How to start my own website

[50mm]

Search youtube for videos on how to start and build a web site. This is how I got started. I found a video that I could understand and followed all their advice and instruction. Which is to use godaddy for buying your domain. Hostgator for hosting your site and Word Press for your content management. Word Press is very user friendly, having evolved from the blogging world. There are thousands of themes and plugins for WP that will allow you to utilize it for anything you need. After buying many themes, and being disappointed in all of them, I finally found the one that works perfectly for me. It is Weaver II Pro. I can easily recommend it to everyone. I tried the highly thought of Thesis theme and was not impressed at all. The Thesis affiliation sales program is big and motivates better reviews than the theme deserves. Word Press and the Weaver II Pro theme is a good base to build your own custom site. Anyone can PM me for WP assistance.

 

[MLeeK]

For hosting and site design I absolutely love portfoliositez. They're having a sale right now where the setup fee is waived on all entry level accounts. Normally it's $20 setup and then your monthly fee of $5 PORTFOLIOSITEZ
The code for the $20 setup wiaver is FREESETUPENTRY

You still have to own your own domain. I bought my sports one through GoDaddy and I've never had a problem with it. I don't use anything else besides that and ftp thru godaddy though.
My portrait one I bought through 1and1 because they were having a great deal at the time. I have to say I am more impressed with them. I bought the site and let it sit for a while. Their customer service called me to see if I needed some help and then checked back with me on it every month to make sure I was good until I finally said I had gotten it. I could have contacted them at any time, but it was pretty cool that they checked in on me until I finally said I was OK.

I would love to tinker around and design my own site 100%, but it takes some time to really master and learn what you are doing. There's the purchasing template thing, but that takes some HTML knowledge to really customize it. Personally? I wanted EASY, but customizable. Portfoliositez had that.
Blu is another one that a LOT of photographers use. Wix has some great designs with total customization. I thought their prices to remove the logo were a bit high considering the entry option at Portfoliositez though.

 

[sactown024]

For hosting and site design I absolutely love portfoliositez. They're having a sale right now where the setup fee is waived on all entry level accounts. Normally it's $20 setup and then your monthly fee of $5 PORTFOLIOSITEZ
The code for the $20 setup wiaver is FREESETUPENTRY

You still have to own your own domain. I bought my sports one through GoDaddy and I've never had a problem with it. I don't use anything else besides that and ftp thru godaddy though.
My portrait one I bought through 1and1 because they were having a great deal at the time. I have to say I am more impressed with them. I bought the site and let it sit for a while. Their customer service called me to see if I needed some help and then checked back with me on it every month to make sure I was good until I finally said I had gotten it. I could have contacted them at any time, but it was pretty cool that they checked in on me until I finally said I was OK.

I would love to tinker around and design my own site 100%, but it takes some time to really master and learn what you are doing. There's the purchasing template thing, but that takes some HTML knowledge to really customize it. Personally? I wanted EASY, but customizable. Portfoliositez had that.
Blu is another one that a LOT of photographers use. Wix has some great designs with total customization. I thought their prices to remove the logo were a bit high considering the entry option at Portfoliositez though.

i noticed a lot of places like wix offer premium account that come with your own domain, do these places allow you to get your domain from somewhere else like godaddy but still use thier web designing portion of the site?

 

[MLeeK]

For hosting and site design I absolutely love portfoliositez. They're having a sale right now where the setup fee is waived on all entry level accounts. Normally it's $20 setup and then your monthly fee of $5 PORTFOLIOSITEZ
The code for the $20 setup wiaver is FREESETUPENTRY

You still have to own your own domain. I bought my sports one through GoDaddy and I've never had a problem with it. I don't use anything else besides that and ftp thru godaddy though.
My portrait one I bought through 1and1 because they were having a great deal at the time. I have to say I am more impressed with them. I bought the site and let it sit for a while. Their customer service called me to see if I needed some help and then checked back with me on it every month to make sure I was good until I finally said I had gotten it. I could have contacted them at any time, but it was pretty cool that they checked in on me until I finally said I was OK.

I would love to tinker around and design my own site 100%, but it takes some time to really master and learn what you are doing. There's the purchasing template thing, but that takes some HTML knowledge to really customize it. Personally? I wanted EASY, but customizable. Portfoliositez had that.
Blu is another one that a LOT of photographers use. Wix has some great designs with total customization. I thought their prices to remove the logo were a bit high considering the entry option at Portfoliositez though.

i noticed a lot of places like wix offer premium account that come with your own domain, do these places allow you to get your domain from somewhere else like godaddy but still use thier web designing portion of the site?

Yes. I have one domain that i bought through GoDaddy and one through 1and1.
If you look at the premium plans on WIX it will tell you which plan you have to purchase to use your own domain and it will also tell you which plan you have to purchase to get the WIX logo's to go away

 

[Tee]

Another site to consider is Build a Website - Squarespace 6. They are kind of a all-in-one place with hosting and templates. You only have to purchase your url name.

 

[MLeeK]

WOW... I didn't realize how expensive WIX is to get their logo off your site! $9 a month? WOWZA!
Glad I went with Portfoliositez. My basic is $5 a month!