I am interested in creating my own modelling website. I have seen some by Armorama members and have decided that it is something I would like to create also.

The only purpose for the website is to showcase some of my models and include other military content. Obviously, I would submit the same stuff to armorama.

My question is: Is there a website provider out there that is a "one stop shop"? Or, do I need to buy website software and learn HTML?

I looked at Tripod.com a few minutes ago and that looks like it may be a place to start.

But, as always, I would like to hear from my esteemed fellow armorama members and see what words of wisdom you have for me.

Thanks in advance for any comments that you may have.

Best regards,

Brent Sauer

Brent,

I do not claim to have all the answers and and my site is far from being a 'beauty' but, there are many programs/options out there to use...

Microsoft FrontPage with the photo editor included does most of it for me. Basic html is good to know but is not a requirement with FP. Links to the technologies that I use can be found at the bottom of this page

(Some people do have a problem with B. Gates. :-) )

I took some courses at work, created and maintained a number of work related sites and I've also taken some evening courses (including basic and advanced html) to help me along with what I've wanted to do.

I also play around with Adobe Illustrator a little and I've a few more programs on my PC to do various things. For the most part, it's all fairly easy. A little instruction will get you going in the right direction.

It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time to do but, to me, it has been very rewarding. It is an on-going process and constantly evolving and it has been and continues to be a ton of fun!

With domain name registration and site hosting, mine runs me about $130/yr.

Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Hey sgtsauer,

Well, at first: it's a good idea! Looking forward to visit your site one day

I don't know how it works in the US, but I got webspace for free from my internet provider. It is enough space for a nice personal website, no traffic limit (reasonable use policy) and no pop-ups or advertisements what so ever...

I also can recommend you Microsoft Front Page, but there are some easy to use simple programs for free, like Adobe Page Mill. You can operate those programs without any HTML knowledge, but a little basics in HTML is always a good thing; buy a simple book with HTML tags for beginners; it's fun to do also.

Good luck with it!

Paul

Hi...
I designed my own website and the computer/web site guys at work put it together and had it running.

If you need any help in designing it let me know.

I can't promise much due to my relocating, but I'll do what I can.

Cheers
Peter
:-)

Brent,
I have had a website for about 6+ years. Like you want to do, mine is mainly for showing off my (in my case)crappy kits.

I am no HTML expert, and I am rather cheap (just ask my wife), so I went the inexpensive (read that 'free') route:

1. Downloaded Netscape, including their 'Composer' program. It is a WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzywig) as in 'What You See Is What You Get.' An intuitive little program for quickly creating webpages.

2. Found a free webpage hosting site with enough space for my purposes. 'Prohosting.com' gives you 50 megs of space which has been more than enough for me. They also allow FTP uploads to speed up file management.

I decided to go with a third party host and not with my ISP since I used to switch ISPs so often (back in my dial up days) and hated reloading all those pages to a new host.

The only con to using a free host is the length of the URL: http://fire.prohosting.com/woltersk/

3. After establishing my webpage I found a 'free search engine submition' site and got my URL out to sites like Google and Lycos. People won't see your models if they can't find your site!

4. Downloaded 'ACE FTP' Freeware to manage my site.

5. Signed up for a free Hit Counter from Bravenet.com to monitor any traffic to my site.

Whatever way you decide to go, start off slow, with just a few pages, or one genre (i.e. planes or ships), build upon that, and have fun.