Advice regarding website hosting and development

OK....in my efforts to always find an angle...I procured a domain ( christianmetalfans.com ) thru GoDaddy for $5 a year so that I could get a massive tool called ConvertXtoDVD for free.

It has been a LOOOOOONG time since I used html..not really all that interested in learning all the nuances again, either.

So...does any one have a recommendation for a good program to use to make one, and a good place to host it?

Keep in mind, I am not really sure WHAT I am going to do with the site yet (if anything).

I host Angelic Warlord through Blue Host and have never had any problems.  Blue Host comes highly recommended as a result.

I designed Angelic Warlord on Dreamweaver- while having virtually no web design experience or background whatsoever.  No, not an experience for the faint of heart (how I got through the experience without losing my sanity is another story...).  Dreamweaver can best be described as a super complicated but highly neurotic Excel worksheet that always seems to do what you do not wish it to do (almost as if it has a mind of its own).

My advise would be to use one of the free online web design programs such as Wix (or simply do a Google search for 'free website).

Also, do a lot of reading and research prior to beginning the web design process.  I would highly recommend "Creating Web Pages For Dummies" and "Search Engine Optimization For Dummies" to start.  Go online as well and visit the sites of your competitors and make note of what works and does not work in terms of navigation, lay out, features, functions, etc.  Finally, open an Excel worksheet and map out the site in terms of specifics such as where your header and tag line will be located, the type of navigation menu you will be using (horizontal or vertical) and what specific links will be included with the menu.  In other words, it is important to have ALL your creative decisions made FIRST before you even begin to think about the 'nuts and bolts' design process.

Also, keep the following quote in mind from Vincent Flanders: "Web design is not about art.  Art is about possibilities.  Web design is about limitations.  Web design is about making money or disseminating information".

Flanders authored the book "Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design".

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Here are a few other quotes I found from Flanders to be quite helpful:

I guarantee you that no one will ever write, e-mail or phone you complaining that:
It's too easy to buy things on our site.
It's too easy to find information on your site.
Your Web pages load too quickly.
Your site is too easy to navigate.
 
You know the design of your web site is a success when people call or e-mail you to complain:
It's too easy to find what I'm looking for on your site.
Your site loads too quickly.
Your site is too easy to navigate
Your site is too informative.
 
Your goal is to design your site so visitors can complain about these four issues.
 
To know what content your site should have, you should determine:
your site's purpose
your target audience
how to keep visitiors interested
how your content solves problems
how to meet your audience's expectations
 
No matter how much bandwidth you think your audience has, keep the file size of your images as low as possible without making them ugly.

Good advice....thanks!

I use dreamweaver, and think it's great.  That being said, I only use it in a very basic way.

Fundy

FWIW, I refuse to support GoDaddy for their offensive (to me) ads. I moved anything I had off of it to NameCheap. Though $5/yr domain registration is the lowest I've seen in several years, I still wouldn't line their pockets. </rant>

I host at sahosting.com, which is sort of a one-man operation reselling from Host Gator I believe that supports the Salvation Army. Very cheap and a nice guy but support sometimes isn't instant.

As for what to use, I mostly just deal with HTML still. Used FrontPage for quite a while, but it became too outdated. I use phpBB for a forum-based site like this. Been suggesting we change CHM to that for years so we have total control to no avail. I use Joomla CMS for one site and wouldn't recommend it if you're not tech savvy and using it a fair amount. It seems Wordpress is quite popular but have never used it.

Ooh Dream Weaver, I believe you can get me through... the ni-ight...

Hahahahahahahahahaha

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bought4life wrote:

Hahahahahahahahahaha

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Clean-up Isle 5!