I need to design a webpage - can someone point me in the right direction?

[LaurieFairyCake]

I own a domain. I think I need to pay for hosting (!), then I need to design the page.

No idea where to start - if you could talk to me as if I'm a fuckwit that would be really helpful

In very broad terms, if you are a newbie, I'd start like this:

• consider your budget
• consider what audience you are trying to reach, and what you want to say to them
• in the light of that, decide what you want on your web page / site.
• sketch out a hierarchy or map of pages, if there is more than one page
• collect content - words, pictures, graphics if applicable
• sketch a few ideas out on paper

Then the fun bit:

• yes, you need hosting: or you might be able to use your domain with somewhere like weebly.com, or moonfruit, if that's appropriate for your needs. (Disclaimer: I've never used these sites)

• if you choose your own hosting, consider a hosting package which includes 'build your own website' software. These are normally template driven, so designs are limited, but you can get up and running quickly.

• or, consider building your site at Wordpress.com

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head. The 'beginner's website' market changes constantly, so I hope other posters will have some thoughts for you too.

(..you can also study web development from scratch if you want to, but I'm assuming from your post that you just want to get up and running)

D. You need to download windows web installer of some such beforehand? I also want to use Wordpress so it's the same situation.

If you're working at Wordpress.com, everything is hosted on their servers, so you don't need to download anything.

If you've found your way to wordpress.org, that's a whole different ball game. The expectation here is that you'll download and install wordpress at your web host, or on your own local server, and work with wordpress there.

If you're a complete beginner at creating websites, it's probably best to start off with wordpress.com. Or be ready for some studying...

More detailed info here
en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

www.wix.com is another site worth looking at. I find it really easy to edit.

Squarespace.com also gets a lot of positive comments and you can try it for 2 weeks first. I believe it will also do the necessary work to display on mobiles / tablets / laptops / desktops based on the template you start with (plus your text and photos). Quite a neat solution but starts at US$ 100 or so (and they include a domain so you could grab a suitable name (and then point your current one at the pages on SquareSpace

(I don't yet use them myself)