there is a VERY straight forward site builder for the non HTML (etc) experienced.

For an example of what can be built just see www.unitedpeople.ie and the forum incorporated there.
This is hosted entirely with fasthosts. The forum was attacted to it no problem - I used clean and free professional http://www.forumotion.com/
I have two websites with them. One an .ie and the other a .com domain

Gadgetman496

Have a look at this,

I don't know anything about this topic but it might be helpful.

http://www.kompozer.net/

-

Jonathan

Do you have access to a copy of web expression 2 or dreamweaver?

zervi2003

Thanks guys for the advice. If you were looking for something professional, how much would be be talking about a page?

Is what I am trying to do possible or am I being unrealistic?

zervi2003

No i dont have access to these tools (expressions and dreamweaver). I wanted to/needed to know what tools I would need first.

What is the first thing I should be doing?

Biggins

Finding a host you can afford, their facilities and languages, etc that they can intake and manage.
If you have the time to learn HTML, etc and your starting from scratch, you have a lot to learn and do. Otherwise go with Fasthosts (and their very clear and easy sitebuilder facility - you can test it on their site for free) or a similar service with near enough features.

* Stick to you price limit and don't be tempted to overspend yourself.
* Know your requirements, What you will want to have on your site, how many pages you will need, etc before you chose you correct one.
* Try (if possible) to get one that has a 24 hour back-up phone service. This can be a god-send. Trust me.

Anti

Try asking in the web dev forum:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=23

zervi2003

Can you please put my link in the web forum? Sorry, didnt realise web was there. (I did look, just didnt see it).

Nehaxak

Could also look to use a CMS like http://www.subdreamer.com/ - pretty cheap enough and some decent templates/skins available for it straight away.

Works perfectly fine to integrate also with the well known forums software.

Easy to mange, easy to admin/mod or just update/add/remove content etc.,

zervi2003

Thanks for that. I actually emailed them there with a few questions.

As far as I know, the club paid $100 per year for the domain name, but a useless website so they didnt renew it. Does this site have domain names also? i.e would it be included in their package? sorry for sounding do naive, it wasnt obvious to me reading their site.

Thanks again

redhat_newbie

FYI:

http://www.topshareware.com/Cube-Construct-download-59841.htm

Nehaxak

zervi2003 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I actually emailed them there with a few questions.

As far as I know, the club paid $100 per year for the domain name, but a useless website so they didnt renew it. Does this site have domain names also? i.e would it be included in their package? sorry for sounding do naive, it wasnt obvious to me reading their site.

Thanks again

No mate, not really. That end of things you'd have to do yourself, domain setup and hosting.
Those Subdreamer people do include some hosting package when you buy the software but it's not up to much at all.

For cheap prices, simplicity and decent service, I'd recommend GoDaddy.com for the domain purchase and setup etc.,

Would recommend siteground.com for the actual hosting.

If you're really new at it all then GoDaddy for the hosting as well, prefectly fine for it.

SubDreamer is just a Content Management System (of sorts) - very easy to manage, very easy to assign other admin access or moderator access etc.,
Basically, you buy the domain and hosting for them for whatever decent deal you can get for them, setup the Subdream and forums, then pass the lot over to the club to take care of if they so wish, or at least someone of them to give you a hand managing it (not much involved really) so they can eventually take it over as you are volunteering your time after all

Ubaroo

you should take a look at www.ucoz.com