Website Design

[Xeviat]

So, my friend who designs websites has informed me that he's a cheater. He uses software to put things together instead of doing the coding himself. For what I need, that won't work, because I'd like to be able to update easier. I'm going to be reading up on HTML and CSS again, but I wanted to see if anyone here had advice and tips. Here's what I need my site to be able to do:

Blog
Section for Fiction
Section for Gaming Stuff
Store for Chain and Costume Stuff

Advice?

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Honestly, go with a decent CMS (not e107!).  Wordpress would do exactly what you're looking to do, drupal would do it better, but it's tough to learn.

[Xeviat]

Is CMS a message board software?

[Lmns Crn]

I know some people who use Etsy to sell their handmade stuff; you might want to look into that as a way to sell your chainmail/costume crafts.

[sparkletwist]

CMS = content management system, which is a general term for a system designed to build structured websites, and can typically do all sorts of blog/wiki/forum/etc. functions.

[Nomadic]

CMS stands for Content Management System. I'll reiterate my offer to help you out with your site. I'm a PHP web developer by profession and could help you with setting this up. Especially since you're going to need alot of content management. I'd agree with ishy that wordpress is the best for the blog. For the others there are various things that can be done.

[Xeviat]

Sure Nomadic, I'd love your help.

[Nomadic]

Awesome. So first off do you have a domain name purchased (or at least in mind)? This is a very important step as you want something easy to remember and type, and somewhat catchy.

[Xeviat]

I have one purchased, just a simple jasongraybill.com. It's mostly a writing portfolio, so yeah.

[Nomadic]

Perfect, and do you have hosting yet? If so with who? If not I can offer you a few good hosts to pick from.

[Xeviat]

My friend's hosting it I believe. I'll have to ask for the password and other info to get into it. I think he might have emailed it to me, let me check. It seems to be secureserver.net ...

[Nomadic]

Interesting. Well once you have it let me know. I can step you through the process of setting up that blog.

[Xeviat]

Can you get on aim? It would probably be easier that way.

[Xeviat]

The domain servicer is my friend's: IGEM domains.

[Nomadic]

we could do aim if scheduling worked out, I fear though that it isn't going to (notice that I missed you by several hours)...