I'm brand new, know nothing and need help...please

[sandelman]

Ok, in a nutshell I have an idea that will require a website. I am a big believer in reviews...no matter what it is, and last night I was 100% ready to sign up on another sight from all the reviews I read....UNTIL I found a bunch of negative reviews and were they ever bad.

I find it hard to review credible source information since you have no real idea of the hidden agenda behind each website. I don't know what happened but I was comparing one site to another and then all of the sudden I found a lot of good reviews with HG. ( I was signed up with GoDaddy in my last venture and WOW was that ever a mess...CONSTANT emails wanting my money )

Here is what I am looking for, I have an idea for a site that will allow people to share photo's (maybe say 5-6) and offer the opportunity to share a short video clip ( maybe 30 - 60 seconds or so ) and then some written info ( maybe 100 - 1000 words ). The "purchasing" aspect will be upon the customer choosing the option they like and then adding their information and photo's or vid to my site.

I wouldn't mind linking to forums or adds for items that relate to my program.

I have no knowledge in html at all. My wife and I did manage to build a website using EasyWeb7 some years ago and was right to the point of "flippin the switch" and launching it...until the supplier of our product went belly up. It was a struggle for us to work together with no knowledge of such an activity but we did it. Now we have been away from it so long that I didn't know where to start.

In order to have a site that people can do what I mentioned above, does any knowledgable person know what starting point or HG package I would need that is easy for me to understand?

I read reviews up until about 3am and thought I'd sign up for this forum and ask questions before making any purchase.

Is the HG web building tool easy to use?

Does it have a simple to understand tutorial?

Can I choose from what they have available to make a professional looking and functioning site?

I would ask that who ever answers, to please let me know what would be a good package for me need and more importantly WHY that is a good package.

I don't know if I have been clear or not. If you are thinking ...well are you going to do this or that, or have I thought of this or that......please ask me so I can give more info. I have a pretty clear idea but I thought that the first step would be to find a good host.....I hope HG is such a host
It would really be good to start off with what I need instead of finding out that I need to upgrade shortly after starting up.

Remember, I need REALLY simple! Seriously

This whole thing scares me a bit but I have to do something to move in a different direction than where I've been....physical labor

Please help

Sandelman

[sandelman]

Just to add a quick note....I would like people to be able to add to thier information if they so choose. Does that change things?

Also I just shot over to see a couple "billing tutorial's" and WOW!!!
Seriously I don't understand any of the language...can I successfully do this?

[Pazeh]

HG's packages are very good start point for almost any startup, but be sure to check the terms of service found @ the bottom of the page to be sure your project does not violate the TOS.

I'm saying this, cause if you are brand new, it will take a while for you to get the site up & running. The project you stated above is not as simple as doing a HTML web site. You will need good knowledge of some server side programing (PHP) & database query (MySQL)....

I would suggest that you look into some CMS - Content Management Systems - that might fit your requirements, with the help of a plug in or two.

You can start with the smallest package & then upgrade to VPS, then dedicated, when you feel the need to do so.

[sandelman]

Are those things you mentioned available with HG?

You mentioned also that an html would not do what I would like but as I said, I am not functional in that language.

The WebEasy7 program we used before was WYSIWYG and had simple to follow directions.

Sandelman

[GvilleRick]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you want to do with the site. It sounds like it could be more complicated than a quick HTML site, as Pazeh said. HG does not have a "web building tool" but rather make several tools available. Most folks here would advise staying away from the Site Builder/Site Studio programs as they are more restrictive and not easily moved should you need to move later.

It really boils down to how much time are you willing to learn. All of us were new once. There are a number of Content Management Systems (CMS) available for free. HG provides an installer that makes it easy to install Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, and other scripts.

I just started redoing a site and decided to use Drupal. It has a learning curve and I have spent a good bit of time this past two weeks adapting a free theme I found for it to do what I want. It is, however, very powerful and has a lot of third party support of modules to do most anything you want. There are a number of books available to help with major CMS programs.

If you provide a bit more information on exactly what you want to do with the site we may be able to make more specific suggestions.

[sandelman]

I was hoping for some help or direction.

Anyone else..... ?

Maybe I've posted in the wrong place.

Help

Sandelman

[sandelman]

sorry for the last post I just didn't know if I was going to get a bit more help.

[sandelman]

Well, I'd like visitors to want ot share about a certain part of their life with up to so many words. Then have an option to post a up to a certain number of pictures and or a short video for a few dollars.

I know I'm being vague but I'm doing my best to let you know more

I'd like the customers to have access to what they post....but they don't have to. It could be something as simple as pay, write, load pic or vid, post and be done.

Really it could be that simple. Pay, type, load and post.
Perhaps a place for them to log in and submit email address for newsletter or update.


I also think there would be a need to post a directory so to speek including contact info for people who are subject related.

As I'm writing this I'm wondering what readers might think. This is not a sex site

I'd like to be able to make money with more than just my idea but don't want to get into a lot of other things to maintain at this point.

To have people buying on my site would be a really nice start.

So how hard would it be to do what I've got in bold?

Am I understanding that you would not suggest the site builder on HG but rather look for something that is FREE ?
Would I thin just use HG for transferring over to?

I read someplace that the FREE is FREE for a reason....but again I have no knowledge that's why I'm here.

If anyone knows a good place to start please let me know.

I'm on a motorcoach forum with some very helpful folks and am hoping to find some really good advice hear as well.

Thanks in advance

Sandelman

[GatorSteveN]

Joomla, Drupal, WordPress were recommended. Each has their own strengths. We provide an installer for them but we didn't create the software so you may want to check out their respective sites to see which one looks like it would work best for you.

I am thinking Joomla may work for you but I am not sure what extensions/plugins they have that would do all you want. I don't think Wordpress has the kind of community plugin where each user would have their own section though I may be wrong. I know it has a multi-user version but I think that is if you have multiple people updating the site not each person has their own section for pics, video etc...

And Rick said Drupal has a learning curve to it. They all will if you have never used it before but some are steeper than others.

[Pazeh]

Before going to details, all you will need, for now & future, is provided by HG. But there is not such thing called "really simple"!! what you want to do, might look simple but its not!

If you are thinking to get hosting, work on a site for a couple of days, maybe weeks n then start earning a lot of cash.... I'm sorry to disappoint you, but if it was that easy, everyone would do it.

I'm not trying to offend you, or your abilities, we all were newbies at some point. What I'm trying to show is the scale of the project & what you should expect to learn during the course.

I'll just take a part of your request & elaborate.

If you want to have users, then you have to get the information from the users. To do so, you need HTML forms, where the user will enter his/her data & send it over. To customize the look, color, background, style, positioning of the HTML/HTML forms you need to work around with CSS - Cascade Style Sheets.

After a user enters the info & clicks on register, you will need a server side scripting, in this case PHP (also provided by HG - BUT you need to learn how to write php code) to validate the information, what if a users email address does not include @? what if that username is already taken??

Now that the info of a user is valid, you need to store it, storing this information is done in a database, in this case MySQL, which is again provided by HG, but you need to learn how to write sql queries to add/modify/delete a user's info.

This is the very bare basics. I'm not even talking about Javascript (user side validation) or AJAX integration.

Technically the same thing goes with uploading photos, profiles, other info too.

So, if you want to dive in, get your hands on a good book / ebook / tutorials (a lot can be found online & are totally free) to learn HTML & CSS, then learn PHP & MySQL. A bit of javascript will help a lot too.

This is not a short, one-two month road, I'm not even talking about the marketing of the site, the Search Engine Optimization, ranking, keywords ....

Your other options will be investing time & searching for a CMS (a ready made script that will do some of the work for you) that will fit your needs, or hire a developer that will create the website, based on your ideas, for you.

PS: any online web side builder (that I know of) will be no good for you in this case! On the other side, a WYSIWYG application, like dreamweaver, might be pretty handy, good luck

[sandelman]

Is there a site that has simple explainations of what a program does so that a person in my position can make a decission?

I remember the last time my wife and I worked on a site as long as we stayed focused on what needed to be done, we figured out a way to do it.

What would be a good a source where I might look for these programs?

And I'm looking for free correct?

[sandelman]

I hadn't seen Pazeh's post when I sent in mine. I'm lookinf forward to reading it momentarily.
Thanks

[GvilleRick]

The CMS scripts we have mentioned are open source and do not cost anything. All that I mentioned can be installed from the cPanel of a HostGator account in just a few clicks. I mention those because there is a lot of information available for them.

You can go to http://php.opensourcecms.com/ and check out lots of demos of scripts and may even find one there that is built for what you want to do. I am impressed with Drupal but I've been working with websites for a while and I was frustrated more than once trying to figure out how to do things in it. There is a lot of information available, however, and a Google search has helped me figure out several things.

[gwyneth]

As Rick says, everybody was new at this at one time. IMO, if it's easy to take a few sheets of paper and draw out roughly what you want the site to do (i.e., Scream button; Platypus Pictures; Win-a-wallaby page; aardvark a day--quotes box; 'roo tracking forms submittal, results, charts; piranha stunt warning scroll; they ate WHAT? slideshow) then you'll be in much better shape determining how it makes sense to do it.

(That approach actually ties in to what you observed during your previous experience--that you could figure out how sooner or later.)

While Drupal does have a learning curve, it also has a wide variety of community-type modules that would you could assemble without reinventing the wheel.