Creation of my own website

[Gator24765]

Hello everyone. I was seeking some advice from ones who know more than me.

I took a website design class in college. That being said, it taught me the basics of building a website. Basics as in using tables in dreamweaver. Anyway, I would like to build up a website for a small business to start making some money online. I have no problems designing a website using tables and such just to get the site going, it will still look pretty good.

Here is my problem. For my website I would like it to have members where they can login and register so they can purchase my service. This is where I am stuck. I never learned this. I have slowly researching php/mysql on how to do this and am super confused. This is will only have anywhere to 10-500 members over the first year or so and if it gets more popular than that I can afford to get a better site.


Is there an easy software I can buy or something for a simple membership site. I would like it where I can email all members.. Then have it where paid member can access the paid material. This site is only going to be about a 10 page website.


Thanks!!!

 

[G-Mo]

Tables are a no-no in modern web development, it's all about CSS.

If you have some basic PHP/MySQL knowledge, take a look at Joomla! (simpler? WordPress) which has the built in ability to handle your memberships, etc... And you just wrap deploy your template design, with CSS.

 

[Gator24765]

I have noticed there are some css template that I can find online. Will I be able to update those in dreamweaver? Do those templates include separate pages or just one main layout that I can change in dreamweaver?


Also, realistic question here.. How hard is it to manage a website this big (pretty small) by myself?


Finally, I have been looking over joomla, it looks pretty cool! Which one of the two would be easier for me to learn? Joomla or WP?

 

[ardesigns]

I agree, no tables; CSS is the way to go. As for the members management, it's tough to code one yourself if you aren't already at at least an intermediate level at PHP and MySQL. My advice would be to purchase a script like this one:

http://codecanyon.net/item/php-login-user-management/49008

 

[Gator24765]

I have been researching joomla a little and this might be the route that I am going to go. Seems like I can learn the software.

Any Joomla users out there? Is my whole site updated through Joomla? dreamweaver?

 

[Hermes Monster]

Sounds to me like you're taking to much on, no offence. From what I've read you know a little about a lot so far, and I think you should master HTML and CSS before doing anything else. The website is your meet and greet with customers, their first impression of you and your services, so you should make it the best it can be.

Why not just put a link to email you for now until you've mastered CSS, forget tables... Oh an ensure you test your website on ALL browsers, especially IE which behaves very differently to firefox and safari..

 

[Maxiseller]

We all know tables are out and CSS positioning is in, but I use tables in my site for non-tabular data and it renders fine & doesn't in any way affect the earnings potential of the site.

Software such as amember is designed for what you're talking about. Google it. I would download a free/paid website template, add your own logos and get the thing up and running quickly to earn you money. When it's doing really well and you want to please the 'web standards' police, get a designer to hand code from scratch. To me though, it sounds like you have an idea and need to implement it quickly.

 

[Gator24765]

Sounds to me like you're taking to much on, no offence. From what I've read you know a little about a lot so far, and I think you should master HTML and CSS before doing anything else. The website is your meet and greet with customers, their first impression of you and your services, so you should make it the best it can be.

Why not just put a link to email you for now until you've mastered CSS, forget tables... Oh an ensure you test your website on ALL browsers, especially IE which behaves very differently to firefox and safari..

No offense taken. That is a true statement. I only know a bit and of that most of it is outdated so it is time to learn again.

I agree with the last post as well. I have no problems with making the website very simple and easy to start out with, that is my main goal. Then once, if I do, start making some green I can invest in a better site.

I don't want anything fancy. I just want it to be functional and do a good job.