Wysiwyg

[Gina71]

Okay, so most of you know that I have no web design experience at all (yet).

But I think I am going to start learning. However, I don't want to go to a class, or spend a huge amount of money. I have so many muse ideas and the only thing slowing me down is this whole web design thing. I really think that if I knew how to put websites up quickly and easily, then I could test all these ideas in my head.

What I want is a simple to learn program that can help me deliver good quality web sites on my own. I have heard of Dreamweaver and downloaded a trial version of that. I have also heard of Xsite Pro 2.

Have you used these or another program? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Gina 71

[specmurt]

I've used both DW and XSP2. With DW you still need to know what you are doing. XSP2 is a real WYSIWYG. You can find a lot of descent templates for XSP2 for sale online. You can quickly create a sales letter/squeeze style pages with XSP2.

I ended up using WordPress. I find descent theme for $50, install WordPress and web-site is ready in less than an hour. No HTML, no WYSIWYG web-page editing, no worries.

If I really need something custom, I find descent WordPress theme for under $50 and pay another $50-$100 to customize it.

If you have many muse ideas, get WordPress (usually you can install it with few mouse clicks on the web hosting that uses CPanel, this means 99% Linux based cheap hostings), get free theme that you like, install it and you've got your web site up and running in under an hour.

For standard internent marketing squeeze page/sales letter page sites there are some good WordPress themes as well.

P.S. I know all the guts of HTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL and other web programming but I chose not to waste my time with it.

[JKohlbach]

I think Joomla would be another one too. Depending on what your ideas are of course!

I totally agree with specmurt, i am a programmer myself but have no worries about buying software to do the job if it's good and saves me a bunch of time. I mean, I know i can do it myself, but really, why bother when it's already done nicely for me!?

On the flipside, it's handy knowing that I do have the skills to delve into it if i want to fix something trivial.. like they say, don't outsource something you can do yourself in a quarter of the time :)

[sub8hr]

Traffic Genesis is endorsed by the Stompernet guys, they have a very good reputation in the SEO world. Never used it though.

[DaveCraige.com]

I find descent theme for $50, install WordPress and web-site is ready in less than an hour.


yea, i agree.

also check out www.ThemeForest.net

[specmurt]

yea, i agree.

also check out www.ThemeForest.net (http://www.ThemeForest.net)

I'd recommend this site as well. Good, pro-looking templates, fair prices. They have a sister site http://flashden.net/ where you can buy stock Flash templates.

[Sven]

Also have a look at Drupal, it was voted best open source cms over all for the second year in a row in 2008.

[JKohlbach]

How do you compare Joomla and Drupal? Anyone have positive/negative experience's for either?

[sub8hr]

How do you compare Joomla and Drupal? Anyone have positive/negative experience's for either?

Can't speak for Drupal, but Joomla sites run kind of slow... A lot of standalone packages seem to be afflicted with slowness though. That said, Joomla does have on of my favorite companies to their credit, www.totalimmersion.net.

[Gina71]

Wow.
Thanks for all the responses. You all seem to agree that Wordpress templates are the way to go. But I am completely overwhelmed.
I don't understand a lot of what you're talking about, but I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go along. I am determined to plow through this.

here is what I understood:
I have logged in to my Bluehost account which has cPanel. I have one active site with them and ten extra domain names. I want to create a totally different website using one of those extra domain names and I can't see how I can do that. Is that an "addon" domain? Currently all ten are set as "addon domains" - but I can't seem to view them as individuals. When I look up the web address, they show up as my current active site. (does that make sense) So I have to research that a bit with Bluehost.

Anyway - I saw the Wordpress button in cPanel and I clicked on it. It downloaded. But I think it downloaded to my current site. It told me the directory was not empty, but it wouldn't affect any files. I can't see wordpress anywhere so I don't know how to start using it.

I feel really frustrated and a bit lost. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning.

One of you guys should create a muse for people like me "Beginners Secrets to web site design - Design an amazing site with only a few clicks of your mouse - only 7 copies left - was $110 - for a limited time only $77" Ha ha! (I am joking, by the way!);)

[Darth Fluffy]

I just wanted to mention www.kompozer.net, a nice wysiwyg web page editor. I use Nvu, also free.

I never had problems with wordpress, exept that I prefer good old static html pages. I always use free wordpress themes
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

[OrganicSEO]

Dreamweaver is not as complicated as it looks. I learned how to use it by
subscribing to Lynda.com (I'm not affiliated). They have a online training video taught by experts in the field and explain how to use software better than any other video, website, or book I ever purchased. Plus, you can subscribe just for a month ($25 - I think, don't quote me) and then cancel it - which how I learn how to use new software. They also have a great SEO video - totally recommend it.

Hope this helped.

[MarWillis]

I have also used Lynda.com books in my web design classes. They are pretty good. They do a good job expaining the process with out being too "dry." They are easy to follow along with.

[specmurt]

here is what I understood:
I have logged in to my Bluehost account which has cPanel. I have one active site with them and ten extra domain names. I want to create a totally different website using one of those extra domain names and I can't see how I can do that. Is that an "addon" domain? Currently all ten are set as "addon domains" - but I can't seem to view them as individuals. When I look up the web address, they show up as my current active site. (does that make sense) So I have to research that a bit with Bluehost.


Addon domain is an extra domain you can add to your account. So, you can have, say, Gina71.com and GinasSuperMuse.com hosted on the same Bluehost account. Subdomain is something that looks like mymuse.Gina71.com. If you own Gina71.com you can create unlimited subdomains for free and set up web sites on each of them.

How many domains to you have? Have you created a Bluehost account with just one domain? Have you registered your main domain with Bluehost?

If you just want to experiment, try creating a WordPress site on a subdomain. On CPanel click subdomains, select name (like mymuse.Gina71.com) and accept default Document Root.

After that go back Home. Select Fantastico De Lux. Find and click WordPress on the left. Click new installation. In "Install on domain" select mymuse.Gina71.com. Leave install directory empty. Enter admin user name and password and click Install Wordpress.

Now, open http://mymuse.Gina71.com and you should see your new Wordpress web site.

All of the above isn't going to affect your main site www.gina71.com.

[gvc223]

Hey there,

I was compelled to reply because I too was a complete beginner when it came to website design. Although I have not heard anyone else comment on it, after checking out alot of web design tools I ended up using Blue Voda. It can be downloaded for free from vodahost.com. After experimenting with the trial versions of many other programs, I found this one to be extremely easy to use and can't say enough good about it. Anything that you want to do, there is a corresponding mini video with screen capture to show you how. I built a decent site without using a template. I highly reccommend them.

Gary
www.exposecheating.com

[Gina71]

Hello Everyone -

THANK YOU! I am overwhelmed by the amazing sense of community and helpfulness here.
I am excited to try out your suggestions and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I'll keep you posted on my progress - and if I feel brave, I might even share my URL here. YOu can all have a good giggle at my inexperience and I'll never be the wiser.
:)
Be in touch soon....Gina71

[specmurt]

Found another link in my bookmarks: http://www.musthavevideos.com/videos/ These are video tutorials that might be useful for beginners.

[MarWillis]

One of you guys should create a muse for people like me "Beginners Secrets to web site design - Design an amazing site with only a few clicks of your mouse - only 7 copies left - was $110 - for a limited time only $77" Ha ha! (I am joking, by the way!);)

That's not a bad idea Gina, I may look into that idea if its ok with you! :)