Hi there

I am really interested in starting up my own website. I was wondering how easy is would be to do so and where do I start?

I want to use the site for:
Picture gallery
Selling a small catalogue of items
how-to guides
feature build articles

Just small scale to start with to see how I get on with it all. Any examples of peoples work would be great.

Thanks

Stuart

Most hosting providers (not your internet service provider) suce as iPowerWeb and SiteGround offer gallery software and blog-tools that are intallable from their back-end for free with your account. I've done several of these type sites for friends that don't know how to do a website but want all the bells and whistles. Using WordPress for example (a blog tool) allows you to easily add content to your site. Gallery and Coppermine (gallery programs) make adding images a breeze. Here's an example of a more recent one I did (for a fee) for a friend:

http://www.plamowarriordx.com

Notice the gallery and blog are both skinned with the design he wanted to that the site maintains a consistency. What's also great about WordPress is that it's searchable. Makes finding info on your site easier for the user.

Hope this helps.

Very easy, Stuart.
Yahoo will sell you a domain (www.your name here.com) for a $1.99 now, and they also offer hosting services in many packages, you pick one that fits your needs and budget...they also throw in a really user friendly webbuilder software package to guide you along to making your dream a reality. . .

Have Fun,
~Gunny

Hey Stuart,

The other posters are right on with the excellent things that are available online for free or really inexpensive. Remember that most free providers will put thier own ads on your site. Also, I've found that many built in free features are only available on LINUX hosts. If you want to create everything online using the host's software, it won't matter. But if you want to develop everything on your own machine and then upload it, you'll need to know how it all runs under the bonnet.

TF
www.paintmatcher.com

Very interesting. Is there a "Site Builders for Dummies" tutorial out there in the ether?
cheers for the softsmiths!

Stuart Taylor and everyone;
Start small, learn to run things for yourself. Use the "store" to help support your site.

BUT the shopping cart template for the store is critical. Check my website or Tom's Modelworks for the most inexpensive site templates. For "servers" stay away from Go-Daddy.com. Very hard to work with. Mine is Cube-Cart. My server is pretty typical. Make sure you have a 1-800 hot line number 24hrs a day from them.

Hire a webmaster to build the site using the template you purchase. The shopping cart will cost you about 500 -700.00 USD to have it up and running.

BACKUP EVERYTHING!!! and do it at least once a month. Count on about 95.00 a year to renew your domain name and server space. Never give out your "ftp" numbers, always use your domain URL when posting images

Use the USPS mail options for sending your stock to purchasers. There is more but you'll figure it out. There maybe a "Website for dummies" tutorial but they probably read like stereo instructions.
Learn to run the website yourself to eventually replace your Webmaster.

Personally I would start off small and work your way up to the shopping cart idea. I'm like you and started my own site at the end of last year mainly for show casing my models and amateur photography. I was given the domain name as a Christmas present and I share the web hosting with my dad (costs about £10 - £15 a month).

Use a program like Dreamweaver or Page Plus (if you can afford them) for developing your site and they are full of tutorials and help files, google or friends doing web design at college can also be helpful. There is a lot of free stuff out there to use, heres some I use for instance:

open source web design for web templates (these are free as long as you credit the original author)
free site counter
free guestbook (if you can put up with the few ads
Lightbox - this it the photo display tool that is used here on kitmaker (I was using it first before anyone says anything)

Hope this is of some help and good luck.
For anyone that wants to check out my site its http://www.tomcat31.co.uk

Hi Stuart,

I know exactly where you're coming from.
I was in the same position last year... I was building this great model, and wanted to share the information with everyone.

I ended up making my first site here:
Modelling U-625
The site and the model got a fair bit of good feedback, and we ended up putting it onto Modelshipwrights as a feature article.

I am currently working on a second model and site here:
Modelling U-673 "Flak-trap"

I use Dreamweaver to create and manage my site... it's not inexpensive, but is very powerful yet easy to use.

If you have a little bit of website knowledge, it is fairly easy to set up a site. There are certainly some tutorials out there that will guide you through step-by-step. Check with your ISP to see how much "personal web space" you have available. Or like others have said, you can buy a domain name.

If you want to ask me any questions, I'll do my best to help you.

Best regards,
Glenn Cauley