Website

[Stetle49]

I'm looking for some advice on creating a website to show off my Balls, does anyone have advice or suggestions? Anything is better then nothing thanks!!

[Nate]

hmm...where to begin.

W3Schools is a great place to start. You need to learn HTML. HTML is the skeleton and meat of your web site...the content.

then you need to learn CSS. CSS is what styles your page...gives it color and makes it pretty.

Photoshop is also a great tool to have. Expensive tho.

Dreamweaver is great for creating web sites...expensive also. both are Adobe products.

I've also learned an awful lot from Lynda.com...which is a video tutorial web site. Isn't free..but worth every penny.

Pixel2Life

Good-tutorials

Now...if you're serious about web development..be prepared to spend the rest of your life learning

[Stetle49]

Thanks for the advice. I really would really like to find a program that is easy to use for beginners to create a website. I have been looking at Microsoft frontpage but don't know if it what I need. I hate to buy something that doesn't work for me because I really don't know what I am doing and end up wasting that money. Do you have any other suggestions besides Dreamweaver?? I have heard there are alot of free programs, but again I dont know which ones are good and which ones are not.

[Nate]

I personally prefer Dreamweaver over everything.

some web hosting companies give you page builders. have you looked into any hosting options yet?

[ctrlfreq]

Do you want to build a website about your snakes, or do you want to learn to build websites?

If the former, I would recommend finding someone who hosts Drupal, Mambo/Joomla, or any other of the umpteen million content management systems. A good CMS will let you build your site using the website itself, so you only need to upload your images and put the content in.

If it's the latter, then I would recommend going with something like dreamweaver, since it will let you build your site in either WYSIWYG or markup, and while it's not the best tool out there, it is great for beginners since you are able to flip back and forth, and can learn by example.

[ctrlfreq]

I personally prefer Dreamweaver over everything.

My biggest beef with Dreamweaver is having to pay for the ability to interface with a version control system, which is an absolute must for me. These days I am happily ensconced in Eclipse Europa, which is by far the greatest IDE ever.

[TekWarren]

Hope its ok to squeeze in a shameful plug but just to ask what Nate already did...If you need a hosting solution, or when your to that point...contact Nate or myself and one of us will hook you up!

[JLC]

Hey guys....I moved this to the Off Topic forum for ya...since it's not really about ball pythons.

Good luck with that, Stetle49. Listen to these guys...they'll steer you right!

[Stetle49]

I need to create a website for Ball Pythons. I need to create the actual website along with finding a host. I am new to creating websites and I want to create one that best represents my snakes and my business.

I have looked at a few websites that offer hosting, such as godaddy.com but am not sure what exactly I need.


When it comes to creating the website I need to be able to have many pictures on the site and a store that will allow people to use their credit cards and paypal to pay for items.


Is there a difference in who hosts you?? Also in the amount of space you are allowed to have??

Does anyone know anything about Microsoft Frontpage??? Has anyone tried it before??


I appreciate all the suggestions and apologize if I am vague. I know what I need and want and just am not sure how to get to that point.

[TekWarren]

For your hosting questions, many providers charge on a per month transfer limit. If you go with with a cheaper/lower monthly limit and have many pictures you run the risk of hitting that limit before the month is up and either getting over charged or your site is just cut off until the next month.

As for how to create an online store a trusted third party system such as paypal would be a good solution. They have tools to help you integrate how your customers would pay for items and I think they have a cart system etc.

Personally from a host stand point I do not want to get into having to store that type of secure information (CC's etc). I've never had a successful breech but I still say you and your customers would be much safer using another source that specializes in transactions and has a very high level of security.