Website help

stokecity_m

stokecity_m

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1,349
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
Looking to set up a fairly basic website, in order to put my pictures online.

Similar to this

http://www.katiehughes.co.uk/

can anyone point me in the right direction, as i haven't a clue about website making.

Thanks
 
Have you bought space yet? Have you decided on a supplier?

I use www.one.com which costs £11ish for the first year and about £14 per year afterwards. It includes a web based gallery then using an FTP client (built in to Windows from XP and free for MacOS) you can also store things and place your own site there. Some people have had problems with them bt there are other cheap providers too.
 
It all looks a bit confusing for me.

Still i'll keep reading up etc.
 
The site you linked too appears to be a mix of HTML, CSS and Javascript.
I like the design very much but the content is positioned using tables which are a no no in the web design world

If you dont fancy learning to code yourself then you have a few options:

  • Use something like dreamweaver or frontpage to design the site yourself
  • Pay someone to do it for you
  • Bribe a mate who knows how to code to do it for you
  • Use an online website builder

Most pro website designers have minimum charges (usually £300+++) depending on the amount of work involved.

As mentioned already, you will also need a domain name and a hosting package.
I would also reccomend One.com, I have 4 sites with them and for a personal site they have done me great

Hope that helps :thumbs:
 
So, say i use something like dreamweaver - it will allow me to set up the website how i please - and then it's just a case of uploading it all?
 
stokecity_m said:
So, say i use something like dreamweaver - it will allow me to set up the website how i please - and then it's just a case of uploading it all?
Click to expand...

In theory yes, Dreamweaver is what is known as a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor which basically means its designed to help people build a site who have little knowledge of web design.

The only thing that concerns me is the Javascript (which the linked site uses to popup the images when you click on them) as I am not sure Dreamweaver has anything built in to do this....I could be wrong however as I code by hand so have only used Dreamweaver a few times
 
Okey Dokey pig in a Pokey.

I'll have a look see at dream weaver and go from there.

Thanks for you advice guys.
 
dreamweaver is a crazy outlay for someone that has no clue about web design (its over £300 to buy).
its a tool used by us web developers to create websites... using various tools plus of course hard coding.

Your better off getting either some form of webtemplate, customising it then uploading it.

or, what i prefere for people with very little knowledge of how it all works, get some web hosting and install wordpress... its free and very very easy to setup and manage.
you can have galleries, information pages and all sorts.

If your considering buying dreamweaver then just use the £400 you would waste on the software and pay a developer to create a site for you.
 
The image viewing script is Lightbox2. A free download with plenty of instructions on how to build your own database. Although written in Javascript it will work on the majority of systems viewing the site. Although nice, it has become a wee bit over used.

You can build a similar image library using XML. Useful and very easy to maintain. Read through this lot if you have time.

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
 
well i've just had a go of dream weaver - and although i can tell it could be very useful, i just don't want to spend the time learning how to use it properly as it seems a very complex produce.

So i'll have to look at the other methods.

:)
 
http://www.squarespace.com is pretty cool, especially for someone with no knowledge. They host for you and you can change everything on the fly in the browser. Start with a template and go from there. They have a free trial (30days) with no details needed to sign up. :)
 
mattyh said:
Wix is all built in flash and awful for SEO though, so will rank quite poorly in the search engines.
Click to expand...

2nd that. CSS3.0 will mark the beginning of the end for flash (personal opinion of course, puts on flak jacket).
 
ki_user said:
Can you only use word press after you have sorted out hosting, I can't figure out how to get started on it.
Click to expand...

You can set it up on a local server, but if you don't know what you are doing, you would be best getting a domain and hosting first. WP can be a right pain when you shift it from one server to another.
 
#word press would be a good option but wouldn't look like the site above, It always has a more bloggy feel to it. Well in my opinion it does anyway, As said above the javascript photo viewer is freely available and is quite easy to use.

Do you plan to set up the site as a portfolio? Or a place where you can sell images from events?

If it's the second it get's quite a bit tougher..
 
I've just built my website & found the tutorials on youtube great for when you get stuck, I learnt so much from them in a short space of time, gets frustrating when you can't figure out where your going wrong but stick with it.
 
Wordpress is great for a content management system, IMO. There are so many things it can do once you get involved in it.

Have a read here for some basic information how to use it.

EDIT: You can set Wordpress up on a local machine using XAMPP but unless you're used to playing with databases and php, I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner :). It's not that difficult to move Wordpress from one server to another, in my experience, as long as you follow the instructions given by Wordpress themselves, which really are quite comprehensive.
 
Hi, not sure if its any good, but 'xara xtreme 5' is a wysiwyg package, it seems reasonably easy to use and a lot cheaper than some (£69).
Not got my site finnished yet so no use adding a link but plenty of tutorials to look at on their site showing how to do roll-overs/gif's etc.
 
Richard.T said:
#word press would be a good option but wouldn't look like the site above, It always has a more bloggy feel to it.
Click to expand...

It doesn't have to be. I just got fiddling last week with wordpress, grabbed 'Yet Another PhotoBlog' plug-in and a nice theme (well I like it) and it gets rid of that bloggy feel IMO. Do you agree? I already had hosting avaiable to me so that was not a problem. Just need to work on my images now ;)
 
mattyh said:
EDIT: You can set Wordpress up on a local machine using XAMPP but unless you're used to playing with databases and php, I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner :). It's not that difficult to move Wordpress from one server to another, in my experience, as long as you follow the instructions given by Wordpress themselves, which really are quite comprehensive.
Click to expand...

I did it on a windows 7 machine using MS Web platform installer which set up everything needed to run wordpress on local machine very easily. The hardest part for me was exporting and then reimporting my exisiting wordpress tables
 
Or you could hire a website designer. the site cited is pretty easy, and wouldn't cost much
 
Ka$h - did you pay for that wordpress theme/layout?

I spent a long time playing with wordpress before deciding that unless I paid quite a lot I wasn't going to get what I wanted, so settled on html/css/javascript for my site which is laid out how I wanted it to be.

Just wondered if I missed a trick with wordpress (although have immensely enjoyed my first attempt at web design)
 
CanonFodder said:
Ka$h - did you pay for that wordpress theme/layout?

I spent a long time playing with wordpress before deciding that unless I paid quite a lot I wasn't going to get what I wanted, so settled on html/css/javascript for my site which is laid out how I wanted it to be.

Just wondered if I missed a trick with wordpress (although have immensely enjoyed my first attempt at web design)
Click to expand...

Nope, was free. The theme is called reflection and can be found here

The YAPB plugin is a freebie too. I'm no web designer although I understand the semantics of it all. Only thing I changed was the logo file and a few of the options in wordpress (like comments etc) Otherwise it was simple enough to follow instructions and put it all together :)
 
There's not a major amount of work there as it's a very simple site. You are looking at only a few days work for a web developer using the latest standards. If you want more info PM me.

Trev
 
ka$h said:
Nope, was free. The theme is called reflection and can be found here

The YAPB plugin is a freebie too. I'm no web designer although I understand the semantics of it all. Only thing I changed was the logo file and a few of the options in wordpress (like comments etc) Otherwise it was simple enough to follow instructions and put it all together :)
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Thanks for that. I gave up on wordpress because I didn't think it was going to meet my requirements without investment but looking at your site I think that would have done me.

Not sure what to do now, I'm quite happy with my site now although it is nowhere near as easy to insert pictures as wordpress and I have to forgo things like comments and tags etc. Hmm....not sure :thinking:
 
I've been having a similar dilemma for a long time now. I just wanted a site that is simple, clean and easy to keep on top of.

I've been on a web design course, and although it was interesting, it is something that takes time to learn. Designing the site myself was a no-no. I want to spend time taking photographs, not writing code.

I've had my own webserver with Wordpress. Again, a steep learning curve to get it all in place, but I ended up trying to make themes and plugins fit to how I wanted the site to look. In the end, making changes was time consuming and irritating. Having to upgrade to the latest version every x months also became a pain. Fancy flash templates (as mentioned earlier in the thread) are no good if you want to be found in Google as the search engines can't read the content.

I've looked at free hosting solutions with templates, but the templates were rubbish, uncustomisable and naff. The site ended up covered in ads.

I've tried paid for hosting solutions with templates, and this has been the best balance of cash vs nice site vs effort required to keep it nice for me.

If you're event or wedding togging and need client areas, password protection and stuff like that, then ignore all the above, because your requirements are different to what I know anything about.

I use Photium. A good balance of nice templates, easy to use & navigate. Excellent customer care and relatively cheap (£7/month - includes 1 domain registered to you). I've spent time on the content rather than the way it's set up and the SEO functionality is very good considering it's a cut down content management system. Link in my sig shows what you can do with a bit of time and a template.

I've heard good things about Clickpic as well and I think there are a few other dedicated Photographer website templated hosting solutions out there. Most offer a free trial of some sort, so I'd have a go with those and see which suits your needs best.

At the end of the day it's up to how much you want to pay, what you want out of the website, and how much effort you want to put into the site yourself.

Ian.
 
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