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Original poster

OK so.... how hard is it to make your own website???

28 replies

mrspink27 · 11/10/2005 17:23

My dds nursery school is a little behind the times and clueless about technology, especially as they list their email address www.XXXXX@bt .... which always makes me giggle
Just wondered how hard it would be to build a website?

Anyone know where to start??

Thanks in advance!!

OP posts:
Original poster
mrspink27 · 11/10/2005 19:54

someone must know???

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 11/10/2005 20:00

what sort of website?

a simple one is fairly easy, yes, but you either have to buy dreamweaver or frontpage or you have to learn several different things at once (i.e. graphics, html and ftp).

Or you could get a hosting account which has a free website "wizard" - they're very easy to use but don't make particularly professional looking sites imo. There are even free ones of those but you have to have ads of their choice on your site.

Hostway do a reasonable paid-for one.

Whizzz · 11/10/2005 20:00

You can get sofware wizards that help - Microsoft Pulisher has one but there are others. It takes you step by step through the pages you need & layout etc without you having to worry about code & programming.

SenoraPostrophe · 11/10/2005 20:01

publisher makes the most god-awful html that takes ages to download though.

Rhubarb · 11/10/2005 20:24

If you go here it will take you to a company that have hosted mine for 4 years. They are a not for profit organisation and I think they charge around 15 quid a year for hosting your site. They will give it a .co.uk or a .com name, they'll do all the technical stuff for you, but you can also edit your site yourself without the need for software of any kind, you just need a username and password. It's all very clever! They are great guys who run the business and whenever I've had a problem they've always got back to me really quickly!

Hope this helps!

Redtartanlass · 11/10/2005 21:26

If you have no programming skills I found this to be a great website for creating your own website

1&1

ScarySkribble · 11/10/2005 23:30

I have just set up my website with Moonfruit .

If you can use word or a desktop publishing package then you will manage this easily. Lots of templates and you can still change everything once you start. Very user friendly and you see what you are doing as you go along not like with codeing.

I did a short Dreamweaver course at nightclasses, expensive programme and requires a lot of twiddling or in depth knowlegde of package.

ScarySkribble · 11/10/2005 23:31

Meant to say Moonfruit has a freehosting option which puts ads down the side of page but looks quite seperate and unobtrusive.

BadHair · 11/10/2005 23:40

I did my pages with FrontPage as it came work free with the MSOffice package that I got through work. It's here if you want a peek. It's deliberately simple - you can do much more with FP if you want.

The site is hosted for free with Freeola, only catch being that they have to be my service provider and I have to access the site through a dial-up connection, which I don't mind as it suits me better.

Benefits of doing your own in FrontPage are that FP is easy to use - totally WYSIWYG - and toolbars and functions are the same as the usual MS Office stuff. There's also lots of books on it libraries. I have a Dummies Guide if you'd like to borrow it but it is for FrontPage 98 and there is at least one new version out. I still find it useful, though, and would recommend.

Downside is that real web designers hate FP, and I had some difficulty finding a free host for it - most places wanted me to pay as it needs server extensions to support it. I would still recommend though.

bobbybob · 12/10/2005 03:53

I used www.bravehost.net and made my website in an afternoon while ds slept. It's not great and you have to link to pictures rather than have them onscreen (or maybe you don't anymore and I'm just clueless) but it's quick and free.

Rhubarb · 12/10/2005 09:26

What's your site Skribble?

RTKMonherBROOMSTICK · 12/10/2005 09:37

FREEWEBS is free and is deffo brill

And very very easy I know nothing about tech stuff and I can do it

tatt · 12/10/2005 09:48

If you use Microsoft Publisher it is very easy to make the site. I found the file transfer process the most complicated part. There is a lot of free software around - got bulldog with a computer magazine. Microsoft publisher is very much easier, so easy both partner and I had hobby websites at one stage.

Rhubarb's link gives you up to 7 pages free.

ScarySkribble · 13/10/2005 01:25

With moonfruit you get up to 15 pages free and unlimited pages from £2.99per month upwards. I like the fact it is cimbined hosting and designing so no uploading to a hosts server. Its instant and online and you can update everything as you go a long.

I've spent about 4/5 hrs in total on it so far, need to concentrate on taking pictures of my stall in action and all my products. I mistakenly promised to show someone a printed catalogue in a fortnight, I don't have one so that will be a deadline for me to aim for. its \link{http://sweetenough.moonfruit.com/Sweet Enough}

ScarySkribble · 13/10/2005 01:27

Try Sweet Enough . I want to get rid of a lot of the text on the front page and use picture links to all the pages and I will have product galleries and pages showing stalls and parties in action.

Rhubarb · 14/10/2005 11:24

Yeah well, my site builders are better! You don't have to download a thing, you just go onto your site, enter your username and password and you can edit it right there and then, so great for the kiddies! Also they will manage it for you, do all the hard stuff and technical stuff, keep back-ups, promote it for you, etc. All for around a tenner a year - so beat that!!!

Rhubarb · 14/10/2005 11:26

Like your site Skribble, I love little nick-naks like that! I used to spend my pocket money on all sorts of interesting things, funny shaped rubbers and so on (no, not THOSE kind of rubbers!), do you make them all yourself?

hoppybird · 14/10/2005 12:38

Hello mrspink, I think constructing a website through the hosts suggested on this thread and using the WYSIWYG wizards they provide would definitely be the best way forward for a beginner.

I'm learning to hand-code html and make websites, and there is a quite a lot involved in ensuring that they load quickly, work properly on all browers, look good in all resolutions, show up in searches etc. The downside of using a wizard is that you wouldn't necessarily focus or even be aware of these things.

Skribble, I had a look at your site - it looks really nice . If you don't mind me suggesting, maybe you could put the bullet points from the 'Our Services' page onto the 'Home' page. The text currently from the 'Home' page would look better as 'Our Services' with sub-headings to make it easier to read.

ScarySkribble · 15/10/2005 01:05

Thanks Hoppy, I want to get rid of all the blurb off the home page and move it to our services as you suggest. I think sub headings will help too. Not sure what to put on the home page?????? But I know I want it to be simpler.

I tried a bit of coding along with Dreamweaver and its not for me. I have checked my site on other computer settings and it seems fine as page width etc is set so it doesn't move about. I love the WYSIWYG way of working and the fact it is instant.

ScarySkribble · 16/10/2005 01:39

Heres my latest version Sweet Enough Had a laugh trying to do the photos of the sweets.

I am limited on taking orders until I change my business account to one that takes credit card payments then I may upgrade to the version that has online shopping facility. Its £5.99 a month to include E-commerce tools, sounds a good price but nothing tho compare it to.

sharklet · 16/10/2005 12:05

I've had a website for years now for my portfolio. I change it and add to it too often to want to pay for someone to design it for me, so I taught myself html. I learnt simnply from looking up the thinkgs I wanted on google and reading many many web designers websites. Its changed a lot over the years and now its very pared down and simple (it did go through stages of having flashing all singing all dancing stuff but it didn't look classy enough.

Mine is hosted with Yahoo Geocities Pro which is about $4.00 per month (about £2.00) You can host on Yahoo Geocities for free but my site is very very busy so I needed the extra bandwidth.

I registered my domain name with 123-reg.co.uk who were really reasonable.

I did try using different software like dreamweaver but for me I found it complicated things. Yahoo Geocities has an easy update tool where you can alter the code and preview it usig HTML or it has lots of basic templates etc which you can manipulate to your own design and a page builder so I found it great.

Your welcome to have a nose at my site if you like Emma's Site

HTH Emma x

Whizzz · 16/10/2005 12:17

I'e just had a look at the Moonfruit one & it looks quite good. With these ones though - can you choose your own website address as I have the address but not the site !

sharklet · 16/10/2005 12:43

I always found moonfruit take a long time to load (perhaps not now I am on broadband but on dial-up)- which is very important - otherwise many people won't stop and wait for your site to load, which defies the point.

Your web address you should be able to direct to any address through your domain server. Who are you registed with?

Whizzz · 16/10/2005 12:51

I (or rather DH) registered the domain name. But I have just had a quick dabble with Moonfruit & I can use www.my name.moonfruit.com which would work I suppose.I need it to hold lots of photos of cards & stuff so it would have to be quick to load. The overall look seems nice though which is what I am after. Gave up on Publisher as it looked a bit dire

sharklet · 16/10/2005 12:58

My domain server (the ones I registered my domain name with) have a service via them that I can re-direct that web address to any address on the we - so it re-directs to my yahoo geocities address it could go to any address I wanted. I am sure your servers have a similar web re-direction srvice. That way you don't need to worry about the moon fruit address.